Policies

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As per our constitution, policies must be proposed by members and supported by 10% of the members. A 2/3rds majority vote by members is need for policies to become party policy. Please join EDINBURGH PEOPLE soon so that you can propose and vote on policies at our next Biannual General Meeting in September 2024.

EDINBURGH PEOPLE had less than 50 inaugural members so we have not voted on many policies so far. This will change in September 2024 when we expect to have several hundred members. Our focus for now is to concentrate on encouraging people to join the party who agree with the party's aim of representing Edinburgh People first and foremost and agree on our strategy of not relying on career politicians.

Membership fees are voluntary so do join with a few clicks.

EDINBURGH PEOPLE POLICIES

Business Support Policy

Encourage new small businesses to lease empty shops by offering them a 2-year rates relief holiday.

Increase the VAT threshold for small businesses from £90,000 to £300,000. This will incentivise small one-man-band & family businesses to grow and will level the playing field for small businesses with multinationals who enjoy economies of scale and greater purchasing power.

Climate Change Policy

Let’s slow Net Zero. Reverse and stop the implementation of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Evidence from around the country shows that these are making car journeys longer. Forcing traffic on the main arteries is causing congestion and more pollution. Buses, cyclists and pedestrians also use the main arteries, and they are also faced with congestion and more pollution.

The Net Zero targets are too ambitious and are coming at too great a cost. It is important to evaluate which policies are working and which are not before they are rolled out. It has been calculated that the cost of adapting to climate change is estimated at being less than 10% of the cost of stopping climate change. It is important to consider that the climate has always changed because of cyclical factors. The constantly changing angle of tilt of the earth’s axis and the constantly changing shape of the earth’s elliptical orbit around the sun have forever caused our climate to change.

Community Support Policy

Enhance the central support and funding for Edinburgh amateur sports clubs across the city to empower and inspire our children to be active and improve mental wellbeing. Enhance the financial support for carers who are caring for loved ones full time and are facing financial difficulties as they are unable to work.

Education Policy

Ways of improving literacy and numeracy in Primary Schools is a priority. We will spend time and money researching best practices so that these can be rolled out as we cannot afford standards to drop further.

Parents have the right to opt-out their children from Relationship, Sexual Health and Parenthood (RSHP) classes. All the links to the national guidance are available on the RSHP website. Our policy is for schools to proactively inform parents and help them decide if they want to opt out. Sending parents an email each term, which lists the specific links on the RSHP site which their children are going to be taught that term will help. That way parents are specifically informed each term thereby removing uncertainty among parents on this issue.

Foreign Policy

We will always call for a ceasefire and a negotiated peace in all conflicts. People never want war, only those who profit from war do.

Oppose plans to increase the defense budget and support a reduction of the defense budget by 10% over the course of the next five years.

NHS and Health Policy

STOP any further privatization of the NHS and reverse the privatisation that has already been implemented. The benefits of the NHS’s economies of scale and purchasing power far override the cost of possibly operating less efficiently than the private sector. What drives the NHS must be improving the care and health of patients and not profit.

Obviously, the more unhealthy and ill people are the more profits there are to be made. Still now at university Doctors are taught very little about nutrition which could prevent much illness but not profitably for Big Pharma.

Implement policies to increase the number of Doctors and Nurses to reduce NHS waiting times.

Freedom of Medical Autonomy. Medical interventions should not be mandated and forced onto people. In 2022 we had the disastrous Covid Vaccine Mandate for NHS staff. When it was realised that around 10% of NHS staff were prepared to lose their jobs rather than take the Covid vaccine by April 2022, this policy had to be reversed. Indeed, the Covid Autumn 2023 booster was only taken up by 30% of NHS staff despite the government hiring a company to run a nudge campaign to encourage NHS staff to get vaccinated

Telecoms Policy

Many people are dismayed at the rate at which these 50-foot masts are being erected in their neighbourhoods.

In the last 12 months or so there have been over 5000 objections lodged to around 20 planning applications for 5G masts in Edinburgh.

Planning law allows for only properties within 20 meters of the boundary of the property where the mast is proposed to be officially informed about the planning application. Our policy would be to increase this radius to 200 meters for 50-foot telecom masts as these should not be governed by the same law that governs the planning application for a garden shed.

A full planning application is needed in conservation areas because the 50-foot masts might be too ugly for beautiful neighbourhoods. Outwith conservation areas full planning permission is not needed as permission has already been granted by the government. For these all that is needed is that the planning authority is informed and for them to agree that they do not need planning permission. Our policy is that all of Edinburgh’s neighbourhoods deserve the same treatment because these 50-foot masts are too ugly irrespective of where they are. Our policy is that all telecom masts should require full planning consent that way local residents can have an equally effective mechanism for their voice to be heard irrespective of where they live.

Women’s Rights Policy

We call for Women’s safe spaces to be kept safe, including women’s toilets and changing rooms. The definition of a woman must not be changed to include men who have transitioned to becoming woman-like. Men who have transitioned to become woman-like should not be allowed to compete in women’s sport.