Man, it's just taken me ages to read through all that lot.
OK, I think one of the problems is that many people vote without knowing what they are voting for. I remember several years ago watching a pre-election programme where they were interviewing members of the public and when asked a woman said "I'm gonna vote for David Steele, I like him". As if that's a good reason to vote for someone, especially as she didn't even know him well enough to form an opinion about whether or not she liked him. As far as I am concerned, people should have to earn their vote by proving their knowledge of party policies. Admittedly many people wouldn't be bothered to make any effort, but that is a good thing, at least the vote would be made by an educated electorate.
As far as policies are concerned, I think we should go into the EU, it's a step towards my end hope of a global government. I agree with Paul, that we are far better off as part of a larger community than on our own and I feel that any arguements against it are racist, but then I think that patriotism is racist. I think immigrants from any country should be able to come here, as many as they like. I don't believe that humans own the world and I don't believe that one human should be able to tell another where in the world he can or can't go. I don't however think that immigrnats should be entitled to any benefits other than the health service until they have paid # amount of National Insurance. That said I don't think there should be a National Health Service. I think it should be privatised, but that Health Insurance should be comulsory and people recieving certain benefits, such as pensioners, disability benefits, etc. should have their medical insurance provided by the governement. Likewise, I don't think unemployed people should receive benefits for sitting on their arse all day. They should be entitled to benefits, but should have to do government provided work to receive them. This could create problems in that they may not want to work, because they might think it's not like they can be sacked, which is why it should be based on a piece work principal, therefore they receive # amount of benefit based on their productivity. As far as taxes are concerned, it is possible to reduce taxes, this country is far from the most efficient in terms of government spending. That said, I think certain taxes are totally immoral, capital gains for one. Taxes on petrol, cigarettes, alcahol and luxury items should be further increased as they should for any environmentally unfriendly products. Income tax for very high earners should be reduced, I can't understand why people are penalized for doing well, although I do understand the ethic of the rich providing for the poor to some extent, it is pointless to tax very high earners to the extent that they leave the country and end up paying no tax, while they live in tax havens.
OK, I could go on for hours, but it's safe to say that no party is going to provide a manifesto that even comes close to providing what I want to see, so it's a question of choosing the party that I disagree with the least.
I'm not sure how to achieve my political goals. Should I start my own party and hope that enough people agree with me (highly unlikely) that the party grows quickly and becomes a realistic alternative or should I join another party in an attempt to ascend the ranks and change the party from within. I would certainly like to get into politics, but maybe I should make sure that there is nothing else I would prefer first. Most things would be better than plumbing.