My cabinet

Under Blair there were more than 20 cabinet ministers. If I was in charge there would probably be only 14 and these would be:

1. Prime Minister
2. Deputy prime minister
3. Exchequer
4. Foreign affairs
5. Work and pensions
6. Public services
7. Local government, democracy and culture
8. Devolved affairs
9. Defence
10. Higher education
11. Homeland security
12. Justice
13. Environment and energy
14. Transport

As you can see there is no education or health secretary. These would be merged to create the Department of Public Services which wouldn’t exactly be responsible for Education and Health. They would be responsible for overseeing it though but the government would not control education or health. I will have to elaborate for you to understand but many of you have probably already read how I would deal with Health Education, and policing:

Health

Health would be given control over to a Healthcare Assembly staffed by elected healthcare commissioners elected for each county. To stand for the Healthcare Assembly you will have worked as a healthcare professional for atleast 5 years previously so you have experience to deal with NHS challenges.

Like I said they would be elected for each county and would have responsibility for overseeing healthcare in that county. At national level the Commissioners would elect the First Healthcare Commissioner which would basically be their version of the Prime Minister but would only be leader of the Healthcare Assembly. The FHC would then choose a cabinet that would be responsible for different areas within the NHS such as training (no more MTAS disasters), drug licensing, the budget and maybe IT (I think it’s a good idea to have someone dedicated to the IT projects so they don’t fail). Those are only examples. There could be more.

The Healthcare Assembly would be able to raise taxes. The FHC or the relevant cabinet minister would allocate the money to each county and the relevant commissioner would spend it how they wanted to. Each commissioner would also be responsible for the employees and would decide how much they are paid. I think it would be better this way because those living in London obviously need more because it is a more expensive place to be. Obviously they could delegate this authority to bosses of individual hospitals.

As part of the Commission, NICE would be eradicated and responsibility for deciding on licensing policy would fall to the Healthcare Assembly. If they lowered the standards it might result in the pharmaceutical companies lowering prices of drugs which will allow the NHS to save money.

Just because the Assembly allows those drugs to be used doesn’t mean those individual commissioners have to provide them for free on the NHS unless they have been licensed and proven to work for 10 years.

Education

We would have an education system like the type that they have in Sweden. Those staying in state education would have a different type of education system.

State Education would be given control over to an Education Assembly staffed by elected Education commissioners elected for each county. To stand for the Education Assembly you will have worked as a teacher for atleast 5 years previously so you have experience to deal with education challenges. They will not be responsible for higher education. This will be left for the government to deal with until the assembly is well established.

The rest would just be similar to the Healthcare Assembly except the assembly could decide if physical punishments could be used in schools. If the Assembly said yes individual commissioners could still ban it in their schools.

The commission would not be responsible for exam boards. This would be left up to the government. The employees of the exam boards would be paid more for harder exams. How would this be figured out? Well they would be paid £3 for every pupil that didn’t pass more than 7 exams and 50p for every pupil that didn’t get atleast 7 Cs or above. We are talking about thousands of pupils. This would be a motivator however the exams should be passable this means questions should be difficult but not impossible which would mean that 33% of pupils should be able to pass it. The department of public services would monitor this and decide if they should be paid.

This system would be used so we are constantly pushing them to get better results to make each generation a lot more intelligent than the next. If the commissioners don’t keep up they can be replaced. If the schools don’t keep up they will see their numbers going to the private schools. This will encourage competition and constant improvements.

Police

This would be similar to Education and Health however they would only control local policing. They would not be responsible for terrorism, smuggling or police corruption. This would be left up to the government

The cabinet

I will now list the responsibilities of the cabinet that will change with me.

Foreign Affairs

In the name of efficiency the role of embassies would be given to the private sector. If a crisis happens the foreign secretary can then intervene. I am not sure we really need one. Maybe the Deputy Prime Minister could take up this role.

Work and Pensions

This would also take over the running of the DTI which I believe is now called Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Public services

This would be responsible for overseeing healthcare and education. They would be responsible for exam boards (it’s kinda like a separation of powers but for education). Maybe also could be responsible for foreign aid or the lack of it

Local Government, democracy and culture

This would be responsible for citizens’ initiatives, referendums, overseeing all voting and improving access to information. Also be responsible for local government and rural affairs.

Devolved Affairs

This would be responsible for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. This later could have the Department of Public Services merged with it.

Higher Education

This would be responsible for higher education and later maybe be responsible for getting people back into work through training. This could later be merged with Public services which might be merged with Devolved Affairs.

Homeland Security

This would be responsible national crime like terrorism, smuggling and police corruption. They would also be responsible for immigration.

Justice

Would be responsible for the courts (police can’t do it – think of it as a separation of powers for police) and deciding new laws.

Courts would be changed though. Judges would have a reduced role and there would be more of them for quicker justice. Judges would be basically turned into administrators. Juries would decide on a sentence tariff. They would have about 8 tariffs. These would be:

1. Community service
2. fine
3. 0-3 years
4. 3-8 years
5. 8-15 years
6. 15-25 years
7. 25 years -life
8. Death

Once a tariff has been decided by the majority the judge can then decide on what the sentence is as long as it is between the tariff specified. The death penalties can be vetoed by MPs as long as they represent that constituency so if they are against the death penalty they can show they are. If that person is an evil paedophile the public will be able to hold them to account at the next election.

I might also have got one of two attending without a department. These would be rising stars who could take over from someone if there was a cockup.