Progressive European Party Manifesto 2017

 Progressive European Party

Foreword by Philip Notley

People with money have power.

They use their influence to manipulate the media and to shape the political landscape to their own ends. This counter-democratic activity is our enemy. It has tricked voters into believing that the EU is the source of all their problems.

In fact, the real culprits are those who operate behind the scenes whose money and power the EU is beginning to curb.

In our manifesto, the Progressive European Party proposes a system of direct democracy which will give us all an equal say in the decisions that affect our lives.

No longer will big businesses manipulate the media, control public opinion and influence government policy. You, the people, will decide the issues on the basis of factual arguments and informed comment.

We shall also build social and private housing to end the disgraceful blight of homelessness. We intend to introduce a citizen's income that will put an end to poverty and encourage altruism by recognising and rewarding the contributions that we all make to our communities.

The universal citizen's income will make it possible to levy a fairer, flat-rate of taxation. Both the rich and the less well off will pay the same percentage of their earnings back into society.

Businesses, too, will pay the same flat-rate on their profits. The many other taxes that are now paid by businesses, even when they are making a loss, will be abolished. A tax based solely on profits, coupled with a guaranteed income for all, will both encourage startups and, at last, breathe new life into our high streets.

It is easy for a party that does not yet have political power to make exaggerated claims about what they expect to achieve when in government. Over the years, successive governing parties have failed to fulfil the promises of their pre-election manifestos.

I am confident that we shall be able to avoid these pitfalls. All of our policies are logical, rational and, for the most part, achievable in the short term.

It would be an understatement to say that, at present, the future of our country is looking decidedly gloomy. The combined effects of bad policies, bad leadership and the influence of vested interests on successive governments have taken their toll.

What, then, are the alternatives?

Some of the other parties claim that they are progressive. In reality, however, they offer only a recycling of old ideas: nationalisation of industries, a penny on income tax to fund the NHS and more borrowing to finance outdated policies.

The Progressive movement is very different. We are not controlled by big businesses or by the trades unions. We are not encumbered by rigid and outmoded ideologies.

I would say that pragmatism is our only ideology.

Help us, therefore, to move the United Kingdom forward into the twenty-first century with a political system that is fit for the twenty-first century.

Help us to build a Britain and a Europe of which we can all be proud citizens.

Philip Notley