MP Candidate for Northampton North – What I stand for
Taking the brave step to stand for public office is something that I have been deliberating with for a long time, because I have increasingly felt a greater disconnection with the two mainstream parties that have been consistently in control of Government. However, in the UK, the political system is set up in such a way that it is very difficult for any new party to break in the establishment, but that does not mean that change cannot be enforced in a different manner.
Based on the results of the last election, there are or were currently 67 marginal seats in the UK, however based on the figures of the election prior to that, when Theresa May was re-elected after giving away her majority for no reason (or was there?) when there were 97 marginal seats.
As we all know in the election of 2019, the Brexit party targeted all the marginal seats, which could have won them the balance of power, this strategy was so effective, it forced the incoming prime minister (Boris Johnson) to take them seriously and basically agree to push ahead with Brexit.
The last fifteen years of government has been a shambles, all the way back to the financial crisis of 2008, although the roots of that crisis were as a direct result of the actions of banks over the previous decade to that, so in reality, the mismanagement extends backwards at least twenty five years, during successive governments across the political divide. This is not an issue of Labour or Conservative, they are equally to blame and directing the anger with one, to vote for the other is the exact form of ‘YoYo Politics’ that they have come to rely on, or indeed exploit.
As voters or citizens, we have been slowly indoctrinated to be divided along party or political lines, a strategy that has been used throughout history to exercise control and I really do believe that people have never been as polarised as they are now, on so many issues.
suI fervently believe that in a society where our freedom is being eroded at an alarming rate, it is incumbent upon us to act quickly, while we still can, because the steps that are being taken in other parts of the country, which are increasingly restricting people, will invariably reach our door in the future.
It is against this background, that I have decided to take the step to stand for the most difficult if not impossible seat in the country, one that has never had an independent MP, in fact, no independent has even received enough votes to recover their deposit, but that is no reason not to stand.
Housing
Nothing is cast in stone, people are at their ‘wits-end’ with a tsunami of hits, from the cost of energy, increases in taxation, the war on private landlords, which has done nothing to help tenants, on the contrary, it has only exacerbated the problem, who would have thought that a Conservative government would increase taxes to such a degree, then remove capital gains tax, introduce a stamp duty surcharge that has been an obstacle to small investors or developers from entering the market.
There are over 600,000 properties in the UK that are either derelict, or unfit for use, it is not the major developers who would buy these and lovingly renovate them, they prefer to twist the arms or local authorities, or cross their palms with Silver, in order for them to build yet more Lego houses, on the local playing field.
The renovation of these properties alone, would have made a serious impact in to the catastrophic housing crisis, yet rather than encourage small investors and developers, the chancellor has discouraged them. Great changes can be made with incentives, perhaps the capital gains tax allowance could have been used to not only encourage the renovation of these properties, so that they could be brought back in to use for families, but that CGT allowance could have been subjective, perhaps increasing the EPC rating to a minimum of a C, or if they are sold within a certain time period, to encourage the developers to sell them on and renovate even more properties, yet sadly, none of this was addressed when the Chancellor announced that for all intents and purposes, the CGT allowance would be abolished.
An increasing volume of our housing stock is now being bought by institutional investors, in fact, 15% of residential sales in 2022, were to institutional investors, I leave it to you to decide if that is a good thing or not.
There are over 50,000 properties that are owned by overseas investors sitting empty in London alone, is it right that overseas investors are using our housing market to park their money which is so often from dubious sources? That is not to say that we should constrain overseas investment, but there are better ways, in Australia, overseas investors cannot simply buy property and use it to park their money, they are required by law, to generate more units than they are buying.
If we take in to account that massive profits in construction, especially for the larger developers and pair that with the large sums available from overseas investors, it does not take a genius to reach the conclusion that hundreds of thousands of properties could be built, that would offer housing to the masses, at absolutely no cost to the government whatsoever, especially if it were conditional that these developments were constructed on ‘Brownfield’ sites, which would cause absolutely no erosion to our countryside, whilst providing much needed urban housing.
Taxation
Who would have thought that a conservative government would raise taxes across the board, to their highest level for decades? Taking our corporation tax from 18% to 25% in the middle of a crisis, is probably one of the greatest errors in the history of Number 11. In the meantime, Ireland has reduced it’s corporation tax and their economy is booming, thanks to many large overseas companies moving there, whilst we are making the UK less and less attractive to them.
SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) make up the vast majority of companies and corporate tax in the UK, so what is the logic in handicapping them in the current climate.
We have one of the most respected currencies in the world, let’s not forget that during the financial crisis, the GDP was one of the ‘go-to’ currencies, with so much potential to encourage investment and channel it to make our nation a better place for all, but instead, hardworking people at all levels, excluding the elite of course, are being punished and the government is seeking ever increasing underhand methods to take more from them, or lessen their position, their wealth, their voice and their freedom.
When will the lesson be learned, that higher taxation results in lower revenue? Since the ‘reform’ of stamp duty under George Osborne in 2014, the revenue collected from the upper quartile has been less, even though the maximum rate for properties over £1.5m could be as much as 17% for an overseas investor, buying an additional property, for everyone else, it is still 12% and the result is that property in that sector stagnated and is worth no more today, than it was in 2016, particularly in London.
Fiscal Drag
Yet another deception masterpiece from the Chancellor, who has frozen the basic and high rate tax free allowance until 2028, have you any idea how much money that enables the Exchequer to take from working people over the next five years? Not to mention the following few years, as it will not catch to the level it should be, in real terms for years, if ever.
As it stands, the high inflation is working in the Governments favour, because a rise in costs of say 10% followed by a rise in salaries of 10% (assuming that did happen) would not result in people ‘level-pegging’ as they would in reality be worse off. This change will push many people who were never intended to be subjected to high-rate-tax, in to that bracket, that is totally wrong.
Online Sales
The large multinationals like Amazon are destroying our retail industry, which has been on the decline for decades. Firstly the small retailers were basically run out of town by the large department stores in the 70s and 80s, however these large stores, then gradually left our high streets, when they began moving to retail parks, leaving our precious high streets to wither and die.
This decline, though already in full swing, was accelerated by the lockdown, when so many small retailers shut-shop, as a result of the sheer size of companies like Amazon, but for these multi-nationals, taxation is almost an ‘option’
There were over £100 billion in online sales last year, at this point, I cannot confirm if that includes the Billions in sales that are made directly from companies such as Aliexpress, who do not have any obligation to the UK exchequer.
Net Zero
Whilst we all wish to see our world become cleaner and cleaner, we must accept that any changes we make in this country have absolutely no impact or worldwide emissions as a whole, so why is this government intent on punishing hard working people, in an effort to pursue a ‘virtue-signalling- agenda?
In recent months, we have been witnessing the increasing anger over the expansion of the ULEZ in London and quite rightly so, this is little more than a cynical cash-grab. How can Kahn justify this? Let’s not forget that this was first implemented by Boris Johnson, this is not about reducing emissions, it is about revenue raising, because by it’s very nature, the system permits those who can afford to pay, to pollute as much as they wish.
Would it not have been far more effective and widely supported, if a limit on emissions were imposed? What if vehicles with an emission exceeding 300g were banned and what if that limit were reduced on a sliding scale over a decade? Who would have objected to that? Manufacturers taking steps to meet the targets, existing vehicles gradually removed through natural wastage and the additional benefit of preventing the ‘summer playboys’ form flying their supercars over in the summer and hogging the roads of London.
This graph details the average end-user cost per kw/h to the UK public. France has been basically shielded due to it’s self sufficiency thanks to Nuclear energy, the USA is basically non-dependant on energy, in Germany and Spain, it is highly subsidised, yet the British public are being penalised, due to Green Levies, imposed by politicians who are only concerned with something to boast about at dinner parties.
There have been great advances made in recent years, and although a large part of our energy does indeed come from renewables, although their indirect impact on the environment and certainly the damage to the aesthetics of our countryside, it is accepted that they cannot be relied upon, to replace other forms of energy. When the wind did not blow in Germany for months and months, it actually caused a localised energy crisis, because in their hast to move to renewables, they did not factor for the unreliability of the wind and the sun.
Rolls Royce are producing small modular nuclear reactors that are not only small and discreet, therefore easily disguised as a building, but the cost of construction, placement and management is a fraction of a traditional nuclear power station, yet each one could easily power a city. It was lack of foresight twenty or thirty years ago that has led to our current dependency on other nations and fossil fuels for our energy, a price that is paid but everyday people once again.
Education
I am of the opinion that education as whole is in desperate need of reform. If there is one positive to come from the lockdown, it is that their is always another way. Parents struggle to juggle school days/weeks/years with work and time to spend together as a family and take holidays. When they do wish to do so, during the summer, they are forced to pay extortionate rates, yet they have no option. In recent years, the growth of home/online schooling has been tremendous, and whilst I do not believe that children learning at home in isolation is ideal, there must surely be a real alternative, of hybrid learning, that will lend itself to modern life, whilst not punishing parents or children.
When the national curriculum was introduced, it was to ensure that children throughout the country are learning the same subjects, to the same standard, over the same academic years, therefore, is it not time that this was also brought in to the digital age, with all lessons throughout primary and secondary education were available online, for free to all, and for that to paired with traditional learning to create flexible year-round learning for children?
I am also of the opinion that too many school leavers are taking degrees that do little more than enslave them to a lifetime of debt, yet offer very little to them in the workplace. With the exception of vocational degrees, I strongly support workplace learning, along the lines of the QCF (Qualifications and Credit Framework) now called the RQF (Regulated Qualification Framework)
These are all issues that I would love to address and gather opinion from the people in Northampton North.
Immigration
I have absolutely no doubt that we have never been presented with the true facts about immigration. It is a fact that the UK is signed up to the UN Compact on Continued and Sustainable Immigration, therefore one way or another, this will continue, whether we like it or not. It is clear that immigration was, is and will continue to be needed in a country that is on the verge of entering the greatest period of population decline in its history.
However, and that is a key point, what steps have been taken to ensure that we have the infrastructure to cope with such a large volume of people arriving in such a short time?
Why was there not more discussion about the recruitment of employees from Europe? There is a big difference between open door, freedom of movement, which the British public voted against and the inability of businesses to recruit, to the detriment of our economy.
I am against the Rwanda proposal, not because I want everyone who arrives here to stay, but because I believe it is embarrassing us on the world stage, it almost reminds me of children threatening to throw stones, it is an open admission that our government is incompetent, and whilst I fervently believe that they are so, I am not comfortable with that incompetence being the source of ridicule on the world stage.
The backlog of applications is clearly down to the inept and inadequate management of the process by the authorities and the fact that we are tied in knots by the European Court of Human Rights, which I believe we should leave immediately, so that we can regain control of our judiciary.
I also believe that there are questions about the Solicitors Regulation Authority, which seems to be increasingly acting politically, just like the banks. They do not hesitate to strike off anyone who may offend them politically, yet they have done nothing to investigate the solicitors making thousands from bogus asylum claims.
Summary
in reality, what changes would I be able to make to the above issues, if I were privileged enough to represent Northampton North? The answer is, very little, but one thing I would be able to do, would be the voice of the people in this constituency, I do not and will never be the mouthpiece of a political party or answer to a Party Whip. I may be one voice that will struggle to be heard amongst the other 649 Mps, if that were to happen, but I do not simply stand for myself, I stand to encourage other independent people to stand, everyday people who live in the real world and who actually listen to the opinions of everyday people. With every independent who is voted in, that is one more voice for the people and simultaneously, one less for the arrogant political classes.
I am not in favour of high taxation, I do not support the elitists, the political classes or the virtue-signalling hypocrites who have basically signed away our quality of life for their own benefit, but I do support those who have worked hard to better themselves, I want them to keep more of what they have worked for and whilst I do not support endless giving, in an ideal world, I would like to end the pulling up of the proverbial ladder and ensure that everyone has the opportunity to also better themselves, to own their own home or rent if they should wish. There is nothing that I aspire to that needs to add to our national debt, there is more than enough potential investment available to achieve this, what is lacking is the will, the integrity and the moral compass.
I would like my single voice to become dozens, hundreds even thousands, until such time as we are no longer ignored.
Thank you very much
Antony Antoniou