2024 CABINET MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT MPs SIR KEIR STARMER LABOUR'S MINISTERS AND SECRETARIES OF STATE 2024 NEW GOVERMENT FOR KING CHARLES III A TO Z OF BRITISH EMPIRE POLITICS UNITED KINGDOM UP SHIT CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE

We all wish Sir Keir Starmer and his cabinet ministers, the very best of luck in the years ahead. They have a lot of paddling to do, to get the United Kingdom out of the political and financial shit creek they are in.

They do have some good ideas from which to make a paddle. One of the best being to buy back our National Grid from overseas investors who are not making the investment necessary to transition to Net Zero. By building an alternative Grid for electricity and green hydrogen, with storage capacity for load levelling, built in using the wonder molecule, instead of, but also alongside conventional battery installations, almost all of which lithium cells and Tesla cars are imported from China.

Thank heavens we don't need to import water from anywhere. And, we have wind in abundance (onshore and offshore) and the technology to become an energy exporter.

Our strengths are our creative talents that are in high demand all over the world. Actors, writers, musicians and tourism. It's a pity we do not make home grown cars any more. We sold off all our brands, and did not replace them - including Rolls Royce. We don't make cloth any more, and import most of our clothing. Though cotton, comes from the USA as a renewable resource. And we farm excellent beef and lamb, and make Irish and Scotch whisky. All exportables.

Patents are a waste of time for lone innovators, with little by way of support for technological innovation. Engineers will be ripped off, except where copyright bites. And that brings us back to design. The state should enforce against patent infringement and accelerate green patents. But only if state protection is installed. Otherwise, Britain is giving away their best ideas for nothing, in a highly competitive world of reverse engineering from developing countries.

We should be building low cost housing that young families can afford - perhaps as flatpacks. Not executive housing to trap people in financial servitude for the rest of their lives. Also, bankrupting councils who are then forced to pay housing benefits to wealthy landlords as unearned income. New houses should be energy autonomous and cater for EVs, with charging points. Preferably solar powered.

All new electric cars sold in the UK should feature solar roof panels. At least as a factory option.

CIL payments should go transparently to improving the roads that the increase in traffic from over development is turning into a pothole nightmare. And that brings us to pensions for council workers and overpaid executives, who are paid extra so as not to blow the whistle on corruption.

The new government might also think about taking control of planning decisions away from councils, most of which are delegated in any event. With a national policy decided based on reliable geodata such as traffic flow at peak times - and distances to factories, towns, etc. Not on favours for mates. This might reduce corruption and procurement fraud.

The Civil Service might be slimmed down significantly to reduce the pension black hole created by Conservative squanderbugs. Flock wallpaper anyone?

We should also be investing in munitions and high tech robotic infantry, as autonomous soldiers, to defend the UK and to export to NATO allies, including Ukraine. At lower cost, maybe even replacing tanks on the battlefield. Germany is already investing in such technology. Why are we so slow, when Russia is knocking on our doorstep. And draining our economy.

We should also be encouraging UK homeowners to build bomb shelters and keep them stocked with food and water. A simple change to Permitted Development Orders could achieve that, with a few strokes on a keyboard. Another deterrent to the CRINKs, not to start WW3