Key Questions To Answer

1) Where are we on exam reform?
2) Coalition red lines.
3) Who exactly is where in terms of the [shadow] Cabinet?

More should be added to this list.

The Manifesto

My first very rough draft is in progress at https://docs.google.com/document/d/19AMBD6N1SsnUpnRXq33srAoj4WVPUajwHeH_bwJbMwQ/edit

Everyone feel free to edit and contribute.

Our five key pledges

Knocked this up a 3am, rather extremely rough, but I think it could be a useful base. (I thought the Military is particularly poorly worded.

Our five key pledges

The EU: Letting the people choose

While the Liberal Democrats continue to be a Europhilliac party we recognise that the current format of the EU is suffering severe stress, and that a liberal party should never seek to hold the people in something as large as this, against their will. In recognition of this the Liberal Democrats promise a straight in-out referendum after the next general election, if the Eurozone crisis is over by this point we believe that the people of Britain we choose to stay within Europe, and if not, then perhaps it is time to leave.

Crime: Fixing a broken system

The current criminal system in Britain is not working. People who commit victim-less crimes are needlessly imprisoned (At a time where putting a person in prison for a year costs the public £65,000), while many violent offenders recommit soon after release. The Liberal Democrats are committed to solving this, we not take the easy route of being ‘Hard on Crime’ like so many previous governments. In order to do this the Liberal Democrats will begin the transition to treating drug addiction as the medical problem it is instead of the criminal one it is not, and on the other hand funnelling the money saved from such into rehabilitating those who can be, while making sure those who can not, remain separate from the public.

Defence: A Modern Military for a Modern World

In an era of guerrilla and cyber warfare the British Military is still more suited to fighting a ground war in the German Plains. The Liberal Democrats wish for the British Isles to be defended, and for Britain to be able to act as we did in Libya, Sierra Leone and the Former Yugoslavia, but this does not mean we need a standing army of hundreds of thousands. The Liberal Democrats are committed to rolling back unneeded forces, while increasing those which are useful in a modern age, namely the Air Force and Navy.

Economy: A liberal deal for Britain

[Ice/AndyC can write]

Constitution: Bringing it into the 21st Century

In the past it has seemed the Liberal Democrat party has placed a too great an importance to reforming our constitution, it is not close to being the most important issue to us, but at the same time, it does matter. Firstly we are committed to the setting up of English regional Assemblies, it is wrong that all other areas of the UK have their own self electing bodies while England is deprived of such, but at the same time a single ‘English Assembly’ can not truly represent the diversity there is across the Nation, regional assemblies are the perfect solution to such. Secondly we support the transition of Britain’s various electoral methods (There are five currently) to STV in most areas, and AV for Mayoral Elections, and any other single member elections. Thirdly we support continuing reform to the House of Lords. Lastly we support the removal of the farcical Police Commissioner elections, and further Mayoral referendums where there is local demand.

Ideas

These are my ideal additions to the agenda, a mixture of big ideas and small-but-important steps that could form planks in our manifesto. Obviously there is going to be opposition to some of these, and you guys can pick and choose what you like. But yeah, this is policy I could really get behind:

Immigration

• Put immigration policy under the purview of BIS rather than the Home Office (which would still handle enforcement). This would highlight the importance of immigration as an economic concern.
• Promote massively higher levels of immigration in order to boost long-term growth and help reduce the deficit more painlessly.
• There's some stuff about the economics of immigration here, here and here.
• This rather interesting OBR table illustrates my point.

• So, as far as policy goes, this might mean easier paths to citizenship that don't require you to know absurd things that few British people do.
• It might also mean - and this is a big step - selling visas, allowing anyone who wants to to live and work in the UK for, say, £3000. This would, at a stroke, massively increase the size of our workforce, increase fiscal sustainability, reduce illegal immigration and put Russian people-smugglers out of business.
• This would be easier to sell than you might think - we could present it as the choice between sending jobs out and bringing workers in.
• We should also make it much easier for tourists to come to this country. The next few decades are going to see a flood of middle-class Chinese visiting Europe, and we want them to come to London and buy our kitsch.

Taxes, Benefits and the Budget

• I broadly agree with AndyC's excellent and detailed post, but there are a few ideas that I'd like to add.
• One of the groups that gets really screwed over by a universal credit system is single mothers. This would be lessened if, as I have suggested before, we incorporated existing provisions into a major childcare subsidy. This would help encourage more women to enter the workforce, and hopefully also increase fertility, which is important long-term. It fits into the overall theme of supporting work.
• One much more controversial proposal would be to shift the tax burden from income to consumption. The economic arguments for this are strong - income taxes discourage work, whereas consumption taxes encourage saving, consumption taxes are not regressive because consumption is the point of income in the first place, consumption taxes are much less distortionary and much easier and cheaper to collect. In practice, this would take the form of cutting income tax and raising VAT.  AndyC's demogrant would fit into this as a progressive universal rebate. This would also be a much more realistic way of implementing a de facto wealth tax, like Clegg has been talking up (people who paid high rates of income tax when they earned the wealth they have now would also have to pay high rates of consumption tax when they spend that money). And announcing it would stimulate spending now - in the same way that Labour's proposed VAT cut would, by bringing purchases forward, but without breaking the budget - thus helping to get the economy back on track. I know some of you probably won't like this idea, but it's worth discussing.
• We need to reverse cuts to public investment, which are the most destructive and short-sighted way to close the deficit. Instead we need to seriously look at potential savings in 

Education

• We should set aside a significant sum to do some experiments in schools - trying out longer school days, higher teacher salaries, maybe something like a voucher program like what's starting to catch on in America. Who knows - we might learn something.

Science & Innovation

• We should massively increase R&D and technology spending. We have a chance to make the UK a world leader in science, in research into groundbreaking technology in alternative energy, electronics, biology etc.
• Maybe we could provide tax incentives to research, to try and generate tech clusters?
• Intellectual property law is increasingly outdated in the digital age and we need to think about encouraging more innovation through patent reform etc.

Licensing

• We should make it so that it's easier to get accredited in the industries where that is necessary, remove unnecessary licensing restrictions and make foreign qualifications transferable.
• More, we should reform the process to give a greater role to intermediate professional qualifications. Doctors spend far too much of their time doing things that they didn't need ten years of medical training to qualify them for. The same thing is true of lawyers. There's a lot we can do to fix this.

Defence

• Here, there are a few questions to answer:
• What do we want our military to do? Personally, I think we need to spend only as much as is necessary to defend the Falklands, maintain a nuclear deterrent and do Olympic security / riot control / other emergency stuff.
• How much is that going to cost? If we go with a pared-down military, we could save a lot of money - money that could get spent on deficit reduction, schools, etc. Defence is the ultimate low-hanging fruit, spending-wise, and we throw a lot of money at it as things stand.

The Other Thing

• I can't stress how much difference reforming the Bank of England's mandate would help deal with economic problems. The concept of NGDP targeting is gathering momentum, and was recently endorsed at Jackson Hole by Michael Woodford (probably the best and most respected monetary economist alive). Yeah, most people won't understand it, and this isn't a real election. But, seriously, this is a really good idea.

Anyway, I'd like to know what everyone's opinion is of these thoughts.