Freedom from Banking and Corporate Overreach

• We would seek to prevent banks and payment processors from refusing service for purely ideological reasons.  We oppose the ability of financial providers to “cancel” account holders, refuse their custom, or refuse to process entirely lawful payments on political grounds.

• “Big tech” should not be in a position to control our spending.

• We strongly oppose the idea of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) due to concerns about authoritarian misuse, infringement on privacy, and fraud.

• While we are not anti-big business per se, we do strongly disapprove of certain big business practices whereby they use their size and wealth to squeeze smaller competitors, such as lobbying for favourable policies, unfair supplier purchasing terms, and the pushing of fashionable political “values”.

Protection for Consumer Choice

• We would protect consumer choice by enshrining the acceptance of cash in law, as they have done in Norway.

• Decriminalise weights and measures so that traders and consumers may use whichever system of measures they prefer.  The “Metric Martyrs” scandal was a prime case of edicts being imposed from above.

• We call for clear product labelling to include country of origin for mail-order and online purchases as well as in-store to enable consumers to exercise personal and ethical choices about the origin of goods.  “Made in the UK” should not mean merely assembled in the UK.  Labelling should also include information about whether the product is genetically modified or tested on animals.

Support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

• The restrictions and regulations imposed on the UK population during Covid have, in general, benefited large corporations at the expense of SMEs, including the self-employed, resulting in economic power being concentrated in the hands of large corporations.  Freedom Alliance would seek to prevent such measures again being visited on the country and economy.

• We call for a level playing field that rewards effort and innovation rather than bureaucratic compliance.

• Investigate large bodies that persistently make late or less than going rate payments to small suppliers.  Penalties should apply for persistent offenders.

• We would encourage local trade by reducing bureaucratic red tape and expensive green levies for SMEs.

• Support for small businesses through redesigning the corporation tax system and reducing business rates.

• Bring back “Enterprise Allowance” to encourage start-ups.

• Encourage local trade via free parking in town centres and shopping parades.

• We would introduce a minimum 10% levy for all online purchases, with up to 25% levy for online purchases from overseas companies. Funds raised would be ploughed back into subsidies for UK companies, particularly high street shops and manufacturing companies.

Employment and Training

• We call for greater support for apprenticeships that align with local business needs.

• Allow employers to prioritise British citizens and local residents for jobs.

• Freedom Alliance would seek to overhaul opportunities for jobseekers and career changers.  Jobseekers’ Allowance claimants are coerced to take any employment, regardless of their actual abilities, interests, and ambitions, and no matter how unsustainable the employment may be in the long term.  Current emphasis on looking for a “job you could do immediately” means no support to retrain for a new career, learn new skills, or start a business.

• Upskilling initiatives such as Investors in People and Quality Assurance are often implemented as tick-box administrative exercises for the letterhead logos, but little actually changes for the staff.  Employers need to offer proper training and education to develop all types employee careers to warrant accreditation.  (Support staff should be the bellwether roles – are they being offered training, promotions, degrees?)

Monetary Policy

• Debt has a long and dubious history of being used for control and impoverishment, while government debt has been used to extend the state beyond the provision of essential public services.  Freedom Alliance would therefore seek to facilitate the move away from a debt-based currency system.  We would end Government borrowing from external sources within 10 years.

• The pound should be backed by a mixture of finite and physical assets, preventing growth from being manufactured purely out of monetary expansion. Quantitative easing would not be allowed in monetary policy.

• Permit local and alternative currencies within the UK to promote financial and monetary independence.

• Cap government spending at 2018/19 levels.

• End the practice of banking bail-ins and bail-outs.  No Government support for a failing bank.

• Review of the CET1 (including buffers), Leverage and Liquidity ratios to provide a higher and clearer asset coverage, and further reduce the chance of a bank failure.

• Business lending rates to be capped at an appropriate level that allows banks to still profit from such lending when taking risk into account, but not profiteer from it.

• Monetary policy should not be set solely by the Bank of England. The chancellor of the exchequer should by a voting member of the Monetary Policy Committee and have the casting vote if there is a voting tie.

Strategic Industries and Economic Independence

• Consider removing all import and export tariffs to enable the British people to trade freely with whomsoever they wish. Online levies would be applied to ensure a more level playing field.

• Expand the Department for Business and Trade export support to help SMEs and key UK businesses secure overseas contracts.

• Promotion of the manufacturing sector and reduction of reliance on service industries.

• Support for strategic industries, particularly in the North of England, to ensure economic independence and maintain vital national interests.

• Advocacy for public investment in business clusters and strategic industries, with potential government involvement through "golden shares."

• Focus on reducing the influence of globalist and supranational bureaucracies on the UK economy.

• Contrary to common belief the UK still has a vital and specialised manufacturing industry, but which requires reliable and inexpensive energy sources.  Green levies and unreliable “renewables” are not appropriate for such businesses.

• Purchase of raw materials for necessary infrastructure and equipment should be as locally sourced as possible.

• We will ensure measures to prevent the re-siting of UK companies and manufacturing bases abroad.

Public Sector and Quangos

• Introduce a public-sector pay cap.

• Proposal for a more equal distribution of government spending across the UK.

• Commitment to reducing bureaucracy, cutting non-essential quangos, and focusing on core public services.

• Restriction of overseas aid to humanitarian purposes only, with a focus on training local professionals instead of relying on immigration.

• Simplify the process of public sector contracts by removing requirements to demonstrate compliance in areas irrelevant to the purpose of the tender.  This would assist the process for SMEs to land public sector contracts.

• Remove subsidies for Net-Zero initiatives, to ensure any company tendering for contracts has to “wash its own face” rather than the taxpayer being forced to subsidise it.

Workers’ Rights

• Zero-hours contracts should only be used where the employee requires the flexibility, e.g. students.  Investigate employers using “shadow firing” (not giving the employee sufficient/any hours to get them to leave).  Outlaw employment clauses forbidding such employees from taking other jobs.

• Reward businesses through tax breaks who employ more workers, rather than automate or outsource jobs.

• Reform employment legislation that discourages employers from hiring mature workers.

Our economic policy seeks to reduce tax burdens and wasteful spending, promote fair trade, support local businesses and entrepreneurism, and enhance financial freedom.  Our approach ensures that economic power remains where it belongs: in the hands of the individual.  By fostering an environment of freedom and opportunity, we can unleash the full potential of our society and create lasting prosperity for all.