Ten things Gordon Brown could do to win back support

Gordon Brown is going to lose the next election. He may as well go for broke and try and do some good between now and 2010. Here are ten of my suggestions, not that my views mean much to him.

1. Reform the one-sided libel laws which favour the powerful and cause journalists huge problems when reporting.

2. Renationalise public transport and re-regulate bus services. The current poor services outside London show how much contempt Labour has for those who use public transport. £3.20 for a return to Sussex University from near London Road?

3. Increase funding for education and treatment programs within prison, and create 10,000 new prison places for fraudulent,violent and sexually motivated criminals.

4. Increase the pay of key public service workers such as firefighters, police officers, paramedics and nurses. No-one in the emergency services should be paid less than £25,000. Senior officers should take a pay cut to fund this-it is shameful that an inspector can earn £45,843 while a constable starts on £21,534. I know who I'd rather have patrolling. Police officers are moving overseas to work there, leading to recruitment problems. Emergency service workers should also get free bus and train travel within ten miles of where they live.

5. Release the police from targets and let directly elected chief constables run their forces.

6. Remove British troops from Iraq within the next three months, and send them to work alongside police officers (unarmed) on our estates, keeping the peace and running boxing programs and youth clubs for local children, as well as Pt 10.

7. Cut the pay of MP's to £30,000 and recommend they take public transport if they are staying at a house/flat within eleven miles of Downing Street.

8. Order the closure of two of the House of Commons post offices and put the saved money to keep ones outside Westminster open.

9. Repeal the 42-day detention law.

10. Bring back a form of National Service for unruly teenagers, where anyone who persistently misbehaves in school or has an ASBO will be sent to a training camp in the Highlands for three months to be educated by trained British Army officers. Those that do not improve could be forced to stay for up to six months, with contact from home being withheld as a punishment.