I’m not even sure how I’d answer this myself, but I’m interested in others ideas. Maybe Universal Basic Income?

47 comments

  4. Dutch cycling. If I’m picking just one, it’s that.

    Swiss/Japanese public transport.

    Some European countries do part time traffic lights as flashing amber means follow the priority/give way sign on the post. Do that.

    American disability laws. One of the things they really have quite strong protections for.

    And we already copied half the world’s cuisine so no worries there.

  7. Healthy takeaway food that you can pick up for lunch.

    The meal deal sandwiches that so many people eat in the UK often look utterly tragic.

  8. this is a very small one, but flat sheets. no wonder English people have such a reputation for being miserable, having to take off & put back on a duvet cover *every damn time you wash the sheets*? no ma’am

  12. I’ll take a few:

    * Japan’s zoning system when it comes to housebuilding, it allows them to build 4x as many houses as we do per year (despite only having 2x population)
    * Japanese rail because it’s hyper efficient in the short-term and the privatisation is structured to ensure private contractors maintain/improve rail facilities over time
    * Estonia’s education system. They spend considerably less than we do (even accounting for cost of living) yet have the best outcomes in Europe
    * America’s low tax on stock options as it encourages more start-ups and employee ownership of companies. It also enables new competitors to compete with established companies which is a good thing

    Going back to the formation of the welfare state, I wish we adopted the European model for healthcare (social insurance) and the Australian model for the state pension (basically automatic enrolment with a pension credit style system to boost those with the lowest retirement incomes)

  15. Everyone going round to the mayor of Reykjavik’s house for waffles once a year. Only here instead of Reykjavik because here is closer.

  18. UBI is a tricky one because we’re nearing that with minimum wage anyway. As a staunch leftist I’d argue minimum wage should be higher, and have more conditions attached to it (the idea it tallies with age for example makes little sense and is often discriminatory) but my main argument would be simply offer more tax breaks for lower incomes and shift the burden onto higher earners.

    My main one would be Direct Democracy like the Swiss have, and more referendums as a result. The interests of one part of the UK don’t necessarily represent the rest. “Socialism based on the Swiss model” would be a great way to make it work properly.

  19. First Amendment of the US constitution. The ECHR commitment to freedom of speech is quite wishy washy in comparison.

  20. When transport workers strike, they continue to work but do not collect any payments from the public.

    That way the public are not inconvenienced, want the strike to last a long time and are on the side of the strikers. Meanwhile, the business and its owners are losing revenue and don’t have the public on their side.

  21. The French / Italian / Spanish attitude to work. We take everything too seriously here.

  25. New Zealand’s ban on foreign home ownership.
    I think Canada is working on banning multiple homes ownership ?

  27. The japanese mindset of collectivism seems like a good one. Take one small example, littering. In japan people want to keep the streets clean, so even if there are no bins around they’ll carry around their trash in their bag until they find one. Its unimaginable for them to just chuck some random rubbish on the street because the wind will eventually blow it away or someone will come pick it up for them. This mindset of course carries on to other things too, but I won’t discuss them because some people get sensitive about it. Like disease management.

  28. Underground multistorey parking in town and city centres (if we can’t just have decent public transport and get rid of cars altogether from urban areas).

  29. Besides all the human right ones that are obvious, legalising weed would be lovely

  31. Germany’s plastic/bottle recycling system. It would make the streets much cleaner!

  32. Aircon in every home. I know it’s bad for the environment, I know, but as a hater of heat, every summer when I’m sweating balls I find myself wishing I could just make my room a nice steady 16 degrees.

  33. I believe it was an African country (forgotten the name)

    Banned Plastic Bags.

  37. Membership of the EU from Germany/France/Netherlands/Spain/Portugal, etc

    with all that it entails

  38. No one on here is going to agree with me on this, but here’s my answer anyway:

    The death penalty.

    Granted, I would have it only to be used on those who unjustly murdered another person just because they wanted to murder someone that day, paedophiles, and rapists — ie those who will forever and always be a danger to the public no matter what you do with them, the “unrehabilitable” so to speak, so I think it’d be best to just remove them completely from life, purely for safety’s sake.

  39. Metric system. Its so confusing using a mix of everything. Fill up your car in litres yet measure how far it goes in miles per gallon?

  40. Danish childcare provision- they pay between 0-25% of childcare costs with government meeting the rest, enables women to stay in the workforce and keep paying national insurance and pension contributions. Overall it saves the state a huge amount of money.

  41. House prices would be based on square footage rather than the amount rooms.

  42. Italy – Having time and respect for the older generation , strong family bonds .

  43. The German Food Purity laws which govern what ingredients can be used in the brewing of beer.

  47. Make trespass to private property a criminal offence nationally. That would solve the whole ” Irish travelers problem ” overnight. If it was on the books as a criminal offence, the Police would HAVE TO ACT. No more arguments, move on or get arrested now. JimB.

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