CHALLENGE THIS
If The Plan Has Holes, Find Them. That Makes It Stronger.
CHALLENGE THE PLAN — RIGHT NOW
The ten-year plan is on this site. The fiscal model has adjustable sliders. The policy documents are published. The numbers are public. If something doesn’t work — a policy that harms more than it helps, a number that doesn’t add up, a consequence nobody’s thought of — we want to know.
Every substantive challenge gets a personal response. Every response is published here permanently, alongside your challenge. The plan gets better every time someone finds something wrong with it. That’s not a weakness. That’s the point.
No filter. No PR team. No “thank you for your feedback, we’ll take it on board.” A real answer from the person who wrote the plan.
We read every submission. We respond to every substantive challenge. If you break the model, we'll fix it and credit you.
Name (optional). Email (optional). Your challenge (required).
We read every submission. We respond to every substantive challenge. If you break the fiscal model, we’ll fix it and credit you. If a policy is wrong, we’ll change it and explain why. If you’re right, we’ll say so. If you’re wrong, we’ll explain why we think so — respectfully, with evidence.
WHAT A CHALLENGE RESPONSE LOOKS LIKE
Want to see how this works in practice? Below are twenty real challenges — asked cold with zero preparation, designed to be uncomfortable — and twenty raw, unpolished answers. No scripting. No pre-screening. No speechwriter. Just a person at a desk answering hard questions honestly.
These demonstrate what you can expect when you submit a challenge: a real answer, sometimes incomplete, sometimes uncertain, always honest. The answers contain typos, half-finished thoughts, and moments where the thinking changes direction mid-sentence. That’s the point. A polished answer is a managed answer. These are real.
ROUND ONE — Ten Challenges
Challenge 1: The Second Home Landlord
“I’m a landlord — not a corporate one. I own one extra property that I bought with my life savings as a pension because I don’t trust the stock market. Your second homes tax at 200% is going to force me to sell it. I’m not a property hoarder. I’m a 58-year-old teacher trying to retire with some security. Why are you punishing me?” — Teacher, Dorset
Response:
I am not punishing you. I am forcing the system to change because right now we have thousands of families who really need help and a place to live. We don’t have the space to build thousands more houses — Labour lied about that. And I’m not about to put up fifty million high rises and pretend people can live in boxes without causing a mental health crisis. So yes, you might feel punished or targeted but this isn’t about you and I’m sorry you feel that way. I do thank you for being honest though.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend this is going to be easy. I said at the time, tough choices will be needed and there will be some growing pains. Do I regret it? No, not for one minute. Do I regret the harm and hardship? A little, but understand that without it you’ll get five more years of the status quo.
Challenge 2: SEND Still Broken
“My son is 14 and autistic. He’s been through the play-based primary and he thrived. But secondary school is still the same old system — rigid timetables, sensory overload, no real SEND support despite your reforms. The 12-week EHCP promise took 16 weeks in our area and the plan is basically useless. When does secondary actually get fixed?” — Parent, Rochdale
Response:
Honestly it was in my plan but with everything I’d pushed and changed it was too much. I do wish I could have changed it — oh, the plans I have.
Challenge 3: CHRC Nurse Burnout
“I work at a CHRC in Leeds. I love this job but I’m burning out. We’re understaffed, the demand is higher than the funding model predicted, and I’ve lost two colleagues this year to better-paid NHS roles. The programme works — I see it every day — but the staff are breaking. What’s the plan?” — Nurse, Leeds
Response:
Hi. Firstly thanks — and not a thanks from a Prime Minister because it’s the right thing to do. I mean genuinely, thank you for being there for those in most need. And the plan is more staff, more breaks, and more incentives. CHRC is being fast-tracked to front line work status because it very much is front line. You are saving lives and engaging with those who fall through the cracks, and that needs recognition, not just platitudes. So stay the course — changes are coming, I promise that.
Challenge 4: The Monarchy Question
“You scrapped the monarchy and I voted against it. I accept the result. But my question is genuine: who represents us internationally now? The President is a figurehead nobody abroad has heard of. The King was recognised everywhere. Have we lost something we can’t measure on a dashboard?” — Retired diplomat, Edinburgh
Response:
Honestly, we represent ourselves. We always have. The King sometimes went on visits but he wasn’t the United Kingdom — he was a man who brought in a lot of tourism and held symbolic rituals and state dinners that frankly were a travesty when national debt is where it is. Find me the savings another way and share them with me.
Challenge 5: Joe’s Kebab Shop
“I run a small fish and chip shop in Grimsby. The fast food density cap means the new kebab shop down the road got refused planning permission. I should be happy — less competition. But my mate wanted to open that kebab shop and he’s now got no livelihood. How is blocking a small business owner supposed to help the high street?” — Business owner, Grimsby
Response:
It’s not about blocking businesses. It’s about a healthier population. Small chains over multinational corporations — yes, certain business types are more likely to get refused and I’m not sorry, because we don’t need 10 fast food places on a high street or in a town of 2,000 people. What we need is more butchers, greengrocers, cheese shops, ironmongers — and for people to get off Amazon and back on the high street.
Challenge 6: Funeral Quality
“My nan died in March. The funeral cap meant we got a dignified service for £1,400. Without it we’d have been in debt for years. I just wanted to say thank you. But also — the cap means the funeral directors in our area are offering identical bare-minimum services because there’s no incentive to do more. Is the cap accidentally killing quality?” — Granddaughter, Swansea
Response:
No, because the cap is there as a baseline. So yes, the offerings will be the same at that level, and you can upgrade and use any add-ons provided by the director. The cap is to ensure everyone gets the same baseline service and no one is left to pay for death for 10 years and then die themselves leaving their children more bills.
Challenge 7: The Scout and UCAS
“I’m 17. I’ve been in Scouts since I was 8 under the reformed programme. I can light a fire, navigate, do first aid, and I’ve volunteered 200 hours. But none of that counts for anything on a UCAS application. Universities still want grades. How do I prove what I can do when the system still only measures what I know on paper?” — Scout, Cumbria
Response:
You read my mind, honestly. From this September, UCAS is actually scrapped. No more merit-based applications — the course actually has to look at your individual skills and experience, not grades on some standardised test. Please reapply this year, and if you don’t get in, name the university or contact me via letter and I’ll personally look into it.
[Note: A live policy announcement made in a challenge response. The question drove the policy.]
Challenge 8: The Small Contractor
“You closed the tax loopholes and cut the outsourcing. Fine. But my company used to provide IT services to the DWP — we weren’t Serco, we were twelve people in an office in Cardiff doing good work for a fair price. FlameOS GOV replaced us. We all lost our jobs. What happens to the small contractors who weren’t the problem?” — Former contractor, Cardiff
Response:
Did you get the offer to train as FlameOS GOV staff? If not, I want to know why, because all small firms should have had an offer, and the pay was not contractor pay — it was genuine civil service pay with proper terms and conditions. Please do contact the Head of Digital Infrastructure and they can help out.
[Note: The PM asked a question back. “Did the system we built actually reach you? If not, I want to know why.” Accountability in real time.]
Challenge 9: The Air Gap Wife
“The air gap doctrine means my husband drives 40 minutes each way to the water treatment plant for every shift because nothing can be monitored remotely. He’s exhausted. The family never sees him. I understand the security argument but is there really no middle ground between ‘connected to the internet’ and ‘physically present for everything’?” — Partner of Utilico worker, rural Norfolk
Response:
Honestly, no. And that’s by design. A connected network is a compromised one — or that’s to say, it’s only safe till it’s not. Is there a way you can move closer? There is a relocation package via the firm. I am sorry it’s painful but we are safe because of it.
Challenge 10: After Anderson
“I’ve voted confidence nine times. But I want to be honest with you: I don’t think the next PM will be as good. Not because of policy — because of honesty. You answer these questions yourself. You admit mistakes. You check the dashboard. What happens when someone sits at that desk who treats Dashboard Direct as a chore instead of a calling?” — Citizen, Wolverhampton
Response:
Honestly, I can’t answer that because I am one person who chose to be open and honest and to take any and all flak from decisions. And yeah, I’ve hurt citizens via policies — I’ve had to make unbearable choices that no one should, because without them we stay in managed decline and trending downwards with wages deflating and stagnation. There is nothing I can say on this, as the new person might be great. They might not.
ROUND TWO — Ten More Challenges
Challenge 11: Prison Overcrowding
“Your full sentencing reform means more people serving longer prison terms. I understand victims deserve honesty, but our local prison is already overcrowded and violent. Are you prepared to build more prisons, or are you just moving the crisis from the courts into the cells?” — Prison officer, Leicester
Response:
More prisons are in the works as part of Operation Rebuild. They are going to be more secure and nicer because they’re new, not crumbling away. But the answer isn’t more prisons — it’s more intervention, more youth work, more social care and work, more job opportunities, less crime. The CHRC to reduce drug-related crime. And your service is vital to help keep the country safe. I want you to know that — personally, not the seat talking.
Challenge 12: Independent News Survival
“I run a small independent news site. Your essential news paywall ban sounds noble, but reporting costs money. If election coverage, courts, public health, and government policy reporting must be free, how do small publishers survive without becoming dependent on donors, ads, or billionaires?” — Editor, Hull
Response:
It’s a fine rope to walk because without small independent outlets, the news can be sound-byted however those with the bigger purses choose. Ad support is one thing and it’s one we can’t pretend doesn’t exist — it is a necessary evil. We are looking into how we can help, not from a paywall or block-the-flow-of-information way, but from a “what can we actually do to support small independents” without throwing our direct support or funding at it so people can’t call us biased.
Challenge 13: Care Home Transition Gap
“My father is in a care home. The dashboard transparency helped us choose a better one, but now the good homes have waiting lists and the bad homes are closing. Where do the residents go when a bad home shuts before enough good places exist?” — Daughter, Preston
Response:
Raw truth — there isn’t an in-between. No one should be forced between good and bad. All we can do is encourage new homes and new businesses to set up with proper values, and remembering that the person they are caring for is a human and has a family — not someone who’s just left to die.
Challenge 14: Farming Yields
“I’m a farmer. You banned glyphosate and shifted subsidies toward regenerative methods. I want to farm cleaner, but yields dropped in year one and my margins were already thin. Are you willing to let British food prices rise so farming becomes cleaner?” — Farmer, Lincolnshire
Response:
Actually, yes. It’s one reason pay has risen — so that farming can actually provide a living instead of a meagre “I MIGHT make it this year and maybe pay off some machinery costs.” It’s also why we did the 10-year machinery rules to help out. Good food costs, and it needs to, because good food is not grown free — without labour, without hardship. So yes.
Challenge 15: Emergency Credit Gone
“You capped consumer credit APR at 20%. Payday lenders were awful, yes. But I used short-term credit when my boiler broke and I had no savings. Now nobody will lend to me because I’m high risk. What replaces emergency credit for people banks still won’t touch?” — Retail worker, Newport
Response:
Repayable grants from the council. If you get quotes and show the cost, then we will fund it and we want the principal plus a small admin amount back. We’re not in this to make money.
Challenge 16: Infrastructure Damage
“The 1Gb broadband standard is brilliant, but the fibre works destroyed part of our village green and the contractor left the pavement uneven for weeks. The dashboard shows national rollout success, but who is accountable for local damage caused by national infrastructure?” — Parish councillor, Cumbria
Response:
Operation Rebuild. I have forwarded this to the command team for the North West and this will get looked at — not just left in a system. I have flagged it with a priority and they have to get back to ME with a plan by 5pm tomorrow. This should be sorted in under a week. Thank you for bringing it up.
[Note: Specific action, specific deadline, personal accountability. “They have to get back to ME.” That answer goes viral.]
Challenge 17: Named Nurse Pressure
“I’m a hospital nurse. The named nurse rule sounds compassionate, but on a bad shift I’m responsible for too many patients to answer every call bell in five minutes. The policy makes me feel like I’m personally failing when the staffing model is failing. Are you putting accountability on the wrong person?” — Nurse, Plymouth
Response:
No, but I admit there’s a lot more work we can do here, including patient number limits and assistive tech where it can be used safely and reliably to help out. Thank you for being a star — not from the chair.
Challenge 18: Inclusion vs Safety
“My son was excluded after repeated violent incidents at school. The Inclusion Act protects bullied and SEND children, but what about the children being attacked and the teachers trying to keep order? Where is the line between inclusion and safety?” — Parent, Bradford
Response:
SEND has failed. I have said this many times — the system needs rebuilding from the ground up. I can’t promise miracles or that child X will be safe from child Y when the system is fundamentally flawed. I am working hard on a new system and it’s not even called SEND. I mean, why did we acronym it? A child is not 4 letters — and pretend it’s not a problem. This has my full attention and I will be announcing something this week.
[Note: “A child is not 4 letters.” The line that reframes the entire SEND debate in one sentence.]
Challenge 19: Defence Spending
“Your sovereign defence programme creates jobs, but it also commits £80–100 billion over fifteen years to weapons. After everything you’ve built for hospitals, colleges, housing, and energy, why is this still the right use of public money?” — Teacher, Brighton
Response:
Because we are an island nation. We cannot expect the likes of France, Germany, and the US to defend us. We HAVE to have our own capabilities that are not compromised by third parties and known to every man, woman, and child alive. I will not apologise for doing right by the people.
Challenge 20: Dashboard Limits
“Dashboard Direct is powerful, but it also means the loudest or luckiest questions can shape national attention. Fifty random questions a day still leaves millions unanswered. How do you stop government becoming reactive to dashboard stories instead of long-term strategy?” — Civil servant, London
Response:
Dashboard Direct is there for transparency. I admit the 50 limit and the luck of the draw is real, and I don’t use it as a reactive dashboard. You could come to me with something and if it’s not in the plan, I’m not going to drop everything and make it happen. The point is to be able to ask questions and feel like your voice is heard — even if the answer isn’t what you hoped.
ASSESSMENT
Twenty questions. Zero dodged. Three apologies without retreat. Four admissions of limitation. Two specific commitments with deadlines. One live policy announcement (UCAS scrapped). One accountability follow-up (“did the system reach you?”). Two hard “no” answers delivered with compassion. Two honest “I don’t know” responses.
No question was answered with “that’s a great question” — the politician’s stalling phrase. No question was redirected to talking points. No question received a different answer than the one asked. Every answer sounds like a person at a desk thinking out loud, not a machine processing approved responses.
The governing principle across all twenty: “I hear the harm. I am not pretending it is painless. Here is why the policy still stands. Here is what I can do to reduce the damage.”
Or more simply: “I’m sorry it hurts you. I’m still doing it.”
That is the governing doctrine when policy has losers. Not cold. Not cowardly. Honest.
YOUR TURN
That’s what twenty challenges and twenty answers look like. No dodging. No spinning. Sometimes “I don’t know.” Sometimes “I’m sorry but I’m still doing it.” Always honest.
Now it’s your turn. Scroll back to the top. Find the form. Break the plan.
The plan is public. The numbers are public. The challenges are public. The responses are public. If it can’t survive scrutiny, it doesn’t deserve to be policy. Challenge it.