Clive Mantle: If I Ruled The World

By law, property developers would incorporate energy efficiency into new builds. All new homes should be built with air source heat pumps, solar panels and a domestic wind turbine. It doesn't matter if it’s rich executive development homes or mass new homes on the outskirts of towns, they should be as energy-friendly as possible.

All energy saving devices should be incorporated right from the word go in the design. There should be competition for design to harness this power, which is all around us everyday and goes completely unused.  

Brand new hospitals, where possible, should be built in major areas between towns and cities, which would be designed in conjunction with the people who work there day to day and have experience of what they need from the building.

Clive Mantle © Craig Sugden

These great new hospitals will be state of the art and completely practical, rather than the ramshackle old hospital sites we have all over the country, which are completely impractical. They would take the place of our inner city hospitals, which will then be converted gradually into A&E departments and facilities for the elderly, where they're still amongst their friends and family who could visit them regularly. 

Every couple of months at school, the first lesson on a Monday morning ought to be about the ABC of resuscitation. Children at school should be taught how to keep each other alive, how to keep their parents alive. It's very easy. It takes two hours to teach someone the ABC of resuscitation.

I was taught when I was on the TV series Casualty. I was so embarrassed about how little I knew that I made the cast go on a lifesaver course, and I still remember it to this day. It's vital to keep blood and oxygen circulating through the veins and the major organs in order for someone to have the best chance of survival.

Healthy food would be more accessible

I think that healthy products should be emphatically promoted, and if necessary subsidised. Unhealthy products—fast, sugary, easy food—should be taxed far more highly to pay for the changes. It should be an attractive option to buy better food. At the moment it's a luxury for those that have the time and income.  

The most vulnerable in society should be given subsidies from the state first and foremost, before the able-bodied and mentally and physically fit, who are perfectly strong enough to look after themselves.

If you are mentally fit and able-bodied, you really do not have too many excuses in life not to at least try to get a job and look after yourself and those around you. The poor people who have not been give a choice in life through no fault of their own, who have been dealt a terrible card, should receive the greatest support, love and care from a caring society.  

Climate change has to be addressed. It is an absolute crime, people denying the fact that climate change is affecting our planet. I think that people who have gone public denying that climate change is happening should be under prosecution for misleading great swathes of the public, because it really is happening and it's really going to endanger the future of our children and our children's children.

Far greater emphasis has to be placed on peaceful negotiations with the hostile regimes around the world, which are now threatening the very existence of a peaceful planet, as we've seen with the war in Ukraine. Economic sanctions are really a wonderful start.  

Cover image © Craig Sugden

Clive Mantle will be starring in Wish You Were Dead, a brand new stage adaptation of the bestselling Peter James crime novel, which tours the UK from 16 February. Tour dates and tickets can be found at peterjames.com

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