Politics may be changing

Ziggy said:
Perhaps given his previous position as the country’s chief prosecutor, and given the type of cases he’s had to deal with and the access to the kind of of information, both written and verbal, he’s been supplied with and aware of. Possibly a lot of it in some instances secret and not to be divulged. He is aware of something things about which others have, even without that kind of insight, have been coming round more firmly to the belief that it doesn’t in our constitutional arrangements actually exist. Democracy, that is?
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Who cares how he became a tory?
 
Nero said:
On the subject of Thatcher give aways. Right to Buy is one of the biggest disasters of neoliberalism. Whole swathes of decent local authority houses now owned often by private landlords. It was a deliberate policy to transfer wealth from public to private.
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The Conservative at the time primarily saw it as a way to win working class votes, particularly in seats in the South East, whole estates were sold off and many of these new house holders voted Conservative in 1983 and 1987 as new houseowners. These voters had previously voted Labour. To me it was more a bribe than neoliberal economics. NLE would have allowed councils to build new houses in the 1980s and onwards and would not have sold council houses at large discounts (in some cases over 50% discounts). Both were forced on councils.

With time some then rented out their ex council homes which was the transfer of wealth and income from Public to Private. I heard of a couple of maths teachers in Kent who owned over 80 properties, many ex council houses. At first it doesn't have much impact, but when whole estates have been sold and no replacement houses are built, but say half the sold off stock is privately rented on full market rates on shorthold tenancy it does have a massive negative impact on young people. In recent years young couples (in SE and who don't have very generous wealthy relatives ) on below average incomes are almost pushed into private rents which may take 50% of their income. The events of the 1980s may take 30 years to produce an end result but we are there now - with Generation Rent.
 
BoroMart said:
working harder does two things: 1 - it improves your companies profit margins leading to bigger dividends for the shareholders; 2 - cheapens the value of your labour, meaning you are underpaid for the effort you put in.

It's not really worth it.
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Obviously it can, but there are many different cicumstances.

For me I worked harder than my contractual obligation, because I worked for a charity and some of the work I did changed lives. My efforts were also respected more than demanded.

I also found I was protected to some extent when redundancies were flying about, and people were having to apply for their own jobs etc.

On a wider perspective increased Globalisation of products (e.g Far Eastern products replacing UK products) and services (Call Centres in India) and more movement of labour has (for me) depressed wages in the UK over ther last 42 years, so less resources has been spent on UK salaries and wages and more given to the owners of the business (where ever they may be). Its taken a while but its having political implications in older industralised countries.
 
SuperStu said:
What difference does what I personally think about that make?
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Nothing but I’m interested in what you think having mentioned Starmer’s leanings on it in your post.

I’m not sure what I think about it, I have mixed views.

I do think the Tories are playing a game on it though by trying to associate the Green movement with being left wing and socialist.
 
HolgateCorner said:
Nothing but I’m interested in what you think having mentioned Starmer’s leanings on it in your post.

I’m not sure what I think about it, I have mixed views.

I do think the Tories are playing a game on it though by trying to associate the Green movement with being left wing and socialist.
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Fair enough. I don't think protesters should be sent to prison.

All sorts of groups have blocked roads before - farmers, lorry drivers, the dads dressed as super heroes - I don't remember prison ever being the threat for them.
 
SuperStu said:
Fair enough. I don't think protesters should be sent to prison.

All sorts of groups have blocked roads before - farmers, lorry drivers, the dads dressed as super heroes - I don't remember prison ever being the threat for them.
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It’s all just part of the groundwork for removing the right to protest in various government bills which will put through Parliament this coming session.
 
Redwurzel said:
I heard of a couple of maths teachers in Kent who owned over 80 properties
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Ah, The notorious Fergus and Judith. I used live down near Ashford during that time.
They finally owned between 700 and 1000 BTL properties.
They eventually sold them off to some Arab investors for £250M
 
Wow - 1000 properties - alot were quite ordinary properties and I would guess quite a number ex-council.

I wonder how much Capital Gains Tax they paid?
 
Redwurzel said:
Wow - 1000 properties - alot were quite ordinary properties and I would guess quite a number ex-council.

I wonder how much Capital Gains Tax they paid?
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The worst part is many of those houses are occupied by people in receipt of some type of housing benefit. This means local authorities are paying private landlords for houses they use to own.

Regardless of your political beliefs that is just wrong.
 
Nero said:
The worst part is many of those houses are occupied by people in receipt of some type of housing benefit. This means local authorities are paying private landlords for houses they use to own.

Regardless of your political beliefs that is just wrong.
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Nero, that’s the thing, they wouldn’t allow anyone on benefits, low paid jobs or even single mums to rent any of their properties. They were not very nice people at all.
 
The answer to some extent is to allow councils and housing associations to build some properties for rent. To stop the right to buy public housing.
 
Ziggy said:
Nero, that’s the thing, they wouldn’t allow anyone on benefits, low paid jobs or even single mums to rent any of their properties. They were not very nice people at all.
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They don’t sound very nice. Doesn’t also show how much of England is actually owned by other countries or people in other countries.
 
Ziggy said:
Nero, that’s the thing, they wouldn’t allow anyone on benefits, low paid jobs or even single mums to rent any of their properties. They were not very nice people at all.
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I would go out on a limb to say anyone with that many rental properties is not a nice person. It is parasitic behaviour.

Hoarding like that should be illegal.
 
exiledinboro said:
The video shows what has been discussed a few times already

Take housing and the boomers have bought up large portions of the housing stock (post war) so have generation X

Millennials and generation Z know they’ve been screwed

Throw in house prices rising as wages haven’t kept pace

Increased population and house building not keeping up with demand

It’s a successive government failure that was predicted. But voters have to take the blame too

So who’s got a solution?

The main parties will avoid this subject which leaves space for new parties to really go after a lot of dissolutioned voters

There’s a lot of voter apathy
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I don't agree that there is a lot of voter apathy. What makes you say that? Looking at numbers since 2001 GE voting numbers have been up.

Not as high as in the 50's and 60's but still fair turnouts.
 
Laughing said:
I don't agree that there is a lot of voter apathy. What makes you say that? Looking at numbers since 2001 GE voting numbers have been up.

Not as high as in the 50's and 60's but still fair turnouts.
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Tories like ‘voter apathy’ when they are not doing very well.

It’s in the same category as ‘doesn’t matter who you vote for because they are all the same’.
 
HolgateCorner said:
Tories like ‘voter apathy’ when they are not doing very well.

It’s in the same category as ‘doesn’t matter who you vote for because they are all the same’.
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I don't disagree with that. It was voter apathy in 2019 that got us here in the first place. People just wouldn't vote for corbyn so stayed away.
 
Ziggy said:
Ah, The notorious Fergus and Judith. I used live down near Ashford during that time.
They finally owned between 700 and 1000 BTL properties.
They eventually sold them off to some Arab investors for £250M
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I live in Ashford, yes, they were absolutely hated around here, they owned about 1/3rd of all rental properties in the area, they ran them into the ground, were notorious for stalling on all fixes. Horrible people
 
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