Do we expect too much as a right in Great Britain?

The things I don't like in Ivanhoes posts are not his politics - he is sincere in that and not as alone on GN as he seems to think - but the way he rants on so about an individual as though she were the AntiChrist, come with malice aforethought with the deliberate intention of destroying lives, and his assertion that Gransnet members are the same, colluding with those whose sole aim is to wreck the country. That and his air of such uncontrollable anger that if we were speaking face-to-face I truly believe that he would strike me physically if I did not agree with him.

Now take a long drink of cold water and a deep breath and start fulfilling your claim to be objective, Ivanhoe.

If you can't, then take up boxing, or some other sport which gets rid of the aggression without directing it at non-combatants.

I say this quite objectively. I am not praising MT. I am not attacking you. I do not need to be blasted in your next post, and I don't need anyone else to leap to your defence and accuse me of being a bully or of attempting to "silence debate" or stop you voicing your concerns.

My post: Mon 19-May-14 10:38:33

Anyone interested or clever enough or with enough time to find out the information? I am curious to know but not very au fait with statistics. I am interested in a straightforward, non-politically biased answer.

Ivanhoe MT had many fault but the selling of council houses was not one of them. It was the failure to reinvest in new housing stock that was the problem. The right to buy scheme allowed people like my parents to own their own home, something that would have otherwise been way beyond their reach.

Ivanhoe, this was my OP, we were having healthy debate before you arrived on the forum. Please desist from lowering the tone.

Well said Harrigran.
I agree with Gillybob. The area where I worked for nearly twenty years was predominantly council property, and over the years the tenants bought the properties and improved them. The whole area improved as a result.
As you say, the pity was that the money was not re-invested in new houses, but during the time I have lived here the stock of council property in North Tyneside has been extensively refurbished and improved for council tenants.

harrigran, not when describing Thatcher it isnt!

Please do not refer to any woman using that word, it is offensive

gillybob, Thatcher was an opportunist bitch. Thatcher sold off council houses to get votes.

I never agreed with the selling of council houses, they were built for people who could not afford to buy.

And, of course, John Prescott and Yvette Cooper knocked a lot down under the Pathfinder Housing Scheme. But don't let me get started on that

I was in no way a fan of MT. But I have to say that there are two ways of looking at this. Yes she did allow the sell off of council houses. The big mistake being that the proceeds were not used to build more houses. However on the plus side it did allow many thousands of people to own their home, which is a good thing. It has also helped turn some bad housing estates around with people taking more pride in their home and surroundings.

Well said, rosequartz!

Well, she has been reincarnated on this thread, so perhaps you can have a word with her and get her to admit the error of her ways.

Nothing to do with the extra few million people that came in under Blair's government then? Or the dismal failure to build enough houses during his reign?

Statistics can sometimes be useful. I wonder if anyone can extrapolate information that would prove that there would not be a housing crisis had the population increased at the rate it was increasing under the last Tory government? Or the obverse, of course. I will not be partisan, just interested.

With 13 years in power and a booming population, you would have thought Labour could have had the nous to do something about it. Just a thought.

Yes, Ivanhoe, it was Maggie Thatcher, and she also stopped the councils from using the money to build new social housing. She definitely started the housing crisis.

And rosequartz!

Aka

oh! but I thought .... (oh no, I won't say it!)

Hello Margaret.

I was Margaret Thatcher who stopped building council houses in the 1980's during her "right to buy". So, if there are any Tory voters on this site, it is you who have helped to create Britain's homeless, and housing crisis.

Where I live, every available blade of grass is having blocks of one bedroom flats built. We need 3, 4 and 5 bedroom houses to accommodate families with children.

Britain has been a low income tax nation since Thatcher cut income tax in the 1980's. For over 30 years our vital services have been funded by what's politically known as known right wing trickle down economics.

This is from Keep our NHS Public website, rose. Obviously in Australia they are having as many problems as we are with a coalition government.
https://www.greenleft.org.au/

Which is something we DO have in common with Australia, FlicketyB! New builds there seem to have very tiny plots, although many of them are bungalows. And they have far more space than us.
It is not even a case of squash 'em in, sell 'em cheap here (or there).

What I never understand is why new houses are built in huddled clumps, like sheep in a field, jumbled together, with hardly any gardens or even a back yard - and then surrounded by acres and acres and acres of barren grass with the odd tree planted here and there, which never seems to have any human use apart for the occasional jogger or dog-walker to run/walk across on their way to somewhere else.

There are at least half a dozen new estates like that near me. Why do they not just give the houses bigger gardens or build more houses in the barren space.

Its not only the change of government policy that is causing companies to pull out of the wind power industry durhamjen. Windpower is not the energy solution we were told it would be and the proof is just coming to light. Firstly the wind turbines themselves are very expensive. They are terribly fickle and will not work in high winds or (obviously) when there is no wind. The wind has to be "the right sort of wind". Many of the existing wind turbines are "down" awaiting servicing/adjusting/ maintenance and land owners are not happy about having them on/near their land or landscape. To be honest I think they are a bit of a white elephant.

I think it would be easy to force companies out of London and the surrounding areas by offering incentives and/or refusing them permission to set up in those places in the first place. The truth of the matter is that this government and those before consider the South to be the only place to do business and the North is somekind of forgotten waste land. Just look at the proposed new rail link which is again to benefit the South of England.