Is everything in this country(U.K.) up for sale?

We have different views and different experiences MOnica. I don’t approve of people with little or no knowledge of planning law overriding the advice of professionally qualified planning officers.

GSM Planning decisions, like other political decisions, are the art of the law and the art of the possible.

i have attended a number of planning committee meetings and while the officials have to follow very strict guidelines in aking decisions, councillors who represent their locality and know the wider area around can bring in other factors.

A developer planned an estate in our village and divided it into two with all social housing down one end, with the most dangerous access, while the expensive houses up the other end had a better access, but one that caused traffic problems around the school. It was the councillors who sent the application back so that the estate could be re-planned with a mix of houses of different sizes intermingled and with access redesigned to protect the school. They also asked for the exteriors of the houses to be changed to match the vernaacular architecture of the village. We are not a village in stone country and stone clad houses were considered inappropriate.

There is a lot that 'unqualified' peole can add to the planning process.

At least there’s the chance of success on appeal, especially if planning officers have been supportive, and costs may be awarded against the council. I really dislike the system of planning applications being decided by totally unqualified people.

It still happens in local government - developers very friendly with planning officers for instance.
In this area it’s councillors that have the upper hand, regularly overruling planning officers - it’s a Liberal majority

It still happens in local government - developers very friendly with planning officers for instance.

Which members of the current government do you consider to be corrupt Maizie, and why?

MaizieD

On the contrary, Katie59, I think that anyone who doesn't think that the UK is corrupt needs to take their blinkers off. I refer specifically to the government, which is spectacularly corrupt, though I'm sure it goes on at lower levels.

Disagree with you, the worst aspect in my mind is they have to follow the party line wether they agree or not
It certainly used to be corrupt at Local Government level where if you knew the right person things got done, not now, everyone has to declare their interests, so the dodgy councilors have dropped out.

On the contrary, Katie59, I think that anyone who doesn't think that the UK is corrupt needs to take their blinkers off. I refer specifically to the government, which is spectacularly corrupt, though I'm sure it goes on at lower levels.

Those who think the UK is corrupt should take their blinkers off and look at many other countries where have pay someone off to get anything done. Our polititians are not perfect and some are wealthy but that should not disbar them from office as long as they follow the rules involved, and we have seen several dismissed for breaking them, the system is working.

Newspapers and other Media have a large influence on politics, not just party politics but policy as well, they need to sell their product so they dramatize any issue and publish articles that are biased in one direction or the other according to editorial policy.

Most countries are self interested and corrupt when it comes to the bottom line. Not sure the UK is any different or worse than any others.

I was really wanting Tamayra to explain their 'greedy politicians' statement. I feel that the explanation would not have been as coherent and rational as yours, MOnica

I get quite tired of people trotting out these meaningless statements...
So basically, we have established that a post politics career can be lucrative, but active politicians aren't on the take...

I was under the impression, BTW, that Osborne was a very wealthy man before he entered politics... In fact, I doubt that any of those you named were short of a bob or two...

As a newspaper reader. I do find it rather galling the way people assume that readers are not capable of making critical judgments when reading those papers and are not capapble of knowing the political biasses of a paper and taking those into account.

Newspapers are important only to themselves and most people do not read them and get most of their news from elsewhere.

True M0nica

The UK is one of the most corrupt countries in 2023. This has not always been the case but the malign influence of the right-wing press, national newspapers read by over *80% of newspapers readers, by foreign billionaires and tax exiles who have their own agenda has been utterly poisonous.

Maizie I do not suggest that politicians are directly filling their pockets with cash direct from funders, but city interests, big funders and close friendships between these politicians and these funders results in an 'I scratch your back and you scratch mine' relationship. Politicians leave politics and need to earn their livings when they leave. It helps if there is someone likely to think of you when a job needs filling.

I am sure George Osborne is as straight as a die, but he is a very able man and had all the right contacts when lots of lucrative jobs came up after he left politics. Tony Blair hasn't done too badly.

And some donors do directly 'help' politicians. Boris Johnson has had a helping hand a number of times, including redecorating the PM's flat at No 10.

There is , as they say, more than one way to kill cat.

MaizieD The directors of the companies selling off to the chinese etc and making huge profits on the deal are the people financing the Conservative party.

I presume you're answering my question about 'greedy politicians', MOnica. I assume you are talking about the funding of individual MPs by businesses. Are MPs allowed to use that funding for personal gain, though?

What I was thinking of was more along the lines of 'Is there evidence that MPs are gaining personally from sales of the UK's assets to foreign entities'?

MaizieD The directors of the companies selling off to the chinese etc and making huge profits on the deal are the people financing the Conservative party.

Not just straight up front dollops of money to the party, but they set up think tanks that produce research papers that support right wing policies and thinking they infiltrate aall kinds of committees and groups.

I recently read a book Democracy for Sale: Dark Money and Dirty Politics The author, Peter Geoghegan, is Sunday Times journalist, no loony lefty from The Guardian.. The book explains exactly what is going on behind the scenes. It is very clear why politicians sell our assets down the river and what they get from it.

To allow foreign companies to own our water and power utilities seems to me to be the height of stupidity. Also to have allowed our agriculture and manufacturing industries to become so run down, resulting in the UK having to import to many essentials.
However I honestly don't give a stuff about the airport as I rarely fly and wish that other people would stop flying too as I live under a Heathrow flightpath.

Thatcher started it

Tamayra

China pretty much owns Australia now !!
So little forethought by our greedy politicians

Why 'greedy politicians'? What do they make out of the sale of a nation's assets to foreign powers?

China pretty much owns Australia now !!
So little forethought by our greedy politicians

We have a company that sells a product all over the world. Bringing money into the country and making the pie bigger for everyone. All you get in this country is jealousy. When one does well, the government tax you over over. Capital gains and personal tax. There is loads red tape. My husband and his partner have worked relentlessly to make it a success. And still keep it relevant, so no sitting back and watching the money coming in. Why in this country is the attitude, it’s alright for you, instead of celebrating entrepreneurs.

Evidence???

The Saudis own most of the country anyway

grandtanteJE65

Just wondering where El Al are going to land!

I cannot imagine an Israeli air company being thrilled at the prospect of using an airport owned by an Arab state!

Who is wrong EL Al, or Qatar for funding Hamas,

Personally I’d ban both they are both extremists and unwelcome as is Russia and Iran probably a few others too

Well,if you voted for Thatcher in 1979 and have voted tory ever since this is what you voted for.

I agree wholeheartedly with your comments !!