Conspiracy Theory OAP

No, I am 37, born in February 1976. I started school age 4 as my birth date only just allowed me to commence for the school year (I believe it was something like 9 or 10 days different, and I would have had to start a year later).

In many respects I would love to return back to Scotland Jack, and neither the cooler temperatures or the opera would prevent me from doing so - indeed, my mum is only on the other side of the water from you, just outside Musselburgh. However, I have my other half and daughter to think about, and all of her family (and there is a lot of them) are down here, therefore the discussion about moving up north is one that is heavily biased against me before I even begin.

PS - even if I were loaded, I doubt you would catch me going to the opera down the Southbank (or anywhere else for that matter) - I be far too uncouth for that

 

I know Jack, and I have no issue with what you are saying either - however, I also think that a bit of honesty is crucial when it comes to discussions like this one; some might say that I have given away too much personal information - maybe I have, but on the other hand maybe it will help give some perspective as to how the land lies for others.

On the same token, I must admit that my perceptions are almost certainly coloured (as pointed out by Shiney if I am recalling correctly) by what happens around here in terms rental properties and profiteering by people buying them and selling them on for a huge profit (I mean, how the hell can the house I am living in increase in value by £155,000 over only ten years?), and I almost certainly have tarred everyone with the same brush, for that I apologise - I of all people should know better than to make assumptions.

 

I know, it's unbelievable and absolutely ridiculous! We've been here just over 40 years and the value (taking into account the cost of improvements we've made) has gone up 24 times . There's no way that we could have afforded this place even five years after we bought it!

I believe that being able to buy your own house is a good thing. It gives you an anchor and an incentive to improve the conditions in which you live. The government, the banks, the greedy developers and individual people's willingness to put themselves into silly (a nicer word than I should be using) financial situations has brought this about.

Although we all blame the government and banks they couldn't have done it without us, the buyers, colluding with them. The market wouldn't have risen anywhere near what it has done if we hadn't been prepared to pay the price. So many people paid way above the real value and suffered the consequences. They genuinely thought they were making a good decision because that's the impression they were given. It always has been, and always will be, caveat emptor!

When the market was really high, and still going up, four of my staff were desparate to get onto the ladder. I told them to wait as the prices were much too high (many years of experience and a lot of reading) and three waited. The one that didn't wait ended up having paid 35% more than one of the others who bought the house next door only three years later.

Although we were lucky enough to buy before prices soared we still got caught in the interest rate hike. One day our mortgage was 8% and the next day it was 15% . Mrs Shiney made things a lot easier for us by then getting a job for a bank in the city which gave staff a 5% mortgage.

 

Ah, you obviously haven't had a Chinese takeaway from one in Scotland - totally different to the Chinese takeaways you get down here; in fact, since moving south I have only managed to find one Chinese takeaway that even comes remotely close to some of those back home, and it is miles away from where I live now. I have a colleague (born and bred around here) who has recently ordered some curry sauce mix (Scottish Chinese Curry as he calls it) from a supplier in Scotland after he tasted some that was brought back from Scotland by another colleague - Yeungs Chinese Curry Sauce Mix if you want to try it.

 

A few years ago they found a 15th Century recipe book and one of the recipes was for curry!