General Election: Who the hell am I going to vote for???

We could always make more babies

 

But then we have to educate them and pay the associated NHS costs. Far better to ship in the finished product

On a serious note though things get worse. One of the main drivers of the current housing crises was Thatchers policy of selling the social housing stock off for peanuts and not replacing it. Now camoclown is talking about repeating the exercise

 

I have to confess, I took advantage of the offer back in the 80's. I didn't agree with the policy, and I guess that makes me a hypocrite, but I had my family to think of and I would have been a fool not to. I suppose this proposed reinstatement would be ok if the money raised went towards building new affordable housing.

 

It doesn't make you a hypocrite at all. We all take advantage of circumstances - I rent some houses out but I am an avowed socialist. As I see it socialism doesn't mean that you cannot have/make money (that is Marxism) but it does mean that you don't shirk paying your dues.
The problem with Maggies ill thought out plan is that the funds available for house purchases went through the roof as the beneficiaries (previously council tennants) of the sale died and left large sums of money in their wills. This helped inflate house prices (along with other drivers) which in turn resulted in the people who had previously bought houses privately benefiting too. Thus property values snowballed.
Now I'm not saying that I'm against everyone owning their own home. What I am saying is that such schemes need to be thought through much more thoroughly and ideally have some sort of clawback built in.

 

Yep, I think where Maggie's scheme fell down was not allowing the concils to use the money raised to build new stock.
A lot of what were sold off around here in the 80s were mostly in need of a bit of TLC.

And really it was a long time ago, I do think its time everyone stopped blaming Maggie for what went on back then, the rest have had a long time to change things, but have they?

Ex council houses still sell for a fair bit less than other houses, ...I guess its part of the stigma.
So in effect, its still easier to buy an ex council house than than the others, thereby actually putting cheaper property on the market.

I dont believe the housing crisis can be averted by just building more houses, its not just a matter of supply and demand, its has more to do with status of the owners being fullfilled, they all want higher prices.
Also there was a spell some years ago of people buying to let, it still goes on and I can understand people doing it, but it does help to push up prices.

 

100% How I believe. The important issues I consider are a combination of how a particular party's policies will affect:

1) Me, my immediate family and our particular circumstances
2) My neighbourhood
3) What I believe is the right thing to do (Oh just how I hate the mis-use of that phrase by politicians).

And not necessarily in that order, and never on the basis of some particular leader's personality.

 

What annoys me is, in my college class, myself and my friend are both 50yrs old and we work twice as hard as the rest of the class who are 30yrs younger. They are bone idle and stand around updating their facebook status or flirting with each other. Yet if I was to approach a gardening company for work, they would give the job to the younger ones in my group than me.

My only route when I leave college is to employ myself

 

How do we "spoil" a vote and what is the point ? Honestly I have never heard of it before !

As for any government putting the money from selling housing stock its never going to happen anymore than the extortionate taxes we pay in so called "pollution" taxes being spent on improving or controlling pollution !

The latest brilliant idea from old "Call me Dave" was that if an unemployed person goes to work and stays there for a year they would be given..... Thats right Given their council house ..

This was only a week or two ago they came up with that cunning idea. There was me thinking working hard to own your house was the only way and the correct thing to do.. Mad me eh ?

I too like Longk above own and rent out a few houses. I worked very blooming hard to buy them and damn near killed my daft self in the process ! I hope none of the tenants expect a free house if they work for more than a year ! Gosh I'm harsh aint I ....

Many houses are compulsory purchased from builders. There is a scheme in place where for something like every 11 houses built one would have to be sold to the council for a fixed amount of I think it was £85K.. But don't worry about the builder cos he simply spread the cost or losses from doing so among the the other 10..

Now in theory it was a good idea IF of course you reside on the planet ZOG.

Imagine moving into your 250K house only to have some tenant move in next door who does not work. They can in some cases be problem people so compound this to the fact that they pay little or nothing in rent and you the proud possesor of a huge mortgage have to work your butt off to keep up your payments.
This is and has been happening in Worcestershire for 8 or 9 years now I'm not certain about other parts of the country.
Some of the medium sized builders round here just buy land big enough to build 8 9 or 10 houses so as to stay under the threshold.

Remember also builders have to make large contributions towards improving the infrastructure like improving roads and a percentage to schools ect ect.

So another scheme they came up with was to abolish the compulsory selling of the 11th houses and the builder would have to sell the houses to first time buyers at a reduced price. 20% was mentioned.

So again you or I pay our 250K for our house while the couple next door pay 200K for exactly the same product... But worry not about the builder cos he will have covered his costs by increasing all the houses... See where I'm going ?

You couldn't make it up eh ?

Now can you see why I can never vote for these ................................ Sorry I'm lost for words !

 

@Charlie996
Jenny namaste

 

I understand you point Woo, but would you not consider a spoilt ballot paper a form of voting?

 

you incorrectly complete it, in what ever manner you see fit, some may just put a cross through the whole document, others may vent their spleen. The spoilt votes are counted and announced as well so could be seen a vote of no confidence in the whole system, which, in my personal point of view is better than not turning out at all.

 

Thank you.. I now understand. That will be my plan as it seems the only option ..

 

I notice MPs often spend a lot of time avoiding voting in "The House" ie. dont turn up or just abstain.