The Labour Party

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

I don't see what choice he has.

He will adopt a policy of pro-immigration and pro-affordable housing so if he doesn't commit to building massively more than we are already then where is everyone going to live? He's said that house prices will fall under Labour but that will only happen with a huge increase in supply.

The eco lobby are just stupid and for the most part should probably be ignored.

He can only chose 1. Build houses and soften immigration policy. Or keep on the tory track of blocking everything.

Tory policy has failed. Needs to do something so this makes sense. Either way he will get shit for it.

 

[BayernMan]

 

[BrianW]

Corbyn should stop trying to infiltrate Labour and instead set up his own party for those who share his extremist views, but of course he won't do that as he knows he wouldn't win a single seat.

Given his 40,000 majority and popularity as a constituency MP, he might well get one.

You are right though, that under our rigged FPTP voting system, that would be it. The system forces people like him (and the equivalents on the Tory side) into wholly unsuitable coalitions. Both the Labour Party and the Tories cover a wide range of views and yet have to pretend to be united. This is one of the factors that cause such disillusion with politics. No one really knows what each party stands for, and it can change massively if one faction or another gains control. (See ERG for a working example of extremist lunacy wagging the dog.)

 

[BrianW]

The only way to solve the housing crisis is to build more houses. It's fucking obvious.

However, the snag is, to build lots of houses you need lots of skilled tradesmen. Realistically, this can only be achieved in the short term by allowing such people to immigrate here. Even then you are probably going to have to pay them big bucks.

One good thing about the old Council Direct Labour Organisations was that they trained lots of apprentices. Of course, Maggie Thatcher had a downer on such organisations, and they have mostly died. I notice that even most of our local road repairs are done by private contractors nowadays.

Tory policy on housing has been to encourage private landlords and subsidise them at an ever-growing rate through Housing Benefits from public funds. Socialism for the middle-class capitalist landlord. A truly stupid policy, although I don't blame the landlords. They are just setting themselves up with a sort of pension, at a time when most proper pension schemes have been fucked up. It's still a bad policy though.

 

[inbetween]

The only way to solve the housing crisis is to build more houses. It's fucking obvious.

However, the snag is, to build lots of houses you need lots of skilled tradesmen. Realistically, this can only be achieved in the short term by allowing such people to immigrate here. Even then you are probably going to have to pay them big bucks.

One good thing about the old Council Direct Labour Organisations was that they trained lots of apprentices. Of course, Maggie Thatcher had a downer on such organisations, and they have mostly died. I notice that even most of our local road repairs are done by private contractors nowadays.

Tory policy on housing has been to encourage private landlords and subsidise them at an ever-growing rate through Housing Benefits from public funds. Socialism for the middle-class capitalist landlord. A truly stupid policy, although I don't blame the landlords. They are just setting themselves up with a sort of pension, at a time when most proper pension schemes have been fucked up. It's still a bad policy though.

The biggest benefactors of property development isn't private landlords but rather the big developers but developers get their development money from investors and many of those investors are actually pension funds.

Anyone criticising landlords or the economics of the property market should consider who the landlords and benefactors really are because there's a strong chance that in a very small way it's actually you.

If you have a pension then it's probably part invested in property. The irony is that there's a very strong chance that people are invested in the money-making schemes that they like to criticise.

The reality is that if we're happy for the property market to fall then we need to be happy for our own investments, house and pensions to fall with it.

Building more houses is the way to go but only to provide housing. Not a single sane person wants the housing market to drop in value.

 

[BrianW]

But surely you can see the tension in the market?

A shortage of supply of housing means high house prices, high mortgages and high rents.

This, in turn, leads to upward pressure on wages, and/or people living in poverty with most of their income going on sheltering themselves. It also leads to the state spending more and more on benefits, effectively subsidising inadequate wages and excessive rents.

This cannot be good for society, for the national economy, or for social cohesion. It is particularly hard on younger people.

I don't think you need to worry too much about the consequences of cheaper housing, as it would take years to build sufficient housing, which would in turn give time for markets to adjust and for people to reconsider their investments. You are not going to get some overnight correction where property prices fall 50%.

What I don't think is sustainable is for housing to carry on in perpetuity increasing in value in real terms, to the point where homeowners often see more value increase in a year than they receive in salary.

 

[Postman Pep]

Is it? Sounds a bit weird to me.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Is it? Sounds a bit weird to me.

View attachment 81312

There's no Tory MP who have a small gene pool?

The PLP has become an exclusive club where you have to be a member of the Tony Blair Foundation to join.

And people used accuse another former leader of running a cult. The difference being he didn't have the money or influence of Tony B.Liar.

 

[Bournemouth Blue]

Only good thing about Labour is they are not the Tories, they don’t give me any confidence that things will improve. I despair

 

[yatesy94.]

The only way to solve the housing crisis is to build more houses. It's fucking obvious.

However, the snag is, to build lots of houses you need lots of skilled tradesmen. Realistically, this can only be achieved in the short term by allowing such people to immigrate here. Even then you are probably going to have to pay them big bucks.

One good thing about the old Council Direct Labour Organisations was that they trained lots of apprentices. Of course, Maggie Thatcher had a downer on such organisations, and they have mostly died. I notice that even most of our local road repairs are done by private contractors nowadays.

Tory policy on housing has been to encourage private landlords and subsidise them at an ever-growing rate through Housing Benefits from public funds. Socialism for the middle-class capitalist landlord. A truly stupid policy, although I don't blame the landlords. They are just setting themselves up with a sort of pension, at a time when most proper pension schemes have been fucked up. It's still a bad policy though.

We have the technology now that can 3D print walls for houses with concrete using automated processes. Traditional house-building techniques are too expensive and take a lot longer to build...not to mention other companies like Boxabl etc also provide fast, affordable solutions to housing as well.