Most liked posts in thread: Next Leader of the Labour Party

Yes, of course. But the market rate is significantly lower because there is adequate supply. At present there is a chronic shortage of small housing for first time buyers so supply and demand means that prices get pushed too high for most first time buyers to afford. Only those with access to the bank of mum & dad can get a foot on the ladder. A process made worse by rich landlords, several of them Tory MPs, buying up all the ex-council houses and letting them at exorbitant rents.

 

So it's only affordable for yhe 1st people who buy it? Then they make a fortune off it and carry on on their merry way?

I'm not saying there isn't an issue in the housing market, but I'm saying messing with it is not a vote winner. Its too complex and people fear that it will diminish their house price more than they want cheap houses. The bank of Mum and Dad is prevalent precisely because Grandparents benefitted from the housing boom.

We're getting bogged down in specifics though. The general point is that the big socialist/Keynsian projects that would be both winners have already been done. That's why Kier and the Labour Party are in a difficult position, none of their big projects resonate or are ambitious enough.

 

Yes, I accept your general point that it is much more difficult to come up with a big picture proposal to excite the electorate than it was after WW2. It will partly depend on how things work out in the next two years. If the combination of the pandemic and Brexit mean that there is no sign of economic recovery, and the Tories just do their default austerity thing, making it worse, then I think it becomes more doable. It wouldn't just be about housing though. It would be a broader focus on government investment on infrastructure, green technology etc to create jobs and a better society.

Re the housing issue. The people who sell their first time buyer house wouldn't make a fortune on it. That happens because competition for limited available stock pushes up prices. If there is enough first time buyer stock then the sell on prices would remain largely stable.

 

Aye, the bastards, spending trillions on keeping folk at home sat on their arses......

 

I'm not talking about now, obviously. I'm talking about how they deal with the situation when the pandemic is over. Of course they're spending trillions now - they have no choice. Whether they've spend it wisely is a whole different discussion.

 

Well my guess is that they'll look at the books and realise that there's nowt left in the kitty and that we all have to start paying it back, so yes austerity it will/should be, no other way....

 

As a party Labour are Dave, they're a busted flush. If they don't know what they stand for how the hell does their potential electorate? I said before, and was questioned, that Labour jointly responsible for any mees their supporters percieve us to be in. And I was right. They and they alone have allowed the Tories free reign to do as they wish because their constant infighting and backbiting has led the British public to have no faith in them being in power. And let's face it, if you look at that opposition bench in the house you'd be mad to vote for them, it's worse than City's bench pre January.

 

The aid budget should be abolished it actually makes things worse as they rely on aid instead of self improvement, After all why work hard to produce food when it is given for free, We should just have a disaster fund for specific events, We should avoid using international charities who will waste the money rather than use it for relief, Look at the Haiti earthquake in 2010 for an example of how they use your money including 4 star hotels and prostitutes while not improving the disaster for the people,

 

They need someone to drag them into centre ground. Their core voter is now a woke, out of touch lunatic. Who thinks their echo chamber is real life and favoured by the majority.

It isn't.

 

The opposition could come from within on the right of this mostly centrist tory government...

 

Starmer is fecking useless. Cummings has literally handed him a hand of a royal flush but he is so inept he'll just fold. Cummings being a liar is the only thing keeping Johnson in the hotseat, at any other time Johnsons position would have been untenable.

 

Today's newspaper tomorrows fish & chip paper.

 

Think the tories would have enough dirt on him and his sex mad wife...

 

Angela Rayner anyone?

 

Wiped the floor with Boris in PM questions, She can half dish it out

 

Boris quoted the £140 winter fuel allowance as if he and the government paid it, It is in fact all electricity consumers who pay it as a part of a tariff on everyone's bill. And of course he failed to mention that with every price increase the treasury takes in more VAT

 

Wont happen. Despite Labour crowing about equality and ranting and raving about what we should do - they always elect a middle aged white man.

Ironically it is the Tories that have delivered 2 female PMs