Do you want to discuss boring politics? (21 Viewers)

[shmmeee]

Is this real?

What immigrants? What even is this question? Housing houses people who live here. What a weird question. “Aha! Immigrants will still exist! Checkmate lefties!!1?1”

 

---

[MalcSB]

Is this real?

Perhaps she meant we have plenty of hotels for immigrants,

 

[shmmeee]

Perhaps she meant we have plenty of hotels for immigrants,

You’re doing it again. Confusing people on boats with immigrants. The vast majority of immigrants come here legally.

 

[MalcSB]

What immigrants? What even is this question? Housing houses people who live here. What a weird question. “Aha! Immigrants will still exist! Checkmate lefties!!1?1”

It’s really no5 a weird question. If we have enough houses, why are we building even more? If immigration was at a lower level, would we even need any more houses?

 

[shmmeee]

It’s really no5 a weird question. If we have enough houses, why are we building even more? If immigration was at a lower level, would we even need any more houses?

Yes. We’ve not built enough for decades. We’re something like 3M short right now with the population we have.

I’m not even sure where these numbers Phillips is quoting come from. I can only find him mentioning them online and he’s a bit of an immigration crank so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not accurate. Afaik the govt hasn’t set any immigration targets at all.

 

[skybluetony176]

I’ll just go with a wild card then.

Out of morbid curiosity what are you hoping to see for pensioners in a manifesto?

 

[shmmeee]

Out of morbid curiosity what are you hoping to see for pensioners in a manifesto?

Free money and ever increasing asset values

 

[MalcSB]

You’re doing it again. Confusing people on boats with immigrants. The vast majority of immigrants come here legally.

I think Rayner is even more confused than I am. The planning system she describes as causing chaos was introduced by Labour,

 

[MalcSB]

Out of morbid curiosity what are you hoping to see for pensioners in a manifesto?

Social care provision improved significantly.
Would help the NHS.

Somehow being made to feel a valued part of society.

 

[MalcSB]

Free money and ever increasing asset values

A clamp down on benefit fraud.

The government will get back well over half of anything they give me in tax of one form or another.

 

[MalcSB]

An older one
She really hasn’t improved with experience.

 

[skybluetony176]

Social care provision improved significantly.

Would help the NHS.

Socialism it is then. You may have to bend on your anti “woke” red lines then. Only left leaning parties are interested in even changing the direction to achieve that. The right leaning parties seem to think more privatisation is the answer. Pointing in the past (as recently as the last GE) to Australia as an example. Problem is their superannuation pension system is collapsing and about to risk causing a tsunami in the rest of the of Australias financial markets and maybe even further afield. Even before that retirees in Australia were getting ever more vocal about its shortcomings and how they were getting left behind. Australia is currently trying to reform it to stop it collapsing. So doesn’t look like the right has anything to offer you.

 

[skybluetony176]

A clamp down on benefit fraud.

That’s enough about Tory donors. Besides Labour have set up a task force to get back the free cash the Tories gave away. About 10 years worth of benefits fraud in one hit.

 

[Nick]

What immigrants? What even is this question? Housing houses people who live here. What a weird question. “Aha! Immigrants will still exist! Checkmate lefties!!1?1”

What?

Have you got an alarm if somebody mentions labour like you have with robins?

 

[Nuskyblue]

What?

Have you got an alarm if somebody mentions labour like you have with robins?

 

[MalcSB]

Socialism it is then. You may have to bend on your anti “woke” red lines then. Only left leaning parties are interested in even changing the direction to achieve that. The right leaning parties seem to think more privatisation is the answer. Pointing in the past (as recently as the last GE) to Australia as an example. Problem is their superannuation pension system is collapsing and about to risk causing a tsunami in the rest of the of Australias financial markets and maybe even further afield. Even before that retirees in Australia were getting ever more vocal about its shortcomings and how they were getting left behind. Australia is currently trying to reform it to stop it collapsing. So doesn’t look like the right has anything to offer you.

It may well be that no party has anything to offer me, which has tended to be the situation every election. Earned too much to benefit from Labour and nowhere near enough to benefit from Tories. Felt shafted by both Brown and Osborne as chancellors.

I may just abstain and then I can be an equal opportunities whinger.

 

[MalcSB]

Yes. We’ve not built enough for decades. We’re something like 3M short right now with the population we have.

I’m not even sure where these numbers Phillips is quoting come from. I can only find him mentioning them online and he’s a bit of an immigration crank so I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re not accurate. Afaik the govt hasn’t set any immigration targets at all.

So why is Rayner saying we have plenty of houses then?

Labour haven't set any immigration targets although they have talked about secure borders (I know, I know).

I wonder whether Phillips ever thought, whilst chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that he would be described as a bit of an immigration crank? Maybe he is just raising issues of interest to his audience?

 

[shmmeee]

So why is Rayner saying we have plenty of houses then?

Labour haven't set any immigration targets although they have talked about secure borders (I know, I know).

I wonder whether Phillips ever thought, whilst chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, that he would be described as a bit of an immigration crank? Maybe he is just raising issues of interest to his audience?

He is though. His whole shtick for a while has been how he’s anti immigration.

Have you any evidence his claim of 2.5m immigrants (net I assume?) is true?

 

[MalcSB]

Free money and ever increasing asset values

Ever thought of what would happen to the economy if house prices plummeted? All those mortgage defaults, it would be like the crash all over again. People unable to withdraw their deposits from banks. Builders stopping building because there is no profit to be made?

 

[shmmeee]

Ever thought of what would happen to the economy if house prices plummeted? All those mortgage defaults, it would be like the crash all over again. People unable to withdraw their deposits from banks. Builders stopping building because there is no profit to be made?

Rocketing and plummeting. The only possible change vectors.

 

[MalcSB]

He is though. His whole shtick for a while has been how he’s anti immigration.

Have you any evidence his claim of 2.5m immigrants (net I assume?) is true?

Is that being a crank?

You could possibly be described as a pro immigration crank.

In terms of his claim, Rayner didn’t challenge it and the trends are what he seemed to be referring to.

I assume you totally disagree with Rayner’s assertion that there are plenty of houses.

 

[MalcSB]

Rocketing and plummeting. The only possible change vectors.

You want to see asset values decrease. Change my choice of word from plummet to decrease. Is the resulting scenario I described unlikely?

It will make little or no difference to me, I have no mortgage. Reducing house prices will reduce the tax take through SDLT, IHT and where applicable Capital Gains Tax. Other taxes would probably need to go up to compensate.

 

[shmmeee]

Is that being a crank?

You could possibly be described as a pro immigration crank.

In terms of his claim, Rayner didn’t challenge it and the trends are what he seemed to be referring to.

I assume you totally disagree with Rayner’s assertion that there are plenty of houses.

There are plenty of houses. They’re in the wrong place though.

I think you’re not going to see the high hundreds of thousands Boris and Sunak brought in, but afaik it’s lead by the economy. And frankly if we’re bringing in PhD AI students it advanced manfucaturing skills or whatever then the more the merrier. I suspect the Ukraine and Hong Kong schemes which caused the biggest spike will generally pay off quite well socially and economically. I just think we need to stop giving Indians and Nigerians a free pass to move over here.

 

[shmmeee]

You want to see asset values decrease. Change my choice of word from plummet to decrease. Is the resulting scenario I described unlikely?

Let’s find out. This isn’t a hypothetical, my favoured policy has been done already so we can see.

Austin Texas rents have dropped 4% while other places in the US have seen rises of 25% thanks to liberalised planning. So must be an economic blood bath there right?

 

[MalcSB]

There are plenty of houses. They’re in the wrong place though.

I think you’re not going to see the high hundreds of thousands Boris and Sunak brought in, but afaik it’s lead by the economy. And frankly if we’re bringing in PhD AI students it advanced manfucaturing skills or whatever then the more the merrier. I suspect the Ukraine and Hong Kong schemes which caused the biggest spike will generally pay off quite well socially and economically. I just think we need to stop giving Indians and Nigerians a free pass to move over here.

That reminds me of the Eric Morecambe / Andre Previn sketch for some reason,

May be it’s the people that are in the wrong place if there are indeed plenty of houses. Building more will mean empty houses in those places which are over provided. Perhaps having policies which enabled and encouraged population movement - or moving the jobs - would make some sense. At the same time it might have a favourable impact on CO2 emissions and people’s quality of life. People commute miles these days, rather than move closer to their work. SDLT at current rates will have contributed to that.

 

[shmmeee]

That reminds me of the Eric Morecambe / Andre Previn sketch for some reason,

May be it’s the people that are in the wrong place if there are indeed plenty of houses. Building more will mean empty houses in those places which are over provided. Perhaps having policies which enabled and encouraged population movement - or moving the jobs - would make some sense. At the same time it might have a favourable impact on CO2 emissions and people’s quality of life. People commute miles these days, rather than move closer to their work. SDLT at current rates will have contributed to that.

Why would you want to force people to live where they don’t want to and there’s no work?

 

[MalcSB]

Why would you want to force people to live where they don’t want to and there’s no work?

Isn’t that collectivism In action?

I didn‘t say force, my suggestion was to enable and encourage population movement to where their work is, and / or move the jobs to where the people are.

 

[skybluetony176]

It may well be that no party has anything to offer me, which has tended to be the situation every election. Earned too much to benefit from Labour and nowhere near enough to benefit from Tories. Felt shafted by both Brown and Osborne as chancellors.

I may just abstain and then I can be an equal opportunities whinger.

Now that I get. I just worry people will look for answers in the wrong places. You’d be better off swallowing your woke agenda bollocks (and it is bollocks) and looking at who is first in line when standing up for pensioners. Last general election it was the Lim Dems, they stepped up and were the first to commit to the triple lock forcing both Labour and the Tories to follow. Greens I think were always there and Reform stayed away from the even mentioning Triple Lock let alone committing to it. They, like Hunt were lauding the Australia system even though the collapse was already starting. Basically trying to polish a turd as if it was a good idea while distracting you with culture war nonsense enough to stop you from stopping and thinking about what is actually important to you. Beware of Trojan horse politics. The best piece of advice I ever had about politics was from my wife’s grandfather who said question anything a politician tells you especially if they’re telling you what you think you want to hear. The woke nonsense is the perfect example of that.

 

[skybluetony176]

Ever thought of what would happen to the economy if house prices plummeted? All those mortgage defaults, it would be like the crash all over again. People unable to withdraw their deposits from banks. Builders stopping building because there is no profit to be made?

It won’t collapse like that again. Housing shortages are too large. There’s too much buffer. We do need a long period of stagnation in house prices though to allow wages to catch up.

 

[MalcSB]

Now that I get. I just worry people will look for answers in the wrong places. You’d be better off swallowing your woke agenda bollocks (and it is bollocks) and looking at who is first in line when standing up for pensioners. Last general election it was the Lim Dems, they stepped up and were the first to commit to the triple lock forcing both Labour and the Tories to follow. Greens I think were always there and Reform stayed away from the even mentioning Triple Lock let alone committing to it. They, like Hunt were lauding the Australia system even though the collapse was already starting. Basically trying to polish a turd as if it was a good idea while distracting you with culture war nonsense enough to stop you from stopping and thinking about what is actually important to you. Beware of Trojan horse politics. The best piece of advice I ever had about politics was from my wife’s grandfather who said question anything a politician tells you especially if they’re telling you what you think you want to hear. The woke nonsense is the perfect example of that.

You describe it as woke nonsense, and nonsense it is. Fucking sick of it.

 

[MalcSB]

It won’t collapse like that again. Housing shortages are too large. There’s too much buffer. We do need a long period of stagnation in house prices though to allow wages to catch up.

But there are plenty of houses, both Rayner and shmmeee have said so. So there are no shortages.

It would be a bloody long period of stagnation for wages to “catch up”. Sounds as if wages would have to double at least. How long will that take? I suppose plenty of time to save a deposit, but a long time renting If there is much of a rental market left.

If house prices stagnate, doesn’t that reduce the financial incentives for builders to build. They don’t really want to d9 the “social housing“ as it is because the isn’t enough profit in it for them.

 

[skybluetony176]

You describe it as woke nonsense, and nonsense it is. Fucking sick of it.

Of what? It’s a bogeyman made up by the right.

 

[skybluetony176]

But there are plenty of houses, both Rayner and shmmeee have said so. So there are no shortages.

It would be a bloody long period of stagnation for wages to “catch up”. Sounds as if wages would have to double at least. As soon as that happened, house prices would probably take off again.

Technically there is, or at least as much stock relative to the population as there ever has been. The problem is it’s largely in the wrong hands.

 

[MalcSB]

Of what? It’s a bogeyman made up by the right.

Sorry, don’t agree.

 

[MalcSB]

Technically there is, or at least as much stock relative to the population as there ever has been. The problem is it’s largely in the wrong hands.

Whose hands are they, shmmeee? Old people?