buctootim

I think it works better that way. No-one actually wants a small starter home, its just what people can afford. It you build a lot of big detached houses you'll get four or maybe five people in a chain trading up into the house vacated by the person moving up - five families will benefit from every house built. If you build enough of them you reduce prices all the way down the chain and improve the housing stock at the same time. If you keep building small starter homes all you are doing is addressing the housing crisis by providing the cheapest, crappiest solution. The aim should be to build so many good quality houses that small flats become ridiculously cheap and affordable by everyone as they were during the 1990s.

If only there was a way to find money to maintain the houses once they were built. Some kind of regular income for the Housing Association or council. Almost like, um, rent.

Not as sweet as Relegation Phil

Hasn't Chicarito turned us down before? If we have to sell Clyne Id rather spend the money on someone who really wants to be here.

Cameron has united the country!

...

It wasnt just the official discount. Sometimes the valuations werent kept up to date either so they were sold too cheap. I bought a three bed non block ex council flat in Brighton in 1997. The owner paid £11,500 for it from the council in 1992 and I bought it for £63,500 five years later, nearly six times the original price but the market had barely changed in that time. The subsequent owner sold it for £360,000 a couple of years ago.

I listened to Jeremy Vine an hour ago (I know) talking about right to buy of Housing Association properties. It was striking how widely it was condemned by ex and soon to be ex Tories. Lots of people hugely frustratred by the lack of housing availability and stories of their children struggling with insecure expensive short term rentals. This will be a big vote loser for the Conservatives. It felt like a turning point in voting intentions to me.

Seems fair enough.

Just what I was thinking

Ed isnt as left as Kinnock and arguably not as left as Brown - so unless you are five years old, or certainly less than 22, no.

Exactly. You'd be hard pushed from this chart to determine when the high tax socialists were in government and when the low tax bastions of liberty were.

BBC1 isn't what it was

Sure. The cost wont be more than £11bn pa. We'll be nett better off

Can you get hamsters in a larger size? a Kangaroo maybe?

One ball is bigger than the other...

Its just different sides the same coin. The warehouse staff and delivery men arent paid any better. I doubt the total number of jobs in retail is much changed, just slightly different areas.

Tube

Morpheus was black and poor. Getting shot was probably his own fault.

Absolutely this. Children form their measure of their potential and expectations of what is possible against those around them. Success in life has far far more to do with whether your peers are old Etonians or part time workers on minimum wage than how bright, driven and hard working you are.

Blimey, learn something everyday. Surely they should be public employees on fixed term contracts which precludes outside paid work. Edit. I read that as "Most MPs". I knew about GPs, only around 20% of them are employees.

There should be a once off review to determine of how high or low in the pecking order of salaries we want MPs to be - I favour the same rate as a GP - and then just automatically match whatever pay increases GP get in the future. It would save the bickering.

The devaluation of 1967, the IMF bailout in the 1970s, Lamont's Black Wednesday...

As if on cue