Forum Topic

Hounslow Council Leader joins attack on Labour NEC

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/labour-councils-defy-momentum-b5sv0t25nAs far as I'm aware he's still leader, so it's reasonable to assume that he speaks for the local party.  Not just his own councillors he stabs in the back then?

Phil Andrews ● 2754d9 Comments

I missed this but it is hardly anything new as the issues and poor solving of these issues locally has been a core subject for years and well documented on this site alone.Interestingly, the first key of Mayor Khan's Mayoral selection bid was to tackle the overseas block purchasing of homes in London. Something Boris was in denial about until it was too late when even he realised something was going seriously wrong.So far Slippery Khan has been rather silent about his promises - I which I fully supported.Adam is right. Until any political party has the gumption to address the problems of over population and over concentration of population.There is no escaping that it places huge demand on everything from schools, health care, social services, children services, transport of every mode, incomes, career opportunities, water and sewage supplies, waste, energy and pollution.And we have on top of that increasing poverty and an inability to deal with social problems and inequality.We have now as a nation, spent nearly 70 years trying to put that right, accommodate more people to help achieve that and now we are too afraid to address the problems.It's simple. Not enough people paying a full tax and NI contribution for long enough  to make the books balance and enable all the things we have set up as a progressive nation to provide.Now we are at a stage where even well established hard working and able people who should never have to depend on the welfare state are facing a life of renting and in the hands of property developers and management companies, living in increasingly cramped homes and with less and less amenities.And yes, our prime objective in basic human life is to reproduce.What is not right are those who have several children and expect everything to be provided for free.  That's worse when those are not paying a full working life's worth of tax and NI. It leaves a shortfall that still fall short if all the mega rich paid their full share in taxation.It's tough and it's hard but a line needs to be drawn with over concentration without the facilities to accommodate it all.And such is our highly strung, near hysterical society that any attempt to have a calm and constructive open debate leads to politicians being tainted and labelled to the degree that simple common sense is considered unacceptable and unpalatable.

Raymond Havelock ● 2753d

Adam - I do agree with you about the population explosion over the last few generations.  Like many of my age, we were brought up to understand that we could only have something if we could afford to pay for it.  There was very little credit available and most of our parents could ill afford, or were strongly against subbing their children.  Apart from a joint mortage with my husband I have never bought anything on credit - anything wanted had to be saved up for.

Jennifer Selig ● 2753d

Err, nope, we don't differ in that regard Phil, I couldn't agree with you more in that respect - I know of numerous sites where on the very day a development has gone on a market someone from the far east has come along and bought 10 flats the way you or I go and buy some tea bags.  It's completely wrong and it could easily and should be stopped.Where however we probably disagree is the extent to which that is the solution to the problem.  I see unregulated population growth as the main cause of the problem.  I'm not anti-child, but I genuinely find it terrifying how quickly the population multiplies and the consequences of this on the world we live in.

Adam Beamish ● 2753d

I think where we differ Adam is that I would regard building houses for people to actually live in rather than for oversees investors to keep empty until they can sell them on for a fat profit as being fundamental, rather than merely "tinkering" with the system.  But then maybe I'm just selfish?

Phil Andrews ● 2753d

Hmm, nothing 'selfish' about wanting a child per se Phil, nor wanting pets or anything else, but everything in this world costs money.Now, plain simple common sense tells me if if me and my partner are living with my parents because we can't afford a place of our own, having a child isn't going to improve our situation.  To me it has nothing to do with capitalism or class, nor whether the couple or married or not.The biggest threat facing the world today is over-population.  Tinkering around with the planning/history system isn't going to solve that in the long-term.So you build thousands more houses both in the town and country now, is that problem solved ?.  Of course it isn't, until population starts to be controlled the problem isn't ever going to go away and is only going to get worse and worse.Of course it's not a nice scenario, but I don't see anything wrong with me not having much sympathy for two people bleating about how they can't afford a house yet at the same time find the financial ability to bring a child onto the world.

Adam Beamish ● 2753d

I did see part of "The new builds are coming" last night and it showed perfectly the dilemma between developers and the problems one single mother had run into since she returned to work full time,  as the government keeps urging people to do. Only to find she was losing her housing benefit leaving her with a salary £200 short of the rent she had to pay, and no prospect of a council (social) home with a real affordable rent. The fact that the government and some Labour councils are hell bent on selling former council estates to be 'gentrified' is simply appalling, it is social cleansing and after the debacle of Carillion and now Capita surely now is the time to learn that these greedy private outfits are only in it to line the pockets of their directors and shareholders. We should have the public sector building homes for realistic rents, not doing deals with developers. I also saw the item on 'hidden homes'on the news approximately 23,000 in four London boroughs that are reckoned to be owned by foreign nationals possibly laundering money via the property market and standing empty. If someone can tell me that's right I'd be gobsmacked, until and unless all the property that is standing empty is utilised then there shouldn't be any more development allowed. Then there should be a massive drive to use pre-fabricated, environmentally friendly, cheap to build homes on brownfield sites, these can be manufactured in five weeks and cost around £60,000, and only take a couple of months to install quite a few. They create lovely homes, that are sound and reasonable to run and that could if needed be moved. we have a crisis but it really needs political will to sort this out.

Vanessa Smith ● 2753d

AdamWanting to have children is the most natural thing in the world for many people.  Are you seriously suggesting that working and middle class people should stop breeding because house prices have been forced beyond their reach by an unregulated market?  Seriously, is that what it has come to?I'm sure I must have misread your post because I can't see anything remotely selfish about a married couple wanting to have a child.  But if that was what you meant, please let me congratulate you on what was possibly the most damning indictment of modern capitalism that I have ever read.

Phil Andrews ● 2753d

Just as a relevant aside, we all know the issue about lacking of housing that 'ordinary wage earners can afford' is a country wide problem.I'm surprised no-one on the local forums has commented on that "The New Builds Are Coming" last night, which was all about this problem (albeit pretty 'fluffy' with every little actual substance).Of course, because it's almost criminal to do so, the programme completely avoided any analysis of the source of the problem (i.e. over-population).  How I chuckled at the irony of the couple in the thirties on low salaries already living with her parents for several years complaining about how they'd couldn't afford a place of their own...so faced with such hardship they'd had a baby.Of course, I mean it's not like babies cost a small fortune and effectively nullify any chance you've got of ever being afford a place of your own, but it does help improve your chances of being housed by the authorities.Another fine example of human selfishness at its very best.

Adam Beamish ● 2753d

Personally I didn't agree with Haringey's plans to throw their lot in with a private developer. I think Jeremy Corbyn's view was correct but the way the Leader of Haringey council has been treated is really appalling, this was really a decision for the electorate to make. I understand that our own Dear Leader was one of those who signed the letter to the NEC, and all I could think was pot, kettle, black and if anyone knows about 'disrespecting' people and 'stabbing them in the back' he could probably give a masterclass, and don't even get me started on the lack of housing that ordinary wage earners can afford that is being built in Hounslow. Frankly we are entitled to expect more from Labour councils.

Vanessa Smith ● 2753d