As far as I’m concerned, we can trace all our problems directly back to Neville Chamberlain.
The sad thing is I’m not trolling, your inability to see what’s in front of you without resorting to obscenities and not providing an answer is exactly him, with maybe Farage being a tad less evasive yet more eloquent.
Keep trolling and calling me out on obscenities… meanwhile I’ll keep calling out the cunts and those making excuses for them.
(Its so funny you playing the ‘mature’ card at every opportunity … me thinks the lady protest too much) You need to stop overthinking this. If it sounds like a cunt and behaves like a cunt, it usually is a cunt. Is that enough profanity for you or would you like some more? I could use more middle class elitist language that reflects my education, but you know what, Farage is a cunt as is anyone who follows him or makes excuses for those following him. Simple
For as long as the effects on society remain. Given she did not believe in ‘society’ its amazing how much damage she did to it - she was afraid of its power which is why she undermined it. That legacy is why we have such a shitshow now. And as with Farage today, the fact that there remain folks who idolise or defend her is telling
This is just a rant. And a factually inaccurate one. It also comes across as sanctimonious lecturing, but i will forgive that for now. The modern planning system came into being in the late 1940’s. Your nightmare estates and high rise blocks were constructed after that. “Deathtrap insulation” is a strange term. In itself it is not likely to cause any harm. Obviously your reference is to the system cladding used at grenfell, where insulation was part of the build up, but in any case, insulation specifications are dealt with by building regulations and not planning departments.
I concede that some new build housing over the last 40 years has been poorly finished to fit your rant about cheap shite, but these are not built by landlords, but volume housebuilders. Some are better than others, but here’s a tip. Don’t buy one from them which was finished in the 2 months before their year end. They will have been rushed.
The simple fact of the matter is that our planning system is out of date, poorly staffed and hopelessly inefficient. And it needs to change to meet the challenges of the future.
She started it. Flushed with success at squashing the miners, she decided to turn everyone into a capitalist by stealing the social housing stock from Councils and giving it to tenants to become owners.
She privatised public services to make millions for owners and shareholders, millions that should have gone into infrastructure. She deregulated financial services enabling obscene salaries, bonuses and profits.
She introduced outsourcing of NHS and other public services to private companies to help their profits, but drove up prices.
And we’ve suffered every since.
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Meh.
It’s Gordon Brown’s fault.
He sold all the Gold Reserves for peanuts
£35 billion and counting in losses
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I heard a theory at the time that was basically a political move designed to stick it to the South Africans. They suffered more than most from the sudden impact on gold prices. Mind you, that theory came from a South African friend 
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She’d never have been able to do any of that if the country hadn’t become an absolute economic basket case. We had three day weeks, strikes, IMF bailouts, power cuts, massive industrial unrest and ridiculous inflation which only ever got worse because one union or another decided they wanted a twenty-five percent pay rise this year together with a cut in working hours. Funny how everyone slagging her off now forgets why she was voted in.
Did she start it? The Country was well fucked before she got her hand on the tiller.
One could argue that the mill stone around the neck of our country is the vast size of the welfare state/ NHS and public sector pensions
You can help by having an asylum seeker in your house.
Apparently Thatch had two affairs whilst married to poor old Dennis, according to a new book. One old tory MP and her head of PR. PR presumably meaning proper/pathetic* rodgering. (*delete as appropriate.)
Bet Dennis probably thought “Saves me a job”.
It was not a rant and i suggest may have sounded sanctimonious to those more sensitive to the criticism. My point was in connection with lack of building of new homes both private or for public use. The fact remains too few homes have been built in last 45 years. Many that have been build are not great. My criticism was that you complained about planning in connection with location, sensitivities to conservation and expectation that developer’s therefore spend more to meet these conditions - whilst there is no doubt a lot of red tape, A fair amount is to safe guard that heritage and ensure quality.
And what about the land bank issue? (More a response to the resident troll ‘Barry loneranger’s suggestion of ‘where to build??) The top 10 developers hold more than 1.7mil plots more than half of which are long term… not even with any planning applications ever submitted.. land that could be used social housing projects if there was any will…
Have you ever developed land? Or been involved in the process?
I didn’t answer your point on land ownership as I didn’t bring it up and chose not to comment. The issue of land ownership, options, infrastructure and political influence around land strategy is a complex and nuanced area which cannot be summarised by a blanket “all housebuilders are evil money grabbing cunts who hold onto land” statement. And of course many potential housing sites are held up in the out dated planning process my original point highlighted.
Yes. And it took 10 years, just to redevelop some derelict barns
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I did not intend to rattle your feathers and certainly dont tar all developers with the same brush… but land local to me has been owned by several developers in succession each time making a far few quid on the deal (including some well known names… ) and stood inactive for 14 years… when the community is desperate for housing development… i just dont believe this is all down to planning delays or complex issues… just speculation. The value of said land has more than trippled in last 14 years, so someone is doing OK out if this? its also means that properties now built on this land are likely to be values at multiples well in excess if the increase in salaries in that time… making the likely properties less affordable even with stipulated ‘affordable housing’ percentage.
I know not all developers are the same and there will be just as many good ones as bad ones, but thus sort of thing will in no way be an isolated situation and as with ‘selling off’ our utilities to private hands, its what happens when any industry is solely driven by commercial demands as opposed to those within tax payer control.
PS. at no time during these 14 years was any planning application submitted (checked with council) …
Not a huge swathe no, but it took 2 years to get planning permission including change if use from Commercial to dwelling of the property next to ours with a view to extending into it…. but this was because the property had previously been used by the community so was more complex which we knew in advance… but still granted
To bring this back on track to the OP, where I live in Fife, we have had a Lib Dem ever since I can remember, and was the constituency of the Ming Campbell for many years. Its always been a close battle between LibDems and SNP and so many tactically vote to keep SNP at bay. And they have been pretty decent and community orientated. I am happy to admit tactically voting for the Lib Dems as Scottish Labour are less than 5% here. Torries virtually zero.
I think the Lib Dems suffer from what all centre parties suffer from… that folks believe they are too weak.. and lack conviction of either the right or left - ‘Central politik’ (German) being seen as ineffectual and lacking strong direction.
Yet the reality IMHO is there really no room for a true centrist party, looking to genuinely encourage free enterprise yet with a string sense of social justice ? One could perhaps naively wish for the best if both worlds? Is that possible and can any centrist party really satisfy two masters?
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My case is different. The barns were left to me by my late mother, we have actively been seeking Planning Permission for ten years (Grade 2 Listed) and have had a horrendous time with ecology experts, heritage experts and bat lovers, to name but a few.
To be fair Shropps - Grade two listed Barns have sort of disappeared in last 40 years and I can see why councils are now more reluctant to grant permissions for conversion, especially given all the other stuff you mention. They are part of rural heritage, but I also appreciate that they need new life of sorts…
‘a pox on them bat lovers!’ 