Political Discussions And Ranting Thread

[En Passant 3,215]

2 hours ago, Toast said:

One thing which seems utterly insane to me is the EPC restrictions on letting a dwelling. 

 

I thought the premise of this was to ensure landlords didn't all become Peter Rachmann's. And that if some properties simply couldn't be brought to C standard that was an acceptable cost for ensuring all those that could, were.

However again, this is merely my assumption because as usual, nobody ever said so explicitly (for all the political reasons detailed above).

 

It probably also isn't helped by the cost saving measure of not requiring qualified surveyors to carry out these appraisals and sending credulous folks on some 5-day training course to do them. (This is by no means meant to disparage folks trying to get a better job by doing such a course, but it simply appears not to be enough, even Which? decries the accuracy of these appraisals)

[Toast 15,394]

1 hour ago, En Passant said:

 

I thought the premise of this was to ensure landlords didn't all become Peter Rachmann's. And that if some properties simply couldn't be brought to C standard that was an acceptable cost for ensuring all those that could, were.

However again, this is merely my assumption because as usual, nobody ever said so explicitly (for all the political reasons detailed above).

 

It probably also isn't helped by the cost saving measure of not requiring qualified surveyors to carry out these appraisals and sending credulous folks on some 5-day training course to do them. (This is by no means meant to disparage folks trying to get a better job by doing such a course, but it simply appears not to be enough, even Which? decries the accuracy of these appraisals)

 

Spoiler

 

I'm a landlord which puts me in the villain category. However I only rent out the cottage attached to mine - if you knocked the two together it would still probably be smaller than most houses in the village.  I've only let it to people I know and I charge well below the market rent because it's no palace, it's very small. 

 

I think there should be a distinction between people like me, who only own one rented  property, and landlords who own several properties as a business.

 

Next door just scraped in at the bottom of the E, despite having new double glazed windows & doors, and LPG central heating with a new boiler (described on the EPC as "poor").

If they raise the minimum to C I don't know what I would do. I can't let it stand empty, so I would probably have to sell the whole lot as it would make no sense to sell one cottage - they sit in a shared plot and I wouldn't have any control over who comes and goes.  And I couldn't afford to buy anything else here. 

 

 

The sensible answer would seem to be remove the restriction, but set a rent cap on properties towards the bottom of the EPC scale.

[TQR 13,435]

On 25/06/2024 at 02:06, En Passant said:

Here's an FT journalist being interviewed on a money podcast type of thing who thinks any party is going to have their work cut out after the election (amongst other topics). I found it interesting - It is however, over an hour long . Though in my opinion worth the time.

 

(Martin Wolf is Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times)

 

 

 

Thanks for sharing this. This topic is right up my alley and Wolf is an absolute marvel. I'll stick to commenting on what I know though (certainly a narrower window than @msc's expert analysis)

 

I completely agreed with his assessment of concentrated wealth. I suppose in the sense of democratic harm it brings, he's largely talking about deregulation models which your Trusses and your Sunaks get wet for. The power, insulation and influence that comes with it becomes troubling when those in power have vested interests. That's why it's so imperative we have standards committees, anti-corruption measures and independent ethics advisors - something which, funnily enough, since the last one walked out on Boris Johnson, we haven't had. Tells you all you need to know about the hopefully outgoing governing party the masses have been deceived and set back by.

 

He painted quite a bleak picture of the fragility of democracy before offering up a few glimmers of hope, but he was well-considered throughout - it wasn't a completely anti-capitalist pitch. He could perhaps, though, have touched on socialism and the rhetoric surrounding it; how extreme capitalists in government and the media give it a false equivalence with communism.

 

The hope for change comes from the supposition that, building on what Wolf said, there's a line at which people who've been sucked in by capitalism/deregulation/populism do eventually snap out of it and, before it's too late to do so, use democracy to turn the tide, like the opportunity we've got next week. Our trigger point was probably Brexit. As Wolf said, the years of stagnation or decline in living standards for the majority of people during times of austerity and the resultant political disenchantment led to us voting for Brexit, which was sold unequivocally as a change. The whole 'take back control' rhetoric was much more compelling than considering, y'know, facts and experts. The success of that campaign, built entirely on lies, created the route to power for charlatans like Boris Johnson. Once his extraordinary egregiousness came to the fore (Covid, Owen Paterson, Partygate, N. Ireland, Pincher...), and we were still worse off after this big change we voted for, that was that. Sunak and Truss have undeniably been awful and have banged the last couple of nails in the coffin of UK populist conservatism, but this hideous phase of our political and economic history died as a result of the side-effects of Brexit. Of course, there are still some who'll refuse to budge or acknowledge that they were sold a dud, perhaps because they don't want to entertain the possibility that they were silly enough to use their democratic vote to make things worse for themselves while making bank for those in a position to bet against the pound and short it. But as long as those people are in the minority (which, thanks to a combination of open-mindedness and impeccable assessments by superb orators like Martin Wolf, they should continue to be), these phases will at worst happen in cycles, one which it mercifully looks like we're at the promising end of.

[En Passant 3,215]

4 hours ago, TQR said:

Thanks for sharing this.

 

Thanks for taking an hour to bloody watch it!

I was genuinely afraid I couldn't convince anyone it was worth the expenditure of time and effort.

 

4 hours ago, TQR said:

completely agreed with his assessment of concentrated wealth

 

So did I.

 

4 hours ago, TQR said:

He painted quite a bleak picture of the fragility of democracy before offering up a few glimmers of hope, but he was well-considered throughout - it wasn't a completely anti-capitalist pitch. He could perhaps, though, have touched on socialism and the rhetoric surrounding it; how extreme capitalists in government and the media give it a false equivalence with communism.

 

Yes, and part of my problem has been I can't/couldn't see how you could get this message to the masses without killing your own chances at the next electoral opportunity. The fact that people will actually vote against their own best interests if they think 'any' part of a tax rise will affect them is crucial here (as msc pointed out).

Wolf manages to have some optimism here, and its given me some hope where previously I had pretty much none.

(Also to a degree why I put it here to see if anyone else felt the same - trying to get my pool team to watch an hours video about this on a phone in the pub on a Thursday night is very probably a non-starter)

 

 

Anyway, step 1 is next Thursday and despite my reservations about wholesale change happening any time soon - or that Labour are going to be sufficiently bold - it'll be one step in the right direction.

 

 

Thanks again for trusting me not to post junk and taking the time to watch.

 

 

[The Old Crem 3,322]

 

The Right and Far - Right are turning on environmentalism across Europe in a big way.