Disasterous Decsision?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23155904
Ok we know the Scots were never much of a fan of the Iron Lady but surely this is a retrograde step.

[ToraToraTora]

They could always get off their arrises and have a go QM.

[modeller]

I saw hugh housing estates built to accomodate those from slum clearance areas , unfortunately they brought their low aspirations and ethos with them.
As a result those new modern estates rapidly degenerated and started to mirror the environments they had left, but then came in 'the right to buy ' and almost overnight those degenerating estates were transformed into places people were proud to live in.

The right to buy was not perfect ,nothing is, I think specialist homes like OAP bungalows and those for the disabled should have remained under council control.

[Quizmonster]

Tora, I can't remember the company involved in the Midlands a couple of months ago, but when they advertised for 100 new employees, 1,000 applied. Obviously, 900 applicants were unsuccessful. Is it seriously your contention that they are all "skivers", as opposed to the "strivers" so beloved by Dave and Gideon?

[youngmafbog]

Quiz, did you read what I wrote?

Secondly a big reason that youngsters find it hard to get a council property is immigrants taking priority. (And of course single mothers and benefit scroungers, single people living in big council houses - yes it does happen I personally know of cases)

And, if so bad why, in 15 years of Government, did the Labour Party not change it?

[ToraToraTora]

No qm, do you say that you should stop after one application?

[Quizmonster]

Tora, you surely can't provide a shred of evidence that the unsuccessful ones had never applied for a job before this one or just threw their hands up and said, "That's it, I'll never apply for a job again!"

YMB, I suspect that you would have similar difficulty in proving your point.

[ToraToraTora]

No I can't so what point are you making? Some job applicants are unusuccessful? Revelation!

[Quizmonster]

The point I'm making, Tora, is that Britain is clearly awash with strivers...ie people actively and constantly trying to find work...as opposed to skivers, which is what the current government and rightwing gutter press would have us believe.

[ToraToraTora]

well hurrah for that QM!

[Boto]

If you bought your house under RTB you couldn't sell it at market value within (if I remember correctly) 5 years.

[mikey4444]

LazyGun...you have said it all. An appalling attempt to bribe people to vote Tory.

Even worse was the so- called privatisation of our major utilities. Despite the British public actually owning BT, the Gas Board, the Electricity Board and the Water Board, the Tories managed to persuade people to buy shares in them. With their own money. In companies that they owned in the first place !

Egregious doesn't even come close.

[naomi24]

I never agreed with the Right to Buy policy primarily because social housing stock wasn’t replaced, leaving those in need even needier.

[mikey4444]

Naomi...what you have just said is plain common sense, and thank you. But why wasn't it common sense in the 1980's ?

[naomi24]

Because social housing costs endless money to maintain, so I presume it was felt more economical to sell it off cheaply - regardless of the consequences to others. Those who were in a position to buy snapped it up - again regardless of the consequences to others.

[mikey4444]

Regardless of the consequences...just about sums up the Thatcher Years.

[naomi24]

Yes, indeed - and it seems the years ever since.

[FredPuli43]

It was good news to me (and the tenant) ! I bought one. The tenant was father to a large family, had been there many years, and bought the house from the Council (Hammersmith and Fulham) very cheaply. It was enormous and in a tree-lined avenue near Olympia.He had no need of a place that size, rattling around in it on his own, his family having grown up and he being widowed. I think I paid £300,000 for it, as a family home. It only had one bathroom, though it was on 5 floors and had about 8 bedrooms, so it cost a fair bit to refurbish but it eventually returned a fair profit, tax free.

What escapes me is why, long ago, the Council couldn't have moved him out to somewhere smaller and then sold the house on the open market. But the policy was certainly popular and it did result in a lot of tenants buying and then upgrading their houses. I think Scotland may find that they are too late and there are few takers left.

[ToraToraTora]

The utilities where millstones when they where sold off they where not public owned assets they where public owned liabilities full of overmanning and militant unions.

[Gromit]

// The utilities where millstones... they where public owned liabilities full of overmanning and militant unions. //

The Conservative elder statesman, Harold McMillan described the sales as "selling off the family silver".

They were valuable assests that were sold off cheaply because the Government needed quick cash to fund all the unemployed that they had created.

[ToraToraTora]

The unemployment was created by the preceeding 20 years of socialism making it impossible to lay anyone off. Clearly there needed to be a transaition between artificial jobs and real ones.