Worst thing in your country ?

BitchBrew wrote: LIBERALS AND CONSERVATIVES

Fencesitters for me.

You make some good points, but this one I'll pick up on just briefly.  I wouldn't go as far as to say that property is theft, but it is a limited resource which we have to own sparingly, and with consideration for others.

There are whole swathes of the countryside where the average starter home is seriously out of the range of young local people (like round here) because they are bought up by retiring people from the South East of Birmingham.  Some places in Cornwall, Devon & Norfolk Broads have over 90% of their housing under second home ownership.

I don't think its right to say there are single people with money to buy....the spare money in this country of mostly with the 50 plus bracket...but its single people with a desperate need for somewhere to live, to such an extent that they are willing to pay out more than half their salary on rent.......in places like here, where a 1 room bedsit will go for over £400pcm (and I don't live in the South East!).

B*****ks, How do you get the boxes around previous comments?

Anyway.

I can only comment in my experience. I work with a fair number of 25s-35s and a reasonable proportion of them live on their own in their own houses. We don't work in high flying jobs - just ordinary office jobs. In earlier days there wouldn't be such a high proportion of single occupancy dwellings due to our social structure. I agree that the cost of housing is far too high but, again in my earlier days, mortgage rates were in double figures and my first mortgage took at least half of my income. In fact I had to have two jobs to fund my prog vinyl habit. (I  had a look at my vinyls the other day and noticed that an average album from the mid 70's was £3.50. - my salary was just under two grand. Modern equiv is about 16 grand for the same job - £27 equiv for a CD today??) I don't think there is much difference in the ratio of income v mortgage/rent these days now that interest rates are a lot lower. We also expect more today from our disposal income. I didn't have a car till I was 29, no mobile to fund and all the other stuff we (think) we need today. I still live on a train/bus route to work. Yes, times change but the one constant fact is that we should live within our means.

I agree with you entirely about second homes. It is scandalous that people are allowed to have second homes in areas crying out for reasonably priced accommodation. My job is connected with the rural scene and I see on a regular basis just what effect it is having in the countryside, which in turn affects everywhere else. I'm not totally in favour of, more a reluctant acceptance, but if I understand what you are saying, if a couple from Birmingham sell their house for a cheaper place in the country then market forces must play a part. Granted they may not be contributing much to their new area but if it wasn't for the flipping second home owners perhaps the problem wouldn't be as severe. Not that I am in favour of the extremist action a couple of decades ago in Wales, but I can appreciate their frustration.

I agree totally with your view in your first paragraph but these days people only look after number one and basically couldn't give a damn about anyone else. Hasn't the recent fuel scare farce demonstrated this? I also feel that little is being done about developing brown field sites because that is more expense.

I could go on but TTFN

PS. I had a listen to Proto Kaw - maybe next month. I'm getting a bit of pressure?!

Drew wrote: The lack of unique food

You still got the hamburger....

NetsNJFan wrote: King of Loss wrote: NetsNJFan wrote: The Bush Admin. So much wasted potential after 9/11, he coulda been a great president. You actually think he could have been a great president?  I don't think he has the potential to be a sh*tty president. I do.  After 9/11 he had such a united country.  He could have really been great aftre that.  But no.

i can understand why we went to war in iraq, we were still on edge about wmd's and 9/11. now, when we found no wmd's and no truth to the claim that iraq was seeking enriched uranium, bush should have been impeached and the head of the cia fired (along with many higher-ups). the way we went into war was as arrogant and single-minded as when nepoleon invaded russia, and we are still suffering greatly because of it. the climate in the us now just makes me want to leave. i'll be glad when bush is gone.

you know, i really only started paying attention to the news and following politics with the bush administration and it is really disheartening. if things do not get better with the next president, i'm moving to europe.