The Ranting Room

Ah yes - back in the 1970s, council tenants in the UK could buy their properties, but generally were happy to continue renting... then along comes The Milk Snatcher (anyone remember that nickname??), decides that house ownership isn't so much an option, but a duty, gets the wobbling classes on side via the red top tabloids and all of a sudden, everybody is buying their council houses for pence! This coincides with the 'Greed is good' generation (aka the b*****d sons of Thatcher) overheating the economy, leading to interest rate rises, so those wobblers who bought their council houses, no longer afford the mortages, frantically try to sell the houses (or have them sold from underneath them by the banks), leading to supply outstripping demand & a house price crash in the late 1980s which has now miraculously reversed itself in the last 15 years, leading to the average house price in London outstripping the national debt of small African countries.

Disclaimer - I'm no economist, just pissed off about 2 things:

1 - Thatcher's legacy

2 - My hypocrisy (Vicky and I bought our house at the nadir of the house price crash in 1991 )

fandango wrote:   especially for Blacksword, Syzygy and any ranting roon regular who may be interested in a succinct and interesting account about why everything in Britain has now been privatised, why everything has a league table and why we no longer have any ideological choice when we go to the polls....   (not so) easy reading....

I imagine that book is something of a horror story, Jared. There was a TV series recently called 'What happened `to our freedom' (I think) It touched on how Britain became a nation obsessed with targets and league tables. Did you see that?

It's interesting because I experienced massive sticker shock when I lived in the Washington DC suburbs during the American housing bubble (~ 2001-2005).  I was lucky to buy a townhouse in 2002 - if I had waited a couple more years, I wouldn't have been able to afford anything, a situation that many of our friends found themselves in.

NaturalScience wrote: Is it simply a matter of land scarcity (lot of people on a relatively small island), or are there other issues at hand?

Ok, Chris wins the ranting contest!

Private Equity Fund managers!! Now that's nay laughing matter

fandango wrote: Blacksword wrote: Jim Garten wrote: Blacksword wrote: Any TV programs about 'property' Whether it's looking for a property to buy, or doing one up! I despise this format. We are obsessed with home ownership in the UK, and the smug, upper middle class couples these programs feature and cater for make me wanna boke! It's always the same; he owns an IT company and plays rugby, and she trains horses to talk..or whatever. They have two unnaturally well adjusted children who play the flute and do the Guardian crossword. Their budget is around..ooh let me see, about 950K - 1.2million. Then roll up at one property and the woman has a problem. Maybe the barn 'just doesn't talk to me' or the loft conversion isn't big enough for their egos to fit through the door.. Who knows people like this? Lets see some 'real people' some 'first time buyers' struggling to get a deposit together on their first cupboard of a flat. Have you noticed too that the s featured on these programmes now never refer to a room as a "room"? Oh no, we're far too posh & property savvy to refer to a "room"... no it's now got to be referred to as a ing "nice space" Nice space? That ing kitchen's bigger than the footprint of our ing house you couple of s - and what do you want an Aga for? NOBODY actually uses a ing Aga these days - that's why whenever you see one, there's always a proper cooker as well, you pretentious, up your own arse ! Exactly. They are the type who 'drizzle' olive oil over their salads, infact over everything. The rest of us just pour it. They 'drizzle' that sh!t over their kids before dropping them off at school, just so eveyone knows the type of family they come from. Aga's my &rse! It's this middle class obsession with the rustic style. 100 years ago, rustic meant you lived in a f***ing hovel, without a pot to p!ss in. Now these chinless d!ckwarts are so silently ashamed of their wealth, they pretend to be in touch with their non existent peasant roots. Oh, and I cant stand people who make their own jam.. Rant over. Big Brother's on soon!   The ones that get me the most are the newly retireds who sit in the conservatory of this 6 bed mansion with 23 acres of land, and decide not to buy it, because if they open the window and listen intently, they can hear the distant sound of the occasional car on the B road, 2 miles away.... when they asked for peace and quiet....   what they totally fail to appreciate is that we live on a crowded little rock, and that's the damn quietest the presenter is going to bloody well find for them in Hertfordshire!!!!   Then of course, there's the 30 year old couple who are buying a house with a £750,000 budget because mummy and daddy are stinking rich, and wouldn't know what a mortgage was if it got up and bit them in the ass.... all they are concerned about is whether there's a stable complex attached for Amirantha, while young Timon has requested his own quad bike race track...         do you think I'm getting into this ranting thing??

Yeah, pretty good. Dont hold back, it's great therapy!!

Disclaimer: I dont really hate people who make jam. I'm trying to illustrate that my rants can be irrational, although if you do make your own jam, you've probably got too much time on your hands..

What's wrong with making your own jam? Not that I do, though I'd like to - too lazy! - but I absolutely love jam, especially the homemade variety.

As to daft commercials... I hate those we have in Italy, but the ones they have here in the US really take the cake. I especially resent those advertising prescription drugs, as if they were something you can take like a glass of water. Not to mention those ads pushing loans and such.... I grew up hating and despising the very idea of getting into debt, and the ease with which people here pile up debts of 1,000s of dollars really scares me.

Jim Garten wrote: Blacksword wrote: Any TV programs about 'property' Whether it's looking for a property to buy, or doing one up! I despise this format. We are obsessed with home ownership in the UK, and the smug, upper middle class couples these programs feature and cater for make me wanna boke! It's always the same; he owns an IT company and plays rugby, and she trains horses to talk..or whatever. They have two unnaturally well adjusted children who play the flute and do the Guardian crossword. Their budget is around..ooh let me see, about 950K - 1.2million. Then roll up at one property and the woman has a problem. Maybe the barn 'just doesn't talk to me' or the loft conversion isn't big enough for their egos to fit through the door.. Who knows people like this? Lets see some 'real people' some 'first time buyers' struggling to get a deposit together on their first cupboard of a flat. Have you noticed too that the s featured on these programmes now never refer to a room as a "room"? Oh no, we're far too posh & property savvy to refer to a "room"... no it's now got to be referred to as a ing "nice space" Nice space? That ing kitchen's bigger than the footprint of our ing house you couple of s - and what do you want an Aga for? NOBODY actually uses a ing Aga these days - that's why whenever you see one, there's always a proper cooker as well, you pretentious, up your own arse !

Exactly. They are the type who 'drizzle' olive oil over their salads, infact over everything. The rest of us just pour it. They 'drizzle' that sh!t over their kids before dropping them off at school, just so eveyone knows the type of family they come from.

Aga's my &rse! It's this middle class obsession with the rustic style. 100 years ago, rustic meant you lived in a f***ing hovel, without a pot to p!ss in. Now these chinless d!ckwarts are so silently ashamed of their wealth, they pretend to be in touch with their non existent peasant roots.

Oh, and I cant stand people who make their own jam..

Rant over. Big Brother's on soon!

Edited by Blacksword - August 07 2007 at 15:56

We don't get that on our news, it must be an American thing.

Blacksword wrote: Any TV programs about 'property' Whether it's looking for a property to buy, or doing one up! I despise this format. We are obsessed with home ownership in the UK, and the smug, upper middle class couples these programs feature and cater for make me wanna boke! It's always the same; he owns an IT company and plays rugby, and she trains horses to talk..or whatever. They have two unnaturally well adjusted children who play the flute and do the Guardian crossword. Their budget is around..ooh let me see, about 950K - 1.2million. Then roll up at one property and the woman has a problem. Maybe the barn 'just doesn't talk to me' or the loft conversion isn't big enough for their egos to fit through the door.. Who knows people like this? Lets see some 'real people' some 'first time buyers' struggling to get a deposit together on their first cupboard of a flat.

Have you noticed too that the s featured on these programmes now never refer to a room as a "room"? Oh no, we're far too posh & property savvy to refer to a "room"... no it's now got to be referred to as a ing "nice space"

Nice space?

That ing kitchen's bigger than the footprint of our ing house you couple of s - and what do you want an Aga for? NOBODY actually uses a ing Aga these days - that's why whenever you see one, there's always a proper cooker as well, you pretentious, up your own arse !