[Politics] Sir Keir Starmer’s route to Number 10

[clapham_gull]

Some changes in London I've noticed recently, that I'd like to see more.

Homes being built where shops / old libraries (replaced) used to be. Especially round me.

I'm all for it. It gives it that Amsterdam feel where homes and business dove tail. I'm 5 min walk from three major supermarkets.

It's not for everyone, those places tend to be first time buyer flats - but it's much better than a property where a business shuts down every 6 months.

The mix appears to sustain the successful ones.

 

[Machiavelli]

Some changes in London I've noticed recently, that I'd like to see more.

Homes being built where shops / old libraries (replaced) used to be. Especially round me.

I'm all for it. It gives it that Amsterdam feel where homes and business dove tail. I'm 5 min walk from three major supermarkets.

It's not for everyone, those places tend to be first time buyer flats - but it's much better than a property where a business shuts down every 6 months.

The mix appears to sustain the successful ones.

Not content with 15 minute cities, now what are they doing to us?

 

[clapham_gull]

It's of course much easier in opposition, but unlike Sunak's, Starmer's speech appears to have caught the mood.

Sunak busily abusing his advisors that nobody arranged for a protestor to throw glitter at him.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

It's of course much easier in opposition, but unlike Sunak's, Starmer's speech appears to have caught the mood.

Sunak busily abusing his advisors that nobody arranged for a protestor to throw glitter at him.

Now, that would have been fun. Come on?

 

[Colonel Mustard]

Yep. We have four new estates going up around Faversham, and more planning propose. It is all commercial building, with big houses crammed onto small plots, no new local services, no new main roads, all traffic funnelling into existing roads. There was no 'planning' involved. The latest wheeze is to build on the marsh, with sewage funneled into 'existing structures'. It is all bollocks.

Labour will need to tackle the nimbies (with laws - look at how the Chinese do it and subtract the killing), and tackle the local authorities so that housing 'estates' are more than rabbit hutches.

When we were buying a couple of years ago we started off with the idea of a new build. We looked at several new build sites around Sussex. Some of the houses were ok but they all had tiny gardens and evidence of flooding and drainage issues eg waterlogged gardens which you often get in new build sites with so much concrete being laid. Most were nowhere near shops or healthcare services or community amenities (inc pubs). I suppose these will appear eventually but it could take a long time. We ended up going for an older house in a proper community.

I realise it's not an easy problem to solve. It's why immigration at the current rate of about 600k a year is totally unsustainable -- but of course it's a topic that is hard to discuss without very quickly being accused of hating non-white people or some other nonsense. The sooner we're allowed to discuss these things rationally the better. I lived overseas for years in countries that rely far more heavily on apartment living than we do in the UK. Well designed apartment blocks with good inbuilt amenities (gym, communal garden etc) which could accommodate far more people per sq/m than traditional houses could be a partial answer.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

When we were buying a couple of years ago we started off with the idea of a new build. We looked at several new build sites around Sussex. Some of the houses were ok but they all had tiny gardens and evidence of flooding and drainage issues eg waterlogged gardens which you often get in new build sites with so much concrete being laid. Most were nowhere near shops or healthcare services or community amenities (inc pubs). I suppose these will appear eventually but it could take a long time. We ended up going for an older house in a proper community.

I realise it's not an easy problem to solve. It's why immigration at the current rate of about 600k a year is totally unsustainable -- but of course it's a topic that is hard to discuss without very quickly being accused of hating non-white people or some other nonsense. The sooner we're allowed to discuss these things rationally the better. I lived overseas for years in countries that rely far more heavily on apartment living than we do in the UK. Well designed apartment blocks with good inbuilt amenities (gym, communal garden etc) which could accommodate far more people per sq/m than traditional houses could be a partial answer.

Yes, no worries, immigration is certainly one of the factors that makes the property market challenging (adds to the demand, albeit if immigrants are competing in the property market then they can't be scrounging on the dole at the same time, please note, Daily Mail reader chums).

We have a weird relationship with home ownership here, fueled in part by Thatcher's 'home owing democracy' mantra. If you don't own your own home, you are a failure (etc.).

Incidentally... what jobs are those 600K doing? The health service is buggered due to the loss of immigrant labour (tories using Brexit to close the borders for genuine workers). Serious question, if 600K immigrants per year are all working and buying properties, where the f*** are the English workers who could have been doing the immigrants jobs? Have we become a nation of unemployable grunts?

 

[clapham_gull]

When we were buying a couple of years ago we started off with the idea of a new build. We looked at several new build sites around Sussex. Some of the houses were ok but they all had tiny gardens and evidence of flooding and drainage issues eg waterlogged gardens which you often get in new build sites with so much concrete being laid. Most were nowhere near shops or healthcare services or community amenities (inc pubs). I suppose these will appear eventually but it could take a long time. We ended up going for an older house in a proper community.

I realise it's not an easy problem to solve. It's why immigration at the current rate of about 600k a year is totally unsustainable -- but of course it's a topic that is hard to discuss without very quickly being accused of hating non-white people or some other nonsense. The sooner we're allowed to discuss these things rationally the better. I lived overseas for years in countries that rely far more heavily on apartment living than we do in the UK. Well designed apartment blocks with good inbuilt amenities (gym, communal garden etc) which could accommodate far more people per sq/m than traditional houses could be a partial answer.

I can safely assure that immigration levels have nothing to do with small gardens.

Where I live there is no such thing as a large garden except for a few exceptions that I know. Buckingham Palace being one.

Blame developers including Victorian ones. In fact (major shock) I'm going against the grain and are going to get a bit of my place knocked down to enlarge the garden.

 

[JackB247]

Big difference in the membership at each conference over the past few weeks.

Tories: not many members in Manchester and those that were present flocked to Truss, Braverman and Farage etal.

Labour getting behind Keir and the Shadow Cab team.

Belief on one side, division and preparing for opposition on the other.

 

[clapham_gull]

Still quite a fascinating statistic than since 1980 only two PM have been put into power by a general election.

Cameron and Blair.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

The biggest problem with housebuilding is still the London black hole dragging in everything for miles. Moving the BBC to Manchester was a good move, but building a new Parliamentary building in Preston would be far better and open the Palace of Westminster as a museum. That would create some proper 'levelling up'. Until we move some seriously major functions out of London the problem will remain the same.

There's only one relatively small area of the country that is short of land

I read somewhere that more land is used up by golf courses than by new housing. Whether it’s true or not, I can’t say.

 

[FIVESTEPS]

I read somewhere that more land is used up by golf courses than by new housing. Whether it’s true or not, I can’t say.

Debatable if comparing building with course although housing is probably bigger no debate if including gardens driveways and other outdoor spaces.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Still quite a fascinating statistic than since 1980 only two PM have been put into power by a general election.

Cameron and Blair.

Interesting also the only two Prime Ministers of that period to leave of their own accord.

A perhaps even more fascinating statistic is that the last PM to be both put into power AND taken out of power by a general election was Ted Heath. The eleven prime ministers since, spanning 50 years, have all been either chosen by their party, pushed out by their party, or in the case of Cameron and Blair, sailed off into the sunset of their own accord (to be kind to them)

The only prime minister since Heath to both win an election AND lose an election is John Major. Democracy eh?

 

[Chicken Run]

Still quite a fascinating statistic than since 1980 only two PM have been put into power by a general election.

Cameron and Blair.

That is fascinating but surely you mean whilst in opposition?, Boris in 2019?

 

[Seaber]

That is fascinating but surely you mean whilst in opposition?, Boris in 2019?

Boris Johnson was already in power when he called the GE in 2019.

 

[beorhthelm]

Still quite a fascinating statistic than since 1980 only two PM have been put into power by a general election.

Cameron and Blair.

peculiar stat to make, does winning an election as an incumbent not count?

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

peculiar stat to make, does winning an election as an incumbant not count?

He was merely stating a fact.
And winning an election from opposition is for the most part more of an achievement than winning an election by the existing incumbent.

 

[Is it PotG?]

Big difference in the membership at each conference over the past few weeks.

Tories: not many members in Manchester and those that were present flocked to Truss, Braverman and Farage etal.

Labour getting behind Keir and the Shadow Cab team.

Belief on one side, division and preparing for opposition on the other.

The floor voted for all of this nationalisation, did the top brass say this was on the cards when they're in?

 

[nicko31]

Well I think Labour will be pretty happy with the conference season, LD's weren't great, Tories had a shocker and they've been pretty steady week.

Not home and dry yet but its starting to feel a bit like 1996, people want change.

 

[WATFORD zero]

I realise it's not an easy problem to solve. It's why immigration at the current rate of about 600k a year is totally unsustainable -- but of course it's a topic that is hard to discuss without very quickly being accused of hating non-white people or some other nonsense. The sooner we're allowed to discuss these things rationally the better. I lived overseas for years in countries that rely far more heavily on apartment living than we do in the UK. Well designed apartment blocks with good inbuilt amenities (gym, communal garden etc) which could accommodate far more people per sq/m than traditional houses could be a partial answer.

Net immigration at that level can certainly give problems. Makes you wonder how it happened

 

[Machiavelli]

Still quite a fascinating statistic than since 1980 only two PM have been put into power by a general election.

Cameron and Blair.

That is a stark statistic, but is illustrative of the length of time that each party has governed for (18 years, 13 years, and 13 years and counting) which, in turn, is illustrative of the voting system.