No, it was because of Gordon Brown, but you are quite right to remind us that that this thread is supposed to be about Brexit, not the UK's crazy tax/benefits system (although I am sure that the system contributed to very high immigration rates, and therefore influenced the referendum result).
It's happened because successive Governments whether blue or red are all feeding from the same trough and don't want it to change.
A society which treats any of the basic human requirements - food, shelter, security - as investment opportunities, is doomed to unhappiness and ultimate failure. A mansion by the sea? Sure, an investment. A family home? Not an investment, it is a sine qua non of civilisation and to price people out of such a thing is more than stupid, it is actively evil. I like to blame Thatch for this, may she be skull-fucked in Hell for eternity for her crimes. Sorry, what were we discussing?
So what would the SNP do to fix it? deflate the housing market? Increase minimum wage and remove tax credits and other permanent (as distinct from time-limited) in-work benefits? Find clever ways to get more corporation tax take?
I believe that the SNP are happy to wait until Westminster fixes things ... just as they've always done.
eh.... have you had a look at the results. superb considering labour have collapsed and coalesced round the brexit bunch. its now a fair fight. one on one. Scottish local election results 2017 - BBC News
Although it caused them much difficulty in the end, the Thatcher/Major governments presided over a housing price boom (not that there had never been one before) BUT then also a proper bust, which did leave prices at a more sensible level during the 90s. It was under Labour that the boom got going again in a big way (remember Gordon said "no more boom and bust"?), and then the coalition (and now the current government) decided it was easier to keep the boom going (after a small dip) than to risk sorting it out. If the BoE had been instructed to take housing inflation into account properly we'd have some sort of realistic interest rates - 2.5% base rate anyone? I expect a lot more could have been done with Capital Gains Tax too, but Gordon decided simply to make it very complicated for shareholders, and Osborne/Hammond have simply reduced it (not that putting it back up again would fund half the things Labour say it would).
The problem is we manufacture very little in the UK. What we assemble is often parts made abroad. Building houses is a kind of manufacturing which the government can artificially boost via financial and tax law.
you will suck out her eyes first right? doesn't sound so bad considering you have had yer tongue rammed up Mays ass for the last 12months. :Smuggrin: :smileys:
I lived through Thatch, Major, Blair et al, as an adult. I was a youngster under Heath >>> Callaghan. I cannot tell you how things were to live as an adult prior to Thatch but I can tell you my experiences trying to set up home in the South of England in the late 80's and the 90's. I wasn't doing a paper round then, I was a responsible adult doing a responsible adult's job. The housing market - buying and rental both - were so messed up. And things have gotten worse, as far as I can tell, ever since. The balls-up Thatch made of housing policy (amongst other things) chills my blood when I think about it. Subsequent governments did nothing to fix it other than a few minor projects around the edges as regards affordable housing but the genie was out of the bottle by then. The only way you are going to fix the brokenness that is the UK's housing is to wait for a Noah-esque flood to reset values across the board.
