To my fellow Hubbers
I am still in the fight, just not so sure that any headway is ever made here!!
I will sleep on it, how's that?
Well said Savvy!
A large group of us were at the airport last night welcoming home another Honor Flight. Veterans who had spent the day in D.C. at their respective Memorials. We spoke with Vietnam Veterans. We talked with a Desert Storm Veteran who attended with his Father-in-law, a Korean War Veteran. There were two WWII Veterans present.
What struck me {and gets to me every time} the number who walk through, with tears streaming....thanking us!!!
We'll never know their personal sacrifice; what they went through in battle, what they have been through since returning home.
As they were being honored, I thought to myself - how many of them are crying for this Nation, wondering what comes next for this exceptional Nation, which has dimmed the lights & lost its way!!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/4FkhUYr2KnTgs3sB8
To you as well Arthur... and to all others, thank you.
An article for you (and all Homeowners and Rental Property Owners) to peruse:
Thousands of landlords sell to avoid net zero rules as buy-to-let no longer ‘viable’
Thousands of landlords are selling up ahead of Government net zero rules which will force them to make costly energy efficiency improvements.
More than 65,000 rental properties went up for sale in the first three months of the year, new instruction data from estate agents showed.
Of these some 36,460 had low energy efficiency, with Energy Performance Certificate (or EPC) ratings of D or less, according to market analyst TwentyCi, which collates figures from property firms across the country. A is the highest rating, while G is the worst.
Landlords will be forced to ensure their properties have at least a C rating or higher by 2028 under Government plans.
Experts said landlords were now selling up to dodge the red tape, fearing bills for improvements such as double glazing, insulation and heat pumps which could stretch into the tens of thousands.
Chris Norris, of the National Residential Landlords Association, said: “Depending on where that property is and what kind of value it has, it's difficult to maintain a viable letting portfolio if you've got to spend, say, £25,000 on a property that may only be worth £60,000 to £70,000 if you’re in certain towns in the North East.
“The logical thing to do is to either retrofit or to sell off, and lots of landlords are finding that selling them is their best bet.”
Some 60pc of rental properties on the market had EPC ratings of D or below, up from 57pc a year ago, showing the number of properties for sale with low energy efficiency credentials was higher than normal.
Sales of C-rated properties, in contrast, were down by a fifth for the year.
Since 2020, all newly-let properties have been required to have a minimum EPC rating of E, unless they have an exemption.
Landlords can register an exemption if they have spent £3,500 on their properties and still have not reached an E rating.
Under the proposed legislation, the cost of the exemption is expected to rise to £10,000, but the Government has yet to confirm this.
Max Armstrong, of North East Property Investment, a buy-to-let specialist, said many landlords did not want to spend the money to retrofit the properties until they had some clarity about the new rules.
He said energy efficiency was increasingly a concern for those investing in new buy-to-let properties.
He added: “One of the first things new investors are asking is, ‘what’s the EPC rating and what needs to be done? Have you factored into the refurbishment, how much extra it’s going to cost? It has quite a lot of impact on the overall deals.”
Mr Armstrong said many properties will struggle to get their homes to standard, saying the cost involved was not “financially viable” for large numbers of landlords.
The Government has said it wants to bring all properties up to a C by 2035, which would affect all homeowners, not just property investors.
Mr Armstrong said: “It’s a bit of a perfect storm. What’s going to happen to these properties? Are they just going to sit empty when we know we’re struggling to house people? It doesn’t seem to make sense.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realest … &ei=37Where you say “You do not speak for all people in the UK so although you think it is okay to spend other people’s money on improving your home not everyone in the UK does…..If they did, I am sure you would have the socialist government you would prefer.”:-
You obviously didn’t pay attention to last week’s local elections in England and poll ratings, where the Conservatives had a humiliating defeat and are in serious danger of badly losing the next General Election in 18 months’ time.
Prior to last week’s local elections the number of local governments in England controlled by each political party was:-
• Coalitions (No overall control by a single party) = 79
• Conservatives = 81
• Labour (socialists) = 49
• Liberal Democrats (politically central (in the middle in the UK) similar politics as the Democrats in the USA) = 17
• Residents (the voters themselves, forming a non-political residents association in opposition to the political parties: So the voters themselves running their own local government – Is that true ‘people power’?) = 2
• Independent (non-partisan) = 1
Following last week’s local elections the number of local governments in England now controlled by each political party is:-
• Coalitions = 91
• Labour (socialists) = 71 (gained control of 22 local governments)
• Conservatives = 33 (lost control of 48 local governments)
• Liberal Democrats (politically central) = 29 (gained control of 12 local governments)
• Independents (non-partisan) = 2
• Residents = 2
• Green Party (socialists) = 1 (full control of their first local governments)
The Bristol local government (where I live) is jointly run by Labour and the Green Party, the number of seats held by each political party in Bristol are:-
• Green party (socialists) = 25
• Labour (socialists) = 24
• Conservatives = 14
• Liberal Democrats = 5
• Residents = 2
As regards the General Election; the latest voting intentions for Britain (26th April 2023) conducted by YouGov (margin of error plus or minus 2%) was as follows:-
• Labour = 41%
• Conservatives = 27%
• Liberal Democrats = 11%
• Green Party = 7%
So unless the Conservatives can reverse their unpopularity within the next 18 months Labour is set to be the next Government in power.
HOMELESSNESS IN BRITAIN
Sarcasm will get you everywhere!!! Where you said: “Oh, and I did not realize that there were no homeless in the UK before 1980.”
Yes of course we had homeless in the UK before 1980; we’ve always had homelessness, just like any other country in the world.
However, the point you missed (or which I didn’t make clear), is that (apart from the aftermath of the 2nd world war) the situation in Britain wasn’t so critical e.g. thanks to the Conservative Housing Policy in the 1950s, people who need housing but couldn’t afford to buy or rent could guarantee being housed by their local government within just a few short months; not years, as it is now.
Both my parents and my brother benefitted from the ease of getting a Council House (local government built and owned housing for those in need):
During the 2nd world war Hitler’s bombing raids over Britain destroyed 2 million British homes; so after the war there was a chronic housing shortage. And although Labour (when they came to power in 1945) introduced the Welfare State that we enjoy today and the NHS in 1948, Labour were not able to solve the housing crisis.
When the Conservatives came to power in 1950 they had a well administered plan to build social housing on a massive scale, good quality homes cheaply and quickly e.g. excellent ‘Project Management’ taking advantage of the economies of scale and keeping to one build plan to achieve a similar effect to Fords innovation of the production line for cars e.g. the saying “you can have any colour you like, as long as it’s black”.
My parents got married in 1951, when my mother was just 18. They couldn’t afford a home so lived in a caravan, but when my brother was born that entitled them to a Council House e.g. a caravan is considered unsuitable to bring up a child; so in 1954 Bristol Local Government gave my parents a Council House, the 1,000th Council House built in Bristol by the UK Conservative Government, and being the 1,000th tenant they had their picture taken for the local newspaper – copy of image below.
In the early 1980’s my brother got married and had a kid, but had nowhere to live, so they lived with my mother in a two bedroom flat (apartment). This is considered overcrowding by government, and unsuitable for bringing up a child; so within just a few short months of having their child the local government gave my brother and his family their own Council House – which they subsequently bought under the Conservatives’ ‘Right to Buy’ policy introduced later that decade: So my brother now owns his own home.
Where you say “I guess from your reply that you think it is all the conservatives fault.”:-
No, we are not like Americans, we are not at each other’s throats, bitterly attacking the opposing political parties on every issues – In this country, opposing political parties are very good at working together on most issues, for the common good: The Cross-party Select committees in Parliament is testimony to that. For example, all political parties fully supported the Conservatives during the pandemic, and fully support the Conservatives on their ‘Climate Change’ Policy.
But of course, when it comes to economics, and social and welfare issues, then there is often friction between the Conservatives and other political parties.
In further response to your comment: Do I think the current housing crisis is all the Conservatives fault? Well, no, it’s not all the conservatives fault; there are factors that is beyond their, and Britain’s control the current cost of living crisis largely caused by the war in Ukraine. But it is largely the Conservatives fault in that their ‘right to buy’ Council Houses makes it harder for local governments to keep their housing stock for social housing, and since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 they’ve slowed the new build programme initially as part of their austerity measures following the 2008 worldwide financial crisis. And in spite of repeated promises in their election manifestos since 2010 to kick start the build of new homes in Britain, so far the Conservatives have failed to deliver.
Although on the positive side the Conservatives over the last 10 years have introduced various schemes to help make it easier for first time buyers, including:-
• Rent to Buy: Where people can buy just 50% or 55% of the property, and rent the rest; and at a later date, if and when they can afford it, buy the rest of the property, if they so wish. It’s a popular scheme that is helping many first time buyers get their feet on the first runner of the property ladder. A close family friend of ours has taken advantage of this scheme to get his own home, rather than just renting as he did before.
• In December 2015 the Conservatives introduced the “Help to Buy ISA”; a lifetime tax free savings account (eligible only to people who don’t own their own home) intended to be used as a deposit on a house, or as a lump sum on retirement (whichever comes first).
Under the scheme savers can save up to £200 ($250) per month, and for every $4 you save the Government gives you $1 tax free (provided you only use the ISA to buy a home, or as part of your retirement); and the interest you earn on the savings is also tax free. Since its launch in 2015 by the Conservatives this ISA scheme has helped over 410,000 first time buyers to buy their own home.
ISA’s (tax free savings accounts) were introduced by the Labour (socialists) Government in 1999, and this short video explains what they are and how they work: https://youtu.be/w0Jjh9Zdo_0
Below, my parents being the 1,000th Council House tenants in Bristol for new Social Housing built by the Conservative Government in the early 1950s.
Thanks Ken
. Interesting how you reference Twitter. Tucker Carlson is an unknown in Europe; but when Muck too Twitter over I stopped using it. Twitter may become the most popular social network in America; but I’m not so sure about Europe – Everyone I know uses Facebook, but I don’t know anybody personally on this side of the pond who uses Twitter.
C'mon now! We know an awful lot! At least a millimeter's worth out of the ten thousand km journey.
I recall mentioning something at the start of this about Agenda 2030.
.....
"Barring substantial edits, the Biden education department will formally announce that girls and women’s athletic programs kindergarten through college are no longer just for females."
https://wng.org/opinions/live-not-by-lies-1684149596
-----
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under the administration of President Joe Biden is set to launch an initiative aimed at addressing the issue of domestic terrorism.
President Joe Biden recently gave a graduation commencement address at Howard University, a Historical Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) member, in which he claimed that “white supremacy” is the greatest terrorism threat to the United States.
Reed. D. Rubinstein, of American First Legal, sounded the alarms about the Biden administration’s initiative in a new report.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s transformation into a domestic intelligence organization and a Stasi-like Deep State internal security apparatus is alarming,” he said.
“It is a very long way from ‘see something, say something’ regarding an unattended suitcase at the airport to profiling patriotic and politically conservative Americans as abusive parents and domestic terrorists because they oppose abortion on demand and voted for former President Trump,” he continued. “The agency is out of control.”
https://beckernews.com/biden-admin-laun … ism-50349/
-----
Earlier this year the government notified 30 million Americans of cuts to their food stamps, at a time of steeply rising costs. Too bad we can’t afford to feed people. But hold on — military aid to Ukraine thus far equals an entire year of food stamps for 41 million Americans. People are going hungry to fund a war that doesn’t serve any vital U.S. interests. Most of the hungry are children and minorities. Time to reorder our priorities!
https://twitter.com/RobertKennedyJr/sta … 1962937346
----
The Washington D.C. FBI Field Office CONFIRMED that undercover officers, confidential informants, and FBI assets were present at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.
https://twitter.com/RepMattGaetz/status … 1435331584
: That's funny about Twitters rent! Wonder what the defense is to not paying it - has to more than "I don't want to.".
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