30 Dec 2011 21:56:09 here is a theory edd,with all the so called leak… · #685

Edd you know as well as i certin words can go missing or blacked out,the timing is interesting thou and thatchers health,to be honest it would not shock me if she dies just before the release of papers.
frankyscouse {Ed001's Note - I hate to wish ill on anyone, but I will make an exception for Satan's mother, otherwise known as Margaret Thatcher.}

I echo that edd.
frankyscouse

Lolol how bad was she ? Am only 23 so was before my day but I haven't heard anyone say a good word about her ?

I know she's a tory but if the torys are that bad then why are they in power the now ? Ps I know labour made a boo boo a bit

Lenny

I think Thatcher had some good ideas but moved far too fast in trying to get them through. Did good in allowing council tennants to buy their own homes.

But she also did a lot of bad as well, could be very vindictive. Hammered the North and the Midlands.

Unions played into her hands though. And the prosperity that brown pissed up the wall had its seeds in Thatcher.

Like any politician there is good and bad, your viewpoint really just depends on what side of the spectrum your from and also on geography.

That said she still managed to win 3 elections on the trot which i think had never bene done before so obviously had the backing. {Ed001's Note - what is good about council tenants buying their homes? All it has done is put them in the hands of rich landowners after the tenants sold them. Now we have no council homes for people to rent, thanks to Thatcher.}

Ed there are plenty of council houses, i live in one. I want to buy it cos i think paying rent is just a awaste of money every month, its not going to anything, whereas by owning it i could leave something behind to any future kids.

I know plenty of people on this estate who bought their council houses and they are not in the hands of rich landowners. {Ed001's Note - most council houses were bought and sold on. There are not plenty of them, perhaps you might want to rethink that as my dad's job, until he retired last year, was finding housing for people, due to there being a lack of council housing for them. Councils are having to subsidise private rents, b&bs etc due to not having the money to build new houses, thanks to Thatcher. Paying rent to the council is not a waste, you get repairs etc done for your money, paying rent to a private landlord is a waste.}

And when they do repairs you have to get them back 3 or 4 times because they are so incompetant to do it right first time. 4 times we had to have them down to a leaky roof.

Ed i do get where your coming from, but for someone like me there's no way i could buy a brand new house. I earn less than 20k a year (i would love to know where this 25k a year national average comes from) So i'm screwed for getting a mortgage to go buy a house in an area with average house prices of 170k. When i can probably get the council house i've lived in for 25 years at half that. Or find a rich woman.

Also i'd just like to point out that we had 13 years of a Labour govt at a time when councils were raking in massive amounts in council tax. So firstly why didn't Blair or Brown do something about the lack of council housing? And secondly what happened to all the council tax money? {Ed001's Note - I am not saying Labour are any better, because clearly Blair was just a Thatcherite pretending to be Labour. I also understand that it seems like a great deal and the only way of owning a house, but what happens is that the elderly buy the house. They have more than one child, so the house gets sold and the money split and the house is in the hands of a property developer. That is why it is a long term issue.}

True ed, although i understand that there is a scheme for councils to re buy such houses when they come up on the market, so why don't they re buy more of them?

Agreed with Blair, i think he was as bad as Thatcher in many ways. Not least taking us into illegal wars.

I still fail to see what good Blair did for this country. And one of his biggest failing has to be sorting out this lack of housing. {Ed001's Note - the councils simply don't have the funds to buy them up, they have huge budget deficits (another thing to thank Thatcher for!). The worrying thing is that, no matter who we vote for, we end up with Tories in charge. Whether they are pretending to be Labour, Tories themselves, or pretending to be Lib Dems to make a coalition with the Tories. We just can't win!}

Ed they raked in millions with council tax. As i understand things Manchester city council as an example has 80 million sat in their bank account, yet their threatening to close public services just to try and make political capital out of it.

Maybe if they had wasted less money over the last decade hiring people they didnt need to. How about cutting the tea trolley? or axing mayors who really aren't needed.

I had an internship at my local council for a month whilst on the dole, and it was an eye opener i tell you. {Ed001's Note - I fully agree there is a lot of waste, but that doesn't mean there is enough money, that just means they aren't making the most of what they get.}

Ed if councils dont have enough money why where they told to spend their saved monies by the government and why did so many councils lose so much money in the Iceland banking system. stuart {Ed001's Note - you would need to ask the Government that, but there does seem to be a systematic policy to destroy the council's power.}

Sorry ed i feel the policy is to make them more efficient and as far as i recall they are not a business and therefore do not require to make profit so why are they investing and banking profit? stuart {Ed001's Note - so that they have money to invest in improving services, just like charities invest to provide for the future. Nothing to do with efficiency, I fail to see how spending investments makes anyone more efficient. Perhaps you could explain your reasoning, because I fail to see any.}

Are you saying the councils are run efficiently then ed? And if they have the extra money to invest or bank why can they not build extra houses instead? As I thought the thread was about councils not having enough money to build houses which why i have asked the questions regarding excess monies.stuart {Ed001's Note - I have not said they are run efficiently. Would you prefer them to just spend everything they get, or would you prefer them to invest a percentage to increase their future spending power? It makes no sense to just spend every penny you have, whether you are a council or a person, it makes much more sense to put some aside to increase future spending power.}

I see where your coming from ed but many councils are sat on a fortune even after losing fortunes and still there is a lack of housing {Ed001's Note - that is a different issue though, what the Govt has done has clouded the issue, rather than making an effort to make councils more efficient. They are far too busy giving huge sums to bankers to pass around to each other as bonuses, rather than trying to fix the complete mess our country is in.}