New John Gray article in the New Statesman, about JG Ballard.
"11 September 2024
JG Ballard’s apocalyptic art In Empire of the Sun, published 40 years ago, the great novelist turned his childhood experiences in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp into a form of personal liberation.
I was just starting to get cold turkey that John Gray hadn't written an article for a while, and at the same time I was hoping someone interesting would write a new article about JG Ballard. Lucky that both happened in the same place.
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
I think your last sentence is naive
Why?
The Conservatives oversaw a form of neo-feudalism, with a significant rise in people who own their homes outright (including 70% of pensioners), landlords, and people who live in private rentals.
A massive transfer or wealth to the wealthy. Do you really think all of the 37% of households who rent actually want to? The Conservatives used to be the party of homeownership.
Of course they do but that can only happen with a huge increase in supply
Exactly. Those 35 rental properties aren't going anywhere - hopefully they'll end up as the first homes for some young people.
I’m now on a school bus with loads of whooping and happy Canucks heading to the 14th annual Okanagan “Feast of Fields” food, beer and wine festival
I have the strangest job
Sounds dangerously woke to me looking at their website.
Are you deep in enemy territory for this assignment?
It’s superb
It’s on a sun-drenched vine-green hillside overlooking the lake - like Norway meets Provence with a dash of Switzerland - and I’m being paid to eat and drink superb tucker and ace wine after having just done the world’s second greatest cycle trail
Sometimes I wonder why I bother doing this job. Getting paid to travel the world in enormous luxury. Who would willingly do that? But perfect days like this remind me why
I did say the Okanagan Valley was worth a visit :-)
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
I think your last sentence is naive
Why?
The Conservatives oversaw a form of neo-feudalism, with a significant rise in people who own their homes outright (including 70% of pensioners), landlords, and people who live in private rentals.
A massive transfer or wealth to the wealthy. Do you really think all of the 37% of households who rent actually want to? The Conservatives used to be the party of homeownership.
Of course they do but that can only happen with a huge increase in supply
Exactly. Those 35 rental properties aren't going anywhere - hopefully they'll end up as the first homes for some young people.
More likely to be bought by a large rental company
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
I think your last sentence is naive
Why?
The Conservatives oversaw a form of neo-feudalism, with a significant rise in people who own their homes outright (including 70% of pensioners), landlords, and people who live in private rentals.
A massive transfer or wealth to the wealthy. Do you really think all of the 37% of households who rent actually want to? The Conservatives used to be the party of homeownership.
Of course they do but that can only happen with a huge increase in supply
Exactly. Those 35 rental properties aren't going anywhere - hopefully they'll end up as the first homes for some young people.
More likely to be bought by a large rental company
Nope - because large firms have enough common sense to build to rent so everything is consistent and in one place...
Apparently the suspect was one or two holes behind Trump at approx 300 to 500 yards
Range of an AK-47 is a bit over 300 yards. Doable if he's a good shooter but difficult. It's not the rifle you'd use for sniping, more spray-and-pray. It's about three-to-four times as far as the Kennedy assassination range.
Sir Keir Starmer said “most” of the stories about his chief of staff Sue Gray are “wildly wrong”, after reports of rifts in No 10.
Gray has been the subject of numerous newspaper stories since Labour entered government, including claims she has a fractious relationship with Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and strategy chief Morgan McSweeney.
Another within government said of Gray’s leadership: “However bad you think it is, it’s worse.”
FBI quoted just now that Trump was subject to an apparent assination attempt
This is not good news if true
From what I can see from Sky it's like shooting through the gates of Downing Street and suggesting it was an assassination attempt on Starmer whilst Starmer is partying in the Rose Garden.
You can be flippant as you like but maybe listen to the news conferences live on Sky now
Colour me sceptical. This is Trump theatre. He "will never surrender".
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask. FTBs have a clear run on those. 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector. Private and Social rented sectors are both close to being fully occupied.
Apparently the suspect was one or two holes behind Trump at approx 300 to 500 yards
Range of an AK-47 is a bit over 300 yards. Doable if he's a good shooter but difficult. It's not the rifle you'd use for sniping, more spray-and-pray. It's about three-to-four times as far as the Kennedy assassination range.
Did the guy actually fire his gun ? The reports I’ve seen say only that the SS agent did.
No - it was a male republican who, frankly, was disgracefully rude to Gillian Joseph of Sky
Sky are making a meal of this "incident", imagine the consternation on US 24 hour rolling news. Presumably this is a much bigger win for Trump than Harris eviscerating Trump by debate was for her.
FBI quoted just now that Trump was subject to an apparent assination attempt
This is not good news if true
From what I can see from Sky it's like shooting through the gates of Downing Street and suggesting it was an assassination attempt on Starmer whilst Starmer is partying in the Rose Garden.
You can be flippant as you like but maybe listen to the news conferences live on Sky now
Colour me sceptical. This is Trump theatre. He "will never surrender".
His moronic son was tweeting within minutes .
Mr. Brusiloff drew his chair closer.
"Let me tell you one vairy funny story about putting. It was one day I play at Nijni-Novgorod with the pro. against Lenin and Trotsky, and Trotsky had a two-inch putt for the hole. But, just as he addresses the ball, someone in the crowd he tries to assassinate Lenin with a rewolwer—you know that is our great national sport, trying to assassinate Lenin with rewolwers—and the bang puts Trotsky off his stroke and he goes five yards past the hole, and then Lenin, who is rather shaken, you understand, he misses again himself, and we win the hole and match and I clean up three hundred and ninety-six thousand roubles, or fifteen shillings in your money. Some gameovitch!…..”
Sounds like a nice CGT windfall for Reeves. Winners all round!
Nah, he will buy the First Lady some fancy knickers and an exemption applying to his case will coincidentally crop up in the budget. You have a lot to learn about life in a banana republic.
Appearance of corruption was Robert Jenrick I think.
In personal communication with Richard Desmond re: a planning decision, then used his Housing Minister position to approve the Planning Permission on Westferry, which would have helped Desmond avoid £45m in tax - payable to Tower Hamlets if it had been approved one day later.
Then 2 weeks later accepted a donation from Desmond of £12k.
I'd be interested to know the outcome re whether the action was lawful given the communication.
If they elect him, they deserve everything they get.
For sure Jenrick is horrific. But "less corrupt than Robert Jenrick" doesn't sell a PM to me any more than "less paedophilic than Jimmy Savile" sells a babysitter.
That comparison seems to me only to have meaning if you can show in some way that the current PM is in some way corrupt, so that is the choice to be made. Otherwise it is rhetoric.
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
I think your last sentence is naive
Why?
The Conservatives oversaw a form of neo-feudalism, with a significant rise in people who own their homes outright (including 70% of pensioners), landlords, and people who live in private rentals.
A massive transfer or wealth to the wealthy. Do you really think all of the 37% of households who rent actually want to? The Conservatives used to be the party of homeownership.
Of course they do but that can only happen with a huge increase in supply
Exactly. Those 35 rental properties aren't going anywhere - hopefully they'll end up as the first homes for some young people.
More likely to be bought by a large rental company
Nope - because large firms have enough common sense to build to rent so everything is consistent and in one place...
In most other sectors consolidating one man bands into proper businesses leads to more efficiency, better service and lower prices.
That taking out a mortgage to buy an existing property and charge rent to tenants has been a viable business model has been a bad thing for the country.
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Chatter that free bus passes may also go as well as single person council tax discount.
If this is going to happen may as well do it now and hope it’s all a distant memory in 2029.
I have an ever-decreasing number of elderly relatives with poor means who can no longer drive and are dependent on bus passes. If he does this Starmer will move from "somebody I don't like" to "somebody I will not speak kindly of after death".
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask, 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector.
1) Yes, there are loads of older people similarly priced out 2) I was pipped a few times because sellers preferred dealing with a cash buyer, even with a decision in principle. 4) That's an interesting point, but you'd also have to weight it by the time rental properties are empty between tenancies as well as age. You might find if more younger people owned properties, the occupancy rate would increase (particularly once kids come along)
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
I think your last sentence is naive
Why?
The Conservatives oversaw a form of neo-feudalism, with a significant rise in people who own their homes outright (including 70% of pensioners), landlords, and people who live in private rentals.
A massive transfer or wealth to the wealthy. Do you really think all of the 37% of households who rent actually want to? The Conservatives used to be the party of homeownership.
Of course they do but that can only happen with a huge increase in supply
Exactly. Those 35 rental properties aren't going anywhere - hopefully they'll end up as the first homes for some young people.
More likely to be bought by a large rental company
Nope - because large firms have enough common sense to build to rent so everything is consistent and in one place...
In most other sectors consolidating one man bands into proper businesses leads to more efficiency, better service and lower prices.
That taking out a mortgage to buy an existing property and charge rent to tenants has been a viable business model has been a bad thing for the country.
Build to let investors / developers do not in my experience target the same groups of the market as the traditional private rental sector.
In general AFAICS they target deciles 5-8 (mainly 6-8) on the income spectrum, and load their offering up with value added services, ie basically the professional, young professional, retired professional markets. If you like add in trustafarians.
See also the customer and property profile of companies such as Grainger PLC.
That is essentially a different sector to the traditional PRS. They have too much overhead to compete in the market made up of individual properties.
Chatter that free bus passes may also go as well as single person council tax discount.
If this is going to happen may as well do it now and hope it’s all a distant memory in 2029.
I have an ever-decreasing number of elderly relatives with poor means who can no longer drive and are dependent on bus passes. If he does this Starmer will move from "somebody I don't like" to "somebody I will not speak kindly of after death".
Chatter that free bus passes may also go as well as single person council tax discount.
If this is going to happen may as well do it now and hope it’s all a distant memory in 2029.
Free bus passes at 60 is too early imo. Should be 65 or 70.
I reckon it will be state pension age. Of course, a much better investment for older people who can't drive would be to put some bus services on in the first place.
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask, 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector.
1) Yes, there are loads of older people similarly priced out 2) I was pipped a few times because sellers preferred dealing with a cash buyer, even with a decision in principle. 4) That's an interesting point, but you'd also have to weight it by the time rental properties are empty between tenancies as well as age. You might find if more younger people owned properties, the occupancy rate would increase (particularly once kids come along)
Many rentals are impromptu HMOs.
When people manage to buy, they desperately want to get away from that. This leads to such extravagances as a couple occupying a 2 bedroom flat all by themselves.
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
These, again, are most likely to be younger people who tend not to vote (especially if they've left registering that late) and they will hardly be likely to be voting for Trump.
I am not sure that he would benefit from the slumbering demographics.
Equally, Hilary Clinton was thought to be on course for victory due to her performance with Hispanics, another group with historically low turnout numbers, and that was wrong.
Chatter that free bus passes may also go as well as single person council tax discount.
If this is going to happen may as well do it now and hope it’s all a distant memory in 2029.
I have an ever-decreasing number of elderly relatives with poor means who can no longer drive and are dependent on bus passes. If he does this Starmer will move from "somebody I don't like" to "somebody I will not speak kindly of after death".
If you can afford to drive, but no longer can due to illness or disability, you are saving at least £1000 a year on petrol, insurance, maintenance etc. That's 250 return trips on the bus a year.
Having said that, I think it's a great scheme since it encourages pensioners to socialise.
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
I think it is on a knife edge. With a small popular vote arrange to Harris
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
Nate Silver jumped his shark some time back. He's about as credible as Frank Luntz - who just called the race for Harris.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
That is what I was saying, they shot at them multiple times and missed.
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
I think it is on a knife edge. With a small popular vote arrange to Harris
As Hillary can attest, winning the popular vote means squat.
Apparently the suspect was one or two holes behind Trump at approx 300 to 500 yards
Range of an AK-47 is a bit over 300 yards. Doable if he's a good shooter but difficult. It's not the rifle you'd use for sniping, more spray-and-pray. It's about three-to-four times as far as the Kennedy assassination range.
Did the guy actually fire his gun ? The reports I’ve seen say only that the SS agent did.
Last BBC report I saw says it is unclear whether he ever fired his gun.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
Vlad trying to do his mate a favour and boost the polling after a terrible week for Trump?
It's remarkable. Two dozen children die in a school shooting several times each year and no one gives a f***. A nutter with an assault weapon gets within a kilometre of Trump and all hell breaks loose.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
That is what I was saying, they shot at them multiple times and missed.
The USSS carry SIG-Sauer P229 pistols, which have an "effective range" of around 100 yards. Even for trained people, a hit at 300-500 yards with a hand pistol in less-than-ideal conditions is a very big ask. It would have been more surprising if they hit.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
That is what I was saying, they shot at them multiple times and missed.
The USSS carry SIG-Sauer P229 pistols, which have an "effective range" of around 100 yards. Even for trained people, a hit at 300-500 yards with a hand pistol in less-than-ideal conditions is a very big ask. It would have been more surprising if they hit.
The report are that is how far Trump was away from the shooter, the secret service were well forward of him when they engaged the shooter.
Chatter that free bus passes may also go as well as single person council tax discount.
If this is going to happen may as well do it now and hope it’s all a distant memory in 2029.
Free bus passes at 60 is too early imo. Should be 65 or 70.
I reckon it will be state pension age. Of course, a much better investment for older people who can't drive would be to put some bus services on in the first place.
Madness. The privatised bus service already provides a perfect service as demanded by the market.
If you happen to be an ideologue communist who has deliberately chosen to live somewhere not serviced by a profitable bus route, then that just goes to show a failure on your part.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
That is what I was saying, they shot at them multiple times and missed.
The USSS carry SIG-Sauer P229 pistols, which have an "effective range" of around 100 yards. Even for trained people, a hit at 300-500 yards with a hand pistol in less-than-ideal conditions is a very big ask. It would have been more surprising if they hit.
Is that all they carry?
Seems a bit odd when anyone wanting to take a pot shot is likely to be carrying something heavier given what is freely available in Walmart. You'd half expect them to be towing artillery.
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask. FTBs have a clear run on those. 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector. Private and Social rented sectors are both close to being fully occupied.
The occupation statistic is meaningless, its just measuring the fact that more owner occupiers are old people who bought their family home when they were younger and had kids and now still live there as grandparents but without kids in the building anymore.
Unless you want to kick people out of their home rather than just building more homes, there's no solution or relevance to that statistic.
Chatter that free bus passes may also go as well as single person council tax discount.
If this is going to happen may as well do it now and hope it’s all a distant memory in 2029.
I have an ever-decreasing number of elderly relatives with poor means who can no longer drive and are dependent on bus passes. If he does this Starmer will move from "somebody I don't like" to "somebody I will not speak kindly of after death".
If you can afford to drive, but no longer can due to illness or disability, you are saving at least £1000 a year on petrol, insurance, maintenance etc. That's 250 return trips on the bus a year.
Having said that, I think it's a great scheme since it encourages pensioners to socialise.
More significantly, it encourages pensioners not to drive at 15mph in front of younger folk who'd rather go faster.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
That is what I was saying, they shot at them multiple times and missed.
That is my general take-away from watching a lot of Hollywood films. Guys with sunglasses and ear-pieces are very bad shots.
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
I think it is on a knife edge. With a small popular vote arrange to Harris
As Hillary can attest, winning the popular vote means squat.
Harris is doing better than Hillary in the EC but worse in the popular vote.
She is doing worse than Biden 2020 in both. It likely comes down to Pennsylvania and Georgia of which Harris needs to win one and Trump needs to win both
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask. FTBs have a clear run on those. 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector. Private and Social rented sectors are both close to being fully occupied.
The occupation statistic is meaningless, its just measuring the fact that more owner occupiers are old people who bought their family home when they were younger and had kids and now still live there as grandparents but without kids in the building anymore.
Unless you want to kick people out of their home rather than just building more homes, there's no solution or relevance to that statistic.
All my 3 children own their homes and are not 'old' people and our youngest is likely to own our family home in due course
Years ago I saw Mr and Mrs Thatcher visit a golf course. They had close personal protection, but also there were guys much more heavily armed with longer range guns several hundred yards in front taking high ground positions looking for potential trouble all around.
Surely it would be yet another security failure if all Trump had was lightly armed protection officers.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
That is what I was saying, they shot at them multiple times and missed.
The USSS carry SIG-Sauer P229 pistols, which have an "effective range" of around 100 yards. Even for trained people, a hit at 300-500 yards with a hand pistol in less-than-ideal conditions is a very big ask. It would have been more surprising if they hit.
Is that all they carry?
Seems a bit odd when anyone wanting to take a pot shot is likely to be carrying something heavier given what is freely available in Walmart. You'd half expect them to be towing artillery.
I am sadly imagining a senate bill mandating a maximum range gun only for government security staff - fulfilled by companies in the bill-sponsors states.
Chatter that free bus passes may also go as well as single person council tax discount.
If this is going to happen may as well do it now and hope it’s all a distant memory in 2029.
Free bus passes at 60 is too early imo. Should be 65 or 70.
I reckon it will be state pension age. Of course, a much better investment for older people who can't drive would be to put some bus services on in the first place.
Madness. The privatised bus service already provides a perfect service as demanded by the market.
If you happen to be an ideologue communist who has deliberately chosen to live somewhere not serviced by a profitable bus route, then that just goes to show a failure on your part.
Tsk.
The problem with buses is that while many individual routes are not profitable, a fully functioning network is. If you cut every route that isn't making money, you undermine those that are until you are left with nothing at all.
That's why Edinburgh manages to have such an expansive but profitable service. You can get almost anywhere in the city usually with just two routes (often just one). Buses are frequent enough that you don't need to consult a timetable. So it's the default method of travelling more than a mile, and has 120 million journeys a year.
We're now getting reports that the suspect was in the tree line, armed with an AK-47 rifle, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.
Multiple law enforcement officials have told the broadcaster that the armed suspect was spotted on the edge of the golf course by a member of Donald Trump's US Secret Service's advance team, two holes ahead from where the president was golfing.
The suspect reportedly fled the scene after he was engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots, and the suspect jumped into a car.
---
Sounds like the Secret Service missed.....not exactly enhancing their reputation.
I find American gun language hard to parse. I think “engaged by Secret Service agent with multiple gunshots” means “the agent shot at him”.
That is what I was saying, they shot at them multiple times and missed.
The USSS carry SIG-Sauer P229 pistols, which have an "effective range" of around 100 yards. Even for trained people, a hit at 300-500 yards with a hand pistol in less-than-ideal conditions is a very big ask. It would have been more surprising if they hit.
Is that all they carry?
Seems a bit odd when anyone wanting to take a pot shot is likely to be carrying something heavier given what is freely available in Walmart. You'd half expect them to be towing artillery.
There's a survivability onion surrounding the President. The USSS, the guys in suits and dark glasses, carry pistols and - much to my surprise - possibly a FN P90, which just confirms my suspicion that US armed services are fans of Stargate. These are PDWs (personal defence weapons), smaller rifles designed for personnel who don't use guns in combat (eg logistics or tankers/helicopter pilots) but still occasionally need one. If you fuck with them you will get a gunshot wound that you can poke a pencil thru.
Then the USSS Counter Assault Team (CAT) further out are in combat gear and helmets and carry AR-15 pattern weapons, specifically the Knight’s Armament SR-16 CQB Mod 2.1. If you fuck with them you will get several gunshot wounds that you can poke your fist thru.
Then further out still are the USSS Counter Sniper Team, who carry proper rifles for cases where range and accuracy is important instead of volume. They look like cops with baseball caps and use Remington 700 long action rifles. If you fuck with them your body will be intact but they'll never find the bits of your head.
The FBI, Secret Service and local Sheriff's office have just given a press conference.
A Secret Service agent in charge of staying one hole ahead of Trump on his golf course spotted a rifle sticking out of bushes One or more secret service agents then opened fire on a potential suspect Police units then sealed off the area immediately A witness saw a man running from the bushes and entering a black Nissan car Police then pulled over the black Nissan and the man was detained An AK-47 style rifle with a scope was recovered from a bush where the suspect was seen, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera
At the news briefing a little while ago, the sheriff and other officials revealed more information about how police were able to quickly find the suspect involved in the shooting.
According to the sheriff, an eyewitness was able to provide a description of the vehicle and even its number plate, which was put through a real-time crime centre.
Soon after, the vehicle was located on a nearby highway headed to nearby Martin County, Florida.
Officers in Martin County were alerted and pulled the vehicle over to detain the suspect.
The eyewitness was later taken to Martin County, where he identified the driver as the same man he saw at the scene of the incident.
Shooter identified as 58 year old Ryan Wesley Routh.
His twitter description:
"Ryan Routh 🇺🇸 @RyanRouth I feel lucky to have been born in America, with freedom and opportunity and hope that I do not waste such a valuable thing; to do more and take less."
“shooter named by Fox: Ryan Routh. Tried to fight in Ukraine. Seemed to be heavily involved into recruiting people to fight for the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.”
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask. FTBs have a clear run on those. 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector. Private and Social rented sectors are both close to being fully occupied.
The occupation statistic is meaningless, its just measuring the fact that more owner occupiers are old people who bought their family home when they were younger and had kids and now still live there as grandparents but without kids in the building anymore.
Unless you want to kick people out of their home rather than just building more homes, there's no solution or relevance to that statistic.
All my 3 children own their homes and are not 'old' people and our youngest is likely to own our family home in due course
How old are your children? I know people think of their offspring as children indefinitely, but you and your good lady wife are in your late 70/early 80s.
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask. FTBs have a clear run on those. 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector. Private and Social rented sectors are both close to being fully occupied.
The occupation statistic is meaningless, its just measuring the fact that more owner occupiers are old people who bought their family home when they were younger and had kids and now still live there as grandparents but without kids in the building anymore.
Unless you want to kick people out of their home rather than just building more homes, there's no solution or relevance to that statistic.
All my 3 children own their homes and are not 'old' people and our youngest is likely to own our family home in due course
How old are your children? I know people think of their offspring as children indefinitely, but you and your good lady wife are in your late 70/early 80s.
Much of the demand for rental properties comes from young people with tens of thousands of savings but who are out-competed by BTL landlords and cash buyers when attempting to buy their own home.
I was one of them. It took an enormous bung from my parents to get on the ladder - for the years I was renting, a very large chunk of my salary went on paying off someone else's mortgage. Now I have my own.
If landlords flee the market and leave housing available for first time buyers, demand for rental properties will fall as much as supply.
There are at least four problems with this:
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people. 2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers. 3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask. FTBs have a clear run on those. 4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector. Private and Social rented sectors are both close to being fully occupied.
The occupation statistic is meaningless, its just measuring the fact that more owner occupiers are old people who bought their family home when they were younger and had kids and now still live there as grandparents but without kids in the building anymore.
Unless you want to kick people out of their home rather than just building more homes, there's no solution or relevance to that statistic.
All my 3 children own their homes and are not 'old' people and our youngest is likely to own our family home in due course
How old are your children? I know people think of their offspring as children indefinitely, but you and your good lady wife are in your late 70/early 80s.
57 - 53 - 49
They have all bought their homes when they were in their thirties
Vlad trying to do his mate a favour and boost the polling after a terrible week for Trump?
This one certainly lends itself to conspiracy theories.
Seems an odd place to attempt anything, given it is a controlled environment.
So, wait, we ARE allowed to invent connytheerz about this sassytempt, just not the prior one with the seekyservs?
Got that. Thanks
I'm not suggesting there is or was one - after all, is anyone actually surprised that this might happen?
Just that an incident only witnessed by half a dozen involved people might be easy to construct an alternative narrative for as opposed to one where there is plenty of public evidence of what actually happened.
The FBI, Secret Service and local Sheriff's office have just given a press conference.
A Secret Service agent in charge of staying one hole ahead of Trump on his golf course spotted a rifle sticking out of bushes One or more secret service agents then opened fire on a potential suspect Police units then sealed off the area immediately A witness saw a man running from the bushes and entering a black Nissan car Police then pulled over the black Nissan and the man was detained An AK-47 style rifle with a scope was recovered from a bush where the suspect was seen, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera
Former police chief Martin Hewitt has been appointed to lead the UK's new Border Security Command, which will focus on tackling small boat crossings.
As chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), Mr Hewitt previously coordinated action by UK police forces on issues including terrorism and organised crime.
Rachel Wearmouth 🦋 @REWearmouth I gather Alex Baker was not booed out of the pub after all & actually stayed to have lunch with her family. The people who targeted her were from Rushmoor People First, a group who’d been protesting against flats being used to house migrants
Former police chief Martin Hewitt has been appointed to lead the UK's new Border Security Command, which will focus on tackling small boat crossings.
As chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), Mr Hewitt previously coordinated action by UK police forces on issues including terrorism and organised crime.
Maybe I've been spending too long on r/neoliberal but I feel like recruiting Afghan refugees to defend Taiwan isn't such a bad idea. The threat from China is real and apparently it's pretty hard to turn Taiwanese kids into killing machines.
The FBI, Secret Service and local Sheriff's office have just given a press conference.
A Secret Service agent in charge of staying one hole ahead of Trump on his golf course spotted a rifle sticking out of bushes One or more secret service agents then opened fire on a potential suspect Police units then sealed off the area immediately A witness saw a man running from the bushes and entering a black Nissan car Police then pulled over the black Nissan and the man was detained An AK-47 style rifle with a scope was recovered from a bush where the suspect was seen, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera
Has he got a Russian accent?
Per my bsky feed he seems to be a pro-NATO radical. Tried to organize an Afghan militia to fight in Ukraine and/or Taiwan. Tried to broker an anti-Trump pact between Haley and Ramaswamy. Also previously ran for mayor of Honolulu on a platform of normalizing relations with North Korea, not sure where that fits in.
The FBI, Secret Service and local Sheriff's office have just given a press conference.
A Secret Service agent in charge of staying one hole ahead of Trump on his golf course spotted a rifle sticking out of bushes One or more secret service agents then opened fire on a potential suspect Police units then sealed off the area immediately A witness saw a man running from the bushes and entering a black Nissan car Police then pulled over the black Nissan and the man was detained An AK-47 style rifle with a scope was recovered from a bush where the suspect was seen, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera
Has he got a Russian accent?
Per my bsky feed he seems to be a pro-NATO radical. Tried to organize an Afghan militia to fight in Ukraine and/or Taiwan. Also previously ran for mayor of Honolulu on a platform of normalizing relations with North Korea, not sure where that fits in.
The FBI, Secret Service and local Sheriff's office have just given a press conference.
A Secret Service agent in charge of staying one hole ahead of Trump on his golf course spotted a rifle sticking out of bushes One or more secret service agents then opened fire on a potential suspect Police units then sealed off the area immediately A witness saw a man running from the bushes and entering a black Nissan car Police then pulled over the black Nissan and the man was detained An AK-47 style rifle with a scope was recovered from a bush where the suspect was seen, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera
Has he got a Russian accent?
Per my bsky feed he seems to be a pro-NATO radical. Tried to organize an Afghan militia to fight in Ukraine and/or Taiwan. Also previously ran for mayor of Honolulu on a platform of normalizing relations with North Korea, not sure where that fits in.
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
I think it is on a knife edge. With a small popular vote arrange to Harris
As Hillary can attest, winning the popular vote means squat.
Harris is doing better than Hillary in the EC but worse in the popular vote.
She is doing worse than Biden 2020 in both. It likely comes down to Pennsylvania and Georgia of which Harris needs to win one and Trump needs to win both
Harris has done zillions of visits to PA and NPR is featuring GA all this coming week
I'm seeing twitter stuff saying this is more to do with some flats for migrants in the area.
Whatever it is Labour mps being chased out of their local is not a good look for them
Turns out, according to Rachael Wearmouth it was fake news and she didn't leave the pub under duress after all. Did you know Jeremy Clarkson has banned Starmer from his pub?There's a lot of it about.
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
Nate Silver jumped his shark some time back. He's about as credible as Frank Luntz - who just called the race for Harris.
Neither have any more of a clue than you or I.
Allan Lichtman has also called it for Harris. He's been more accurate than Nate Silver (he called 2016 for Trump).
Can people stop shooting at Trump . We’re now going to get a week of the orange psycho channeling his no surrender routine .
He is going to use this, even though it looks unconnected, but the election is only just over 8 weeks away so not much longer to wait for Harris to win POTUS
She's not going to win. Trump wins the College.
After your incredibly confidence - repeated ad nauseam on here every night - that Rishi would win, do you think it might be time to dial down the attention-seeking certainty?
Sorry Anabob, but if you believe a Harris win to be likely you may be very disappointed. Nate Silver is calling it for Trump. Several non-partisans on here are calling the College for Trump too.
Nate Silver jumped his shark some time back. He's about as credible as Frank Luntz - who just called the race for Harris.
Neither have any more of a clue than you or I.
Allan Lichtman has also called it for Harris. He's been more accurate than Nate Silver (he called 2016 for Trump).
He doesn't believe in polls at all. He has a checklist of 13 things. As for versus Silver, what made Nate a superstar was his ability to not only pick POTUS but how accurate he was all the way down the tickets.
All these people are often considered Nostradamus until they aren't.
I heard Ed Davey on News Agents earlier this week. Total drivel.
It’s sad, but the Lib Dems seem to have mutated from a gang of liberal policy wonks to somethin akin to a Waitrose users group.
Presume the Liberal Democrat magazine now comes with recipe ideas sponsored by Charlie Bigham.
Anything you want to complain about specifically or are you just having a Sunday afternoon whinge?
I just told you. Davey came across well-meaning but having no actual conception of challenges faced by the country.
And in theory, I’m a Davey supporter (and in practice a Lib Dem voter).
As I wrote this I thought to myself, the Lib Dems are now the sort of party that supports the WASPI women cause.
I checked, and of course they do.
Not serious.
The weird thing is, the LDs had an open goal and an obvious role: become the Rejoin Now party
Promise an instant return to the SM and CU and a new referendum within a year
Yet they refused to take the chance and waffled vaguely, instead
They should have been the Remainer version of the SNP. Make Rejoin their one big profound policy, their raison d’etre
In a weird volatile election, with lots of Remainers looking warily (and with justification) at Starmer, that could have been explosive. But no
It must be PTSD from Jo Swinson and 2019 when the timing was wrong.
I don’t agree with Leon on this.
There’s no electoral advantage in being a single cause party, at least within the English electoral system where Lib Dem fortunes are won and lost.
Their current policy is relatively sensible - move toward single market membership this parliament. They perhaps should make more of it, but I don’t think it ought to be their sole focus.
Over the long term, you’re right
But for this one weird election - GE 2024 now gone - I’m right. REJOIN NOW could have electrified everything. Angry Remainers might have stampeded towards them. Lots of pissed off people might have thought: Sod it. Lib Dems. Fuck Brexit. Fuck wishy washy Starmer. Rejoin with the Libs!!
They might have won enough seats to become the Opposition - a game changer
The opportunity is highly unlikely to arise again
11 (15 with by-elections) to 72 is better than my wildest dreams -! expected 30 seats, hoped for 40, went to bed at 50, and woke at 70!! They have played a blinder. With Reform still there, Labour's pensioner £300 (the Labour party's University fees) and the Tories broke and still in a mess goodness knows what will happen next time!
No, you fucked it up
And your comment shows why. You can’t imagine being the actual Opposition, you’re content in your tiny little role
The Tories will return in 2029 (perhaps doing a deal with Reform, but not merging) and you will go back down to 30 seats. You missed your chance
The Tories will return? Without a popular or charismatic leader - which of the current lot would you suggest? - not a hope. Members are dropping like flies, who under 60 would vote Tory?
That's why Edinburgh manages to have such an expansive but profitable service. You can get almost anywhere in the city usually with just two routes (often just one). Buses are frequent enough that you don't need to consult a timetable. So it's the default method of travelling more than a mile, and has 120 million journeys a year.
Edinburgh's bus system is what you get when the people in charge understand that adding connections to a transport network increases the value and usefulness of the network as a whole even if, as you say, the individual route isn't profitable. And they also grasp the 15 minute rule.
The contrast with my area (Inverclyde) couldn't be more stark. The bus company deliberately runs services with poor frequency and inconvenient routes to be able to claim they're unprofitable and demand a subsidy to keep them going.
They also fragment routes for the same reason. The local hospital is only 10 miles from my home, but it takes three buses and around 2 hours to make that journey. If one of the buses is late, or it is outside office hours, that time can balloon to over 3 hours.
I can jump on my scooter and do that trip in 20 minutes...
Comments
This is just ridiculously pleasant
Time to watch the sports channels
Sir Keir Starmer said “most” of the stories about his chief of staff Sue Gray are “wildly wrong”, after reports of rifts in No 10.
Gray has been the subject of numerous newspaper stories since Labour entered government, including claims she has a fractious relationship with Cabinet Secretary Simon Case and strategy chief Morgan McSweeney.
Another within government said of Gray’s leadership: “However bad you think it is, it’s worse.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g559jvp77o
(There are a couple of gaps in the middle but they're not important)
1 - Much of the demand for rental property also does *not* come from young people.
2 - If they are in a position to purchase LLs will not in general out-compete them. A key thing about a viable rental is that the viability is set up on the way in, by buying at a good price. If they have 10s of thousands of savings and an approved mortgage approval in place they effectively *are* cash buyers.
3 - Large numbers of new housing developments simply ban sales to landlords. I see that in most new developments in my area. Yes, I do take the trouble to ask. FTBs have a clear run on those.
4 - The equal occupation claim is not true. I refer you to the spare bedrooms stats in the English Housing Survey, for example. They show that under occupation overwhelmingly exists in the Owner Occupied sector. Private and Social rented sectors are both close to being fully occupied.
The reports I’ve seen say only that the SS agent did.
If that was the case, he might actually be dead.
Mr. Brusiloff drew his chair closer.
"Let me tell you one vairy funny story about putting. It was one day I play at Nijni-Novgorod with the pro. against Lenin and Trotsky, and Trotsky had a two-inch putt for the hole. But, just as he addresses the ball, someone in the crowd he tries to assassinate Lenin with a rewolwer—you know that is our great national sport, trying to assassinate Lenin with rewolwers—and the bang puts Trotsky off his stroke and he goes five yards past the hole, and then Lenin, who is rather shaken, you understand, he misses again himself, and we win the hole and match and I clean up three hundred and ninety-six thousand roubles, or fifteen shillings in your money. Some gameovitch!…..”
Can you demonstrate that?
That taking out a mortgage to buy an existing property and charge rent to tenants has been a viable business model has been a bad thing for the country.
The vast majority don't get it at 60.
2) I was pipped a few times because sellers preferred dealing with a cash buyer, even with a decision in principle.
4) That's an interesting point, but you'd also have to weight it by the time rental properties are empty between tenancies as well as age. You might find if more younger people owned properties, the occupancy rate would increase (particularly once kids come along)
In general AFAICS they target deciles 5-8 (mainly 6-8) on the income spectrum, and load their offering up with value added services, ie basically the professional, young professional, retired professional markets. If you like add in trustafarians.
See also the customer and property profile of companies such as Grainger PLC.
That is essentially a different sector to the traditional PRS. They have too much overhead to compete in the market made up of individual properties.
When people manage to buy, they desperately want to get away from that. This leads to such extravagances as a couple occupying a 2 bedroom flat all by themselves.
Having said that, I think it's a great scheme since it encourages pensioners to socialise.
https://x.com/FT/status/1835412261390684487?t=ZT1-TuorVSrNt0DXX_Jvxw&s=19
He's about as credible as Frank Luntz - who just called the race for Harris.
Neither have any more of a clue than you or I.
No, surely not!
And missed. Several times.
@b4sed7
🚨NEW: Aldershot’s MP, Alex Baker, who voted to freeze pensioners this winter has just been kicked out the pub by angry locals. "
https://x.com/b4sed7/status/1835350964556980400
Seems an odd place to attempt anything, given it is a controlled environment.
If you happen to be an ideologue communist who has deliberately chosen to live somewhere not serviced by a profitable bus route, then that just goes to show a failure on your part.
Tsk.
Seems a bit odd when anyone wanting to take a pot shot is likely to be carrying something heavier given what is freely available in Walmart. You'd half expect them to be towing artillery.
Unless you want to kick people out of their home rather than just building more homes, there's no solution or relevance to that statistic.
She is doing worse than Biden
2020 in both. It likely comes
down to Pennsylvania and
Georgia of which Harris needs to
win one and Trump needs to win both
Surely it would be yet another security failure if all Trump had was lightly armed protection officers.
That's why Edinburgh manages to have such an expansive but profitable service. You can get almost anywhere in the city usually with just two routes (often just one). Buses are frequent enough that you don't need to consult a timetable. So it's the default method of travelling more than a mile, and has 120 million journeys a year.
Got that. Thanks
Then the USSS Counter Assault Team (CAT) further out are in combat gear and helmets and carry AR-15 pattern weapons, specifically the Knight’s Armament SR-16 CQB Mod 2.1. If you fuck with them you will get several gunshot wounds that you can poke your fist thru.
Then further out still are the USSS Counter Sniper Team, who carry proper rifles for cases where range and accuracy is important instead of volume. They look like cops with baseball caps and use Remington 700 long action rifles. If you fuck with them your body will be intact but they'll never find the bits of your head.
https://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/secret-service-guns-and-gear-of-july-13th-2024-44814994
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFhzIHVxB1s
A Secret Service agent in charge of staying one hole ahead of Trump on his golf course spotted a rifle sticking out of bushes
One or more secret service agents then opened fire on a potential suspect
Police units then sealed off the area immediately
A witness saw a man running from the bushes and entering a black Nissan car
Police then pulled over the black Nissan and the man was detained
An AK-47 style rifle with a scope was recovered from a bush where the suspect was seen, along with two backpacks and a GoPro camera
According to the sheriff, an eyewitness was able to provide a description of the vehicle and even its number plate, which was put through a real-time crime centre.
Soon after, the vehicle was located on a nearby highway headed to nearby Martin County, Florida.
Officers in Martin County were alerted and pulled the vehicle over to detain the suspect.
The eyewitness was later taken to Martin County, where he identified the driver as the same man he saw at the scene of the incident.
His twitter description:
"Ryan Routh 🇺🇸
@RyanRouth
I feel lucky to have been born in America, with freedom and opportunity and hope that I do not waste such a valuable thing; to do more and take less."
https://x.com/jordanschachtel/status/1835436937630327210?s=46&t=bulOICNH15U6kB0MwE6Lfw
“shooter named by Fox: Ryan Routh. Tried to fight in Ukraine. Seemed to be heavily involved into recruiting people to fight for the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.”
Probably not, but it would have been embarrassing if they had shot him.
Just that an incident only witnessed by half a dozen involved people might be easy to construct an alternative narrative for as opposed to one where there is plenty of public evidence of what actually happened.
What I expect is that it was just another nutter.
As chairman of the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC), Mr Hewitt previously coordinated action by UK police forces on issues including terrorism and organised crime.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2yym0dk9zo
Rachel Wearmouth 🦋
@REWearmouth
I gather Alex Baker was not booed out of the pub after all & actually stayed to have lunch with her family. The people who targeted her were from Rushmoor People First, a group who’d been protesting against flats being used to house migrants
https://x.com/REWearmouth/status/1835418252182270053
@RonFilipkowski
·
1h
Trump just sent out a fundraising email to attempt to take advantage of the latest incident at his golf course.
Sorry it’s exactly who you are .
All these people are often considered Nostradamus until they aren't.
The contrast with my area (Inverclyde) couldn't be more stark. The bus company deliberately runs services with poor frequency and inconvenient routes to be able to claim they're unprofitable and demand a subsidy to keep them going.
They also fragment routes for the same reason. The local hospital is only 10 miles from my home, but it takes three buses and around 2 hours to make that journey. If one of the buses is late, or it is outside office hours, that time can balloon to over 3 hours.
I can jump on my scooter and do that trip in 20 minutes...