If You Really Want To Condemn The Poor To Poverty, Cancel 'Right To Buy'...

Growing up in a council flat in the 1980s and 1990s, my mum would often point out homes that tenants had bought from the council. You could usually tell just from looking. A plain wooden door had been replaced with something fancier. New windows had appeared. Sometimes there was a porch or pillars outside the front door.Those houses were bought under the Right to Buy scheme - arguably the most consequential housing policy of my lifetime.

Supporters welcomed the chance for working-class families to own their own home and build wealth. Critics argue it hollowed out the country's stock of social housing and contributed to today's housing.

 Really? Are you sure that’s the cause?

🎵 Where have all the houses gone, gone to invaders every one…🎵

But Andy Burnham doesn't like the policy. The Right to Buy scheme has seen various changes since its introduction in the 1980s, and Labour has weakened it significantly since coming to power in 2024. Then, in September, the prime minister told Labour's conference: "We will reform Right to Buy. Not taking the right away from anyone in an existing home, but removing it from new homes." This would help to keep council houses in public ownership "for generations to come", Burnham told delegates.

to allocate them to whom, Andeh?  

Sir Keir Starmer's government restricted the scheme, including by heavily reducing the maximum discount that councils were allowed to give tenants.

Yes, Starmer was a moron too, we haven’t forgotten. 

And now Burnham is removing the right to buy entirely from any new-build social home. The measures are included in a bill currently making its way through Parliament.

For those who became homeowners, Right to Buy turned a dream into reality. Barbara Stevens, now 80, bought her two-bedroom council flat in Kentish Town, north London, through Right to Buy for around £35,000. Now mortgage-free, she estimates it could be worth between £600,000 and £700,000.Her friend Trevor Abrahmsohn believes her story demonstrates the success of the scheme. "If you want to condemn the poor to poverty, make them lifetime renters," he says.

And lifelong Labour voters, too… 

Even Housing Secretary Angela Rayner - part of the government that's restricting Right to Buy - bought and later sold her own council home for a profit.

Oh yes, we remember! 

But to its detractors, Right to Buy is responsible for many of Britain's housing woes. Prof Tunstall says the policy is partly responsible for making social housing scarcer, which meant more people competed for homes in the private rented sector, pushing up rents.

And heaven forfend Prof Tunstall confronts the elephant in the room… 

Lord Heseltine says it was originally assumed that councils would use sale proceeds to support new housing. He acknowledges that did not happen after he left government.

And no one in all the subsequent governments did anything about it. 

Supporters of Right to Buy also argue that you can't appreciate the true value of the scheme by looking at numbers on a spreadsheet. The benefits of the policy extended for generations, they say, helping the children and grandchildren of those who bought homes.

To Labour, that’s not a plus, because it removes people from dependency on the State. 

When I was a child and my mum rented from the council, she knew what she would be charged every month. She knew we wouldn't suddenly be forced to move. My siblings and I knew we wouldn't have to change schools. At that point, in the 1980s, one third of houses in England were council-owned. When my mum became pregnant with me, it was safe to assume that a home would soon become available - and within about a year, one did. She moved out of my nan's and into her new council flat. The children I now meet through my work often do not have that certainty. Today, the average wait for a family-sized home in London is 27 years. Some children are moved repeatedly between hotels and hostels. Councils across England now spend £8m every day housing families in temporary accommodation.

When you were growing up, your mum wasn’t in a queue behind half the Third World, was she? 

Sometimes The Replies Just Write Themselves...

 

A fear smile. Did you know humans displayed such behaviour, Reader? I didn't. 

But I know which animal does...

We Are Turning Into America…

Police are hunting for two suspects, one of whom is believed to have been carrying a sword, following an altercation that left a teenager injured.

Medieval weapons in a modern Britain. Lovely! 

Armed police were called to the incident near St Peter's High School in Gloucester earlier. The school and Willow Primary Academy were put into lockdown while officers searched for the group who had fled the scene.

And amazingly, descriptions were forthcoming very quickly! 

Police described both suspects as white males. One is aged in his late teens to early 20s, of a medium to large build, and about 6ft tall. He was wearing white sliders at the time of the incident. The other suspect is described as being about 5ft 5ins tall, of slim build and wearing black clothing.

But the majority of the panic induced here appears to have been caused by - not the thugs, as you might expect - but the response to them. 

St Peter's High School pupil Jimmy said the situation was "really scary" and he was still in shock. After getting into the Tuffley school for the day, he said his friends came in and told him something had happened near his home. He said the school's alarm then went off and the computer he was on displayed a message saying "This is a lockdown". "The computers are not accessible at all and we've all had to turn the lights off, lock the doors, turn all the blinds down, and we've had to get on the ground," he said. "At the time I was scared. My heart was racing," he added. Jimmy said pupils were locked in their classrooms for two to three hours.

Why? It won't have taken police this long to arrive and secue the scene. 

The 15-year-old said he was able to message his mother when the school let students use their phones after about an hour.

How good of them. But now we see a downside to not allowing phones in schools, don;t we.  

Another parent outside the school gates earlier, whose daughter is in Year 8 and nephew is in Year 7, said the family was "so worried". "I'm slightly calmer now the police have told us they're safe but I want to take them home. 

"I haven't heard from them because they aren't allowed phones in school," she added.

There's always a downside, and here it is for all to see, so will it force a rethink or are heads of schools just arrogant enough to ignore it. Probably, if thy sre callous enough to imprison their students for so long after one of thrse incidents. 

'You Have Arrived At Your Destination' Actually, Rowley

As your taxpayer-provided vehicle will tell you, because I'm sure it has a sat-nav. Only thr best for the head of the Met, eh?

The police system in England and Wales cannot cope against sophisticated modern criminals without urgent reform, the head of the Metropolitan Police has said. In a speech on Friday, Sir Mark Rowley argued the system was "heading for failure" without change.

No, it’s not heading there, it arrived quite a while ago, and before you took over, so why haven’t you grabbed the steering wheel and turned it around? 

He is proposing eight to 10 regional police forces, supported by hundreds of local policing commands and a new national force, in what would be the biggest overhaul of policing since the 1960s.The changes would replace the 43-force structure with three tiers: local teams dealing with neighbourhood issues, regional forces sharing specialist resources and a National Police Service tackling the most serious crimes.

Oh, I see, because you want it to crash! 

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood produced a white paper that aligned with their ideas and asked the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Hogan-Howe to look at what the force boundaries might be. But everything changed in July when Andy Burnham became prime minister. So far, Burnham has not spoken publicly about the plans, and the police chiefs are nervous that they may not have his backing.

A sensible man would be nervous if they had the backing of this utter fool, but not you, eh, Rowley? 

We Will Remember Them...

 

Let the boy try along this bayonet-blade 

How cold steel is, and keen with hunger of blood; 

Blue with all malice, like a madman's flash; 

And thinly drawn with famishing for flesh. 

Lend him to stroke these blind, blunt bullet-leads,  

Which long to nuzzle in the hearts of lads, 

Or give him cartridges of fine zinc teeth 

Sharp with the sharpness of grief and death. 

 For his teeth seem for laughing round an apple.

There lurk no claws behind his fingers supple; 

And God will grow no talons at his heels, 

Nor antlers through the thickness of his curls. 

Wilfred Owen

A Week Of Two Significant Court Cases...

...though from the MSM coverage, you'd think there was only one.This one. And was that because of the ‘celebrity’ aspect or because the MSM didn’t want to confront the questions asked about the very basis of law and order in the UK in the other? I have my suspicions, Reader….

So to the first one - Russell Brand, former darling of the Left, now on trial for that most egregious crime - rape and sexual assault before he became a celebrity. A trial with no physical evidence, hinging on consent and blurred lines, with the victims clearly consenting to some acts, but claiming others outraged their decency.

And indeed, though you wouldn’t believe it from the triumphant nature of the feminist-led outcry, the jury did not deliver a clean sweep of guilty verdicts, only some of the charges were proven.

That Brand is a scoundrel of the sort who would once be warned about as ‘not safe in taxis’ by your mum ( a description that means little in these modern times of Ubers driven by foreign invaders) is a given, but let’s not pretend that the women involved did not know this. But according to perceived modern wisdom such thoughts are ‘victim blaming’, which brings us on to the other case.

The perpetrator of the murder of Henry Nowak appealed against his sentence, at the same time as the appeal against the leniency of that sentence, and good triumphed over evil, for once, at least as far as the murder. The police are yet to receive their reckoning for their actions, and I doubt they ever will, given the lack of interest of the MSM, when compared to the way they reacted to the Brand verdict.

But I ask you, Reader, which case shows how far we have fallen as a society of law and order?

Why Does Anyone Take These People Seriously?

Hollywood idol James McAvoy has been branded ‘absurd’ after blaming England for Scots hitting the bottle.

Wise advice from the internet...

 But OK, let's deconstuct this, shall we, Reader? I mean, we know how the MSM loves to mislead us, so maybe he didn’t say any such thing?

On her podcast Dear Chelsea, comedienne Chelsea Handler asked McAvoy, 47, about Scotland’s reputation for hard drinking and the SNP’s push for yet another vote on ripping Scotland out of the Union.

Oh, not an official interview in the MSM, then… 

He said: ‘I’m not looking to perpetuate stereotypes about Scottish people. At the same time, why is there a stereotype – because usually there’s some sort of truth in it. ‘I’m not saying all Scottish people drink tons, but there are certain realities about my country, about the way it’s been handled, the second-class citizenry as a part of the UK – not just us, but Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland suffer and even parts of England.‘We tried to (separate) in 2015, was it... 2016 we had the referendum? We nearly got it across. ‘We’re pushing for it (again). Alright, you made it a law that we can’t do this again, but it’s weird saying to a whole bunch of people that they can’t vote on sovereignty.’

Pretty incoherent, and he can’t feel that aggrieved if he can’t even remember when the vote was! 

McAvoy also aimed a foul-mouthed broadside at late former first minister Alex Salmond for losing the 2014 referendum. He said: ‘I think it was poorly led last time. The leader of the national party just didn’t have answers. There was a point where he was doing one of those, you know, the leader stands on a plinth and they kind of battle each other. ‘And they said: “What’s going to happen with the currency? Are we going to keep the UK pound, or are we going to go into the euro? The euro might not let us in. What are we going to do?”. ‘And he went: “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it”. And we’re like: “We’re f****** standing on the bridge, m***********”. S*** like that lost the vote.’

If a politician for once being honest, and not claiming to have all the answers to events that haven’t happened yet, disturbs you, you don’t deserve independence!

McAvoy added: ‘Don’t get me wrong, I live in London, my kids are English. ‘I’m not down on England. Even (talking to) the English, I’m like: “Why do you want us?”.’

Good point at last. But at least someone can use this for publicity for her personal hobby- horse:

Carolyn Lochhead, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: ‘More than 1,000 people in Scotland died because of alcohol (last year). ‘However, this isn’t a problem unique to Scotland. The UK as a whole is experiencing an alcohol health emergency.’

🙄 

A Joke On The World Stage....

 We are a deeply unserious country with a weak and ineffectual Prime Minister: 

Single-use sachets for condiments such as ketchup, mayonnaise and soy sauce will no longer be allowed for dine-in customers at restaurants across the EU from Aug. 12 under new packaging waste rules aimed at reducing plastic pollution. The measure is part of the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), which entered into force in February 2025 and will begin applying across member states this summer.

It was inevitable - first they came for the little plastic fish,  and I didn’t eat sushi, so I did not complain, and….. you know how it goes.

And you may ask why what the EU does should matter to us, and I’d refer you to that weak and ineffectual PM because it shouldn’t matter, given we are no longer in it, but we have an idiot in No 10. And worse, an idiot that wants to take us back into it, so will do everything he can tonight follow their every move. No matter how idiotic. 

Under the regulation, restaurants serving customers on-site will be required to replace disposable condiment packets with alternatives such as refillable dispensers, reusable containers or table-service bottles.The European Commission said the rules are designed to reduce packaging waste and encourage a shift toward a more circular economy.

Oh well, at least we will see a return of these, for a quick nostalgia boost! 

If we're going back to the Seventies, we might as well look like it!

The condiment sachet restrictions are part of broader EU efforts to curb packaging waste. Beginning in 2030, additional single-use packaging products, including miniature shampoo and soap bottles commonly found in hotels, are also expected to be phased out under the regulation.

I was wondering why hotels no longer provided these, preferring to fix dispensers to the shower walls instead. And I miss the shower caps but as they were plastic, I guess they are verboten in our brave new world too. 

He Must Have Attended The Alec Baldwin School Of Firearm Safety

The Hollywood director Michael Mann has been taken to the hospital following an apparently accidental shooting at a Los Angeles gun range, according to the Associated Press. Mann, 83, reportedly shot himself in the leg while at The Range LA. The news was first reported on the celebrity website TMZ. He sustained what his representative described as a superficial injury after a weapon accidentally discharged while holstered.

How does that happen? Did he fail to put the safety on (assuming it wasn’t a revolver)? 

TMZ reported that Mann had been trying to holster his weapon when the gun accidentally discharged. Emergency services were then called and he was taken to a hospital.

Good grief! 

Mann is preparing to shoot a sequel to Heat – one of the most acclaimed crime movies of recent decades – starring Christian Bale and Leonardo DiCaprio.

A film that is famous for its dramatic gun battles. Maybe he should have got some tips from the experts on set!

Dystopia...

Builders will have to get training in 'respectful behaviour' to tackle the 'culture of crude banter' on construction sites under Labour's new workers' rights laws. The human rights watchdog published guidance on the 'legal obligations' for bosses yesterday as Angela Rayner's controversial 'banter ban' came into force.The 141-page Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance gives an example of a large construction firm and lists 14 changes it would have to make to comply with Labour's new laws.

This Labour government seems set on using the plot of the movie ‘Demolition Man’ for ideas. 

The fictional construction firm has a 'high risk of sexual harassment' because it has a male-dominated workforce and 'a culture of crude banter', the watchdog's example warns. It adds that the company would have to take 'urgent action' to create a 'more inclusive workforce culture' and prevent any harassment on site – or face the threat of legal challenges and huge fines. Among the steps the construction firm would have to take to comply with Labour's laws would be 'sending a formal letter to all clients and contractors to advise of the firm's refreshed stance on tackling sexual harassment'.

Funny how they have chosen a building site as an example to create their example from, and not a mosque, which is far more misogynistic, but no doubt gets an exemption for religious reasons…

And bosses would have to run 'training for all staff, with particular emphasis on inclusion, respectful behaviour and the importance [of] all staff reporting any sexual harassment', the guidance adds.

Because no system of oppression can flourish without a class of informer.

Tory business spokesman Julia Lopez said: 'Labour's banter ban has only been in force for a day and has already reached the building site, with construction firms facing yet more red tape and training requirements to police workplace conversations. 

'Labour is creating a climate where employers are left walking on eggshells, worrying about innocent comments their staff make that could end up falling foul of the new regime.'

And that isn't even the half of it! 

Small-boat migrants working in Britain illegally can sue their bosses for harassment under Labour's strengthened workers' rights laws, new guidance warns. The human rights watchdog has published fresh direction on the 'legal obligations' for bosses to tackle harassment after Angela Rayner's Employment Rights Act came into force on Friday.The guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) includes the case of a 'migrant worker without a valid work permit' to explain what could now constitute harassment.

If you wanted to destroy a country without actually going to war, then these sort of laws are exactly how you would go about it!