Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housing. Show all posts

Tuesday, 28 January 2025

Alternative für Deutschland Far Right or Far Correct?


Alternative für Deutschland means that Far Right is Far Correct



The mess created by so called mainstream political parties is such that only political parties like Alternative für Deutschland can turn things for the better. For decades, Europe has been absorbing the mess created in other continents and being flooded with both victims and opportunists who seek to take advantage of a Welfare System paid for by hard working peoples. Most migrants end up not working or working in subsidized jobs, taking over services, housing and welfare infrastructure while locals who have paid for those services, housing and welfare are made to work harder at the best of times or to be without essentials at the worst of times.

So local and regional authorities are running out of money or have run out of money. Why? Migration. They are crumbling under the weight of inflated budgets that are not affordable. The Labour Party aka Champagne Socialists could not care less. Taxes keep going up, borrowing keeps going up and services are cut. When things are going in the wrong way, so called mainstream politicians try whatever they can to maintain the status quo, regardless of the consequences.

It is now that the Far Right / Far Correct has a vital role to play to amend what has been going wrong. So called Diversity has undermined public services by adding unnecessary costs that have nothing to do with the declared aims of public services.

Sexuality has been politized to the point of pretending that political statements about a myriad of non existing genders can change reality. Gender disphoria is a reality but is a reality that does not change the fact that we are talking about men and women. This is many cases has had a negative economic impact and negative social impact. 



Saturday, 26 October 2024

Wednesday, October 30th, 2024 - Budget Day

 

This is personal, stated the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves. She refers to realities of the 1980s and 1990s. The Chancellor's efforts to gather capital will drag hundreds of thousands more people into paying tax and even more into higher rates as their pay rises, indicates none other than The Guardian.

Could a personal crusade turn into a nightmare? Changing fiscal rules to disguise debt making it appear as something else does not change the fact that it will still be borrowing. So more taxes and more borrowing that will be increased for public interest, according to the Chancellor.

Ordinary folk and many business were badly hit by the Covid Pandemic and the measures implemented to deal with the Covid Pandemic. After that, people and many business were hit by the energy crise generated by the conflict in Ukraine and the measures adopted against the Russian Federation. 

Now, they stand to be hit again by taxation and potentially higher prices of utilities, housing and daily shopping.

But the Chancellor of the Exchequer still says that she will implement the budget in a way that she will 'protect the living standards of working people'. 

Well, in an interview made in Washington, USA, Rachel Reeves - perhaps inadvertently - made promises that she will have to deliver. If she does not deliver and if the measures implemented by the Labour government become a de facto nightmare, then this will create a widely open door for another Conservative government.

Starting on Wednesday, October 30th, 2024, the government will have to deliver and with every failure, and every new crise, there will be many by-elections along the way in which people will express their discontent.

She talks about building schools and hospitals. Well, what will she do about nurses salaries that are not enough to rent a one bedroom flat? If living costs keep rising, this will be a de facto devaluation of salaries and a worsening of living standards. Before she goes around building schools and hospitals, she will have to look carefully at salaries actually paid to teachers and NHS staff. 

Even with the triple lock, state pensions are not enough to rent a one bedroom flat. State pensions are totally insufficient. Taxing state pensions and private pensions can only worsen an already bad situation. And this is going to do nothing to 'protect living standards'.  

Saturday, 24 August 2024

Britain: long before the first official budget is published, announcements are not encouraging

Britain: long before the first official budget is published, announcements are not encouraging

As part of point scoring, two digit salary increases are announced for public workers and Union workers while, at the same time, measures to support pensioners are discontinued and new increases of utility bills are announced.

Presumably, in october, we are going to be told about a tax shower. So get your spreadsheets ready because it is going to take some time to calculate how much ordinary britons are gong to be hit with a barrage of taxes and utility bills that sooner than later are going to be reflected on the cost of basic items of the family basket. Nominal values might be going up but real values are going to make you poorer.

We are really and truly talking about a new period of austerity, but this time under a Labour government. The Labour Party played a new version of 'read my lips, no more taxes' and the gullible fell for it. People are going to be taxed to the hilt and beyond. Let's look at rental prices. They were already beyond reach for a growing number of peoples.

If you are going to have even less disposable income, things can only be worse and one of the most worrying bits for any economy is a massive reduction of consumption. Using Covid as an example, if people - deterred by rising taxes and rising utility bills - start consuming less and less then already struggling businesses will go out of business pushing upwards unemployment numbers.

In any case, get your spreadsheets ready. 



Thursday, 13 June 2024

The Truth shall set you free: You cannot promise salary increases and all kinds of improvements without putting up taxes, borrowing or both borrowing and putting up taxes

 


As July 4th 2024 approaches, both of the main contenders in the UK General Election are promising cakes and promising that you can eat your cake, and that you will have the same cake after eating it. They will have to put up taxes and borrow ever more and most probably print monies in what has been known as 'quantitative easing'. 

The Unions are already making noises and saying that they will request that promises made by Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves are delivered. She has already spoken about salary increases in the public sector and this includes the most fundamental services like the NHS, the biggest employer in Europe and possibly the biggest employer in the world.

July 4th, 2024 happens to be Independence Day in the USA, but in Britain it might become Dependence Day if prices get out of control and people end up seeing the buying power of their income reduced. The Covid Pandemic and the energy crise generated by geopolitical decisions kicked in inflation and force the Bank of England to put up interest rates, but in spite of interest rate rises prices paid for basic items of the family basket are high and rising. How much people need to earn to have a roof over their heads? How much do they need to earn to feed themselves properly?

Funny to see on the pages of The Guardian comments about working families and pensioners as if they were part of different species. The reality is that more and more people already retired are returning to work to make ends meet and therefore they are part of working families. Most people could not possibly survive if their sole income was a pension.

Saturday, 11 November 2023

Conservative Party: 40,000 teachers left the profession. NHS is bleeding professionals that are leaving even for other countries

Conservative Party is in a crisis with MPs no longer willing to stand for re-election and even members of the Cabinet announcing that they will not be standing for re-election. In the meantime, problems are being piled up at all levels. 

In education, more than 40,000 teachers are no longer teaching. They have had more than enough. When asked, a school teacher said 'I could not take it any more. It was not just about 35 pupils in the classroom. It was also about dealing with children with mental health issues that made teaching impossible.' It is not about remuneration. It is about working conditions. Teacher are supposed to teach. They are not supposed to deal with psychiatric problems thrown in the classroom.

What has changed about the operation of Police stations in the UK. Politicians including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak make promises in the House of Commons that he really and truly knows that cannot be delivered. Police stations are not even receiving reports regarding property stolen, let alone theft of mobile phones. They are understaff and they don't have the resources to deal with that kind of crime.

How much times does a consultant in the NHS have to deal with patients? Not much. There are not enough consultants and not enough specialised staff. There is so much that can be done with lack of human resources and with lack of equipment.

And what happens in Job Centres? Unqualified staff and insufficient staff are leading to DWP staff quitting their jobs because they cannot deal with the workload they are forced to deal with. 

And what happens at the Home Office? Not enough staff to deal with mountains of applications and the natural consequence is that everything gets delayed and this has social consequences. A rising number of people are wandering around in limbo and more often than not local authorities, schools and social services have to deal with the outcome having to find non existing accommodation for families with children, many of which are facing mental health problems and situations of abuse including domestic violence.

This is a tale of massive government incompetence. Government secretaries of state and ministers spend an awful amount of time making political statements and seem absolutely oblivious to reality. What is the point of spending millions of Pound every ten years to carry out Censuses? Save the money spent on Censuses and spend it to really try to solve the myriad of problems Britain is facing. Whatever data can be gathered in censuses are completely unreliable.

You will never be able to keep up with inflation when trying to support families via the welfare state. Look at the cost of buying and look at the cost of renting. Private renting is a total waste of resources. The private market is not supposed to meet the needs of those in need. Private letting is a business. What is needed is the sort of letting that can be controlled by the state. If you have social housing, the monies can be kept by the state and re-invested in social services. Private renting should be left for those who can afford to rent without state support. The state should be both landlord and service provider.

Do you know what happens to families with children that are forced to be constantly on the move from one area to another, from one city to another? Do you know what happens when it comes to education, health, work, family cohesion and mental health? Instability, uncertainty, mental health problems, domestic violence, constant financial struggle and dependency and the list goes on.


 

Tuesday, 1 November 2022

Jeremy Hunt: November 17th 2022 - Tax Day

 

November 17th 2022 - Tax Day

A hole in public finances of  more than 50 billion Pound will have to be plugged. Apart from the prospect of budget cuts affecting services, the alternative is a massive amount of tax increases.

Kwasi Kwarteng was slaughtered, thrown to the wolves, because he wanted to implement Liz Truss policies of tax reductions. What will happen to Jeremy Hunt when he announces a budget that contains punitive measures?

Let us remember that on the first round of the leadership election that led to the Premiership of Liz Truss the now Chancellor of the Exchequer didn't manage to progress beyond the first round. He was not popular among MPs and was not popular among the Membership of the Conservative Party. Now, the same man is going to propose a budget that goes against what is the declared ideological stance of the Conservative Party. Rising energy costs, rising interest rates plus rising taxes. If you are a business owner struggling to survive in the present financial environment, how are you going to react? Will you minimize your business to reduce fixed costs and in doing so sent your staff to the queue of the unemployed? A very harsh winter coming for those who lose their jobs when families are already struggling to pay for rental accommodation because they don't have the means to afford mortgage payments.

Wasn't Rishi Sunak the one who suggested that we should have a long term approach instead of shock therapy? Will such a budget be compatible with long term thinking? If Jeremy Hunt goes to far, this could the end of Jeremy Hunt and also the end of an already wavering Rishi Sunak? What next? Another leadership election?

Just a few months ago it was reported that recent interest rates will put more than 500,000 mortgages in jeopardy. Will more taxes and more unemployment make the situation better or worse? If the mortgage business falters, the financial system as a whole will be in serious trouble. We don't need even to explain what a wave of mortgage and load defaults will do to the economy.

Thursday, 6 October 2022

Countries are people: We must not allow homelessness or housing instability

 

As somebody who has been married for more than 28 years and brought up three children, I fully understand the importance of having a set abode. Where you live, the quality of the place where you live, and the stability of accommodation is a crucial factor that should never be underestimated.

If for whatever reason you don't live in adequate accommodation or if you are constantly having to move around, your life and your family life will be dramatically affected in a very negative way.

When you look at the language of social services, there is an emphasis on stable families, suitable environment to raise children, et cetera. Such considerations should be ever present when it comes to policies that affect housing. High rental costs for people who can ill afford to buy their own accommodation are a death trap that puts families in danger and ultimately will create a very unstable society.

For most people, working means having to travel around and much time, money and health are spent travelling around. If you live far away from the places where you work, you are going to be spending a long time on the road and this is time that you are not to be spending with your family, looking after your family, and you are going to be losing many opportunities. If on top of that, you have no certainty in terms of where you are going to be living in, you are going to struggle with travelling arrangements and your children are most probably have to move from one school to another and unable to form stable social relationships. This will feel like being regularly uprooted. This is what far too many families in the United Kingdom are facing right now.

If we ignore or underestimate the aforementioned realities, as a country we are bound to pay a very high price because countries are basically people. 

KGH


Monday, 2 April 2018

Britain Today: People exchanging sex for a place to live in

Britain Today: People exchanging sexual favours for a place to live in

If this is happening in the United Kingdom under Queen Elizabeth II, what can you expect of Third World Countries?

Britain is crumbling in more ways than one. Whether it is about ethnic cleansing provoked by flood immigration, passing of laws that defy natural order, political persecution, et cetera et cetera, whatever is left of some value is being downgraded, degraded or simply erased.

All the nice Christmas Messages cannot hide the human catastrophe. Political correctness, sexual scandals, corruption and apathy have eroded the edifice that is simply falling apart.




Wednesday, 16 September 2015

After welcoming parties, come metallic fences, barbed wire, tear gas and water cannons

After welcoming parties, political expressions of support, street rallies calling for immigrants to be welcomed, come metallic fences, barbed wire, tear gas, water cannons and stringent border controls.

Suddenly, the demagogy of leaders like Angela Merkel, gives way to the reality of what flood immigration actually means.

The quota system was rejected and was bound to be rejected. The diktats of EU bureaucrats and politically correct politicians are faced with the realities of member countries that on this issue and on many other issues don't seem to see eye to eye.

As I was listening to Jeremy Corbyn on his maiden appearance in the House of Commons coming face to face with Prime Minister David Cameron, comments about cuts of Housing Benefits that led to an exodus from central areas of British cities, the question came to me: if they are complaining about a housing crisis, about people being thrown out of homes because of cuts of Housing Benefits, where do people think that the tens of thousands that will be arriving in coming months are going to live?

David Cameron, the Prime Minister that says No on Monday, Yes on Tuesday and Maybe on Wednesday, promised to accept tens of thousands of immigrants. How is this compatible with the realities of the Housing Crisis, the lack of GP surgeries, the lack of school places, the burden being imposed on public services? Well, it isn't.

You listen then to the rise of unemployment and the fact that employers are going to be taking in less employees as the new Living Wage comes into place. Less jobs and more people looking for jobs, many of whom not even speak the language of the country? They will need a place to live in. They will need a job or otherwise they will be locked up in the cycle of welfare dependency. Have any of the aforementioned concerns been taken into account?

Demagogy can please many people that sooner than later will end up terribly disappointed, desperate and angry, and anger is what we must be very afraid of because discontent will flock into the streets of Britain and then the scenes of fences, water cannons, tear gas and police deployment with riot gear will also be seen in the United Kingdom.

Thursday, 14 August 2014

Employment rises but wages fall. What about pensions?

Employment rises but wages fall. What about pensions?

The news that employment is rising but wages are falling make the Bank of England postpone the announced rise of interest rates. Less income also means less savings for pensions and the realisation that with lower wages the aspiration of buying or renting homes might be nothing more than an aspiration when banks are only lending the equivalent of three annual salaries when the amount required to be able to have a mortgage is not less than eight annual salaries.
The gap between the monies available for pensions and the monies that would be required to be able to provide pensions is also growing at a faster pace than ever before because savings are not a generating high yields while interest rates remain relatively low.
Therefore, there is a vicious circle. People earn less. Because people earn less the Bank of England cannot take the risk of putting up interest rates without facing the possibility of millions losing their homes because they cannot afford monthly payments at higher interest rates. While this is happening, people who earn less save less and get less interest payments for what they save. Putting up salaries would mean less capital available to employ more people and having less people employed means having to make more welfare payments.

The situation is not sustainable because sooner than later retirement age will come and millions of people who earn little and have no savings will have not enough pension funds or no pension at all as retirement age is rising because there is not enough money available to pay pensions.