I agree it wasn't nice to see. One of the reasons I also doubt it was Hoyle was because she had some serious bags under her eyes, which suggest a lack of sleep, so could have been something family, and any argument with Hoyle would have been the last straw, the thing that tipped her over the edge. But Home Secretary seemed very sheepish about it all. She was putting a pretty good brave face on it all the next day. I think the reason it shocked me because you can see she manages her body language to the tenth degree, more than I've seen anyone else do, so to see her guard down like that felt very strange.
What got me was Starmer totally ignoring her and Rayner sneering at her, mind you Rayner has a permanent sneer on her face
I think Rayner is just keeping her head down, my personal view is that she don't agree with some of Starmers policies, because they are too centric, but she will have ambition hopes herself and she will not want to rock that boat. I think she just gets on with the job she's been tasked with and let the rest fight all the other stuff out. Quite a cute move by her to be honest, because otherwise it becomes a snake pit, we saw that sort of mentality with the Tories and Gove (snakepit).
I meant to say, on Reeves and Starmer, although she was upset, she was leaning forward to him, so that suggests to me she saw him as a pillar of strength, even if he was taking the solemn professional approach at the despatch box.
Rayner is a gobby bitch who had her arse smacked when the Lord mayors of Stockport and Oldham told her they won't build new houses on the greenbelt and the Cities are full.
I think she means well, feel free to disagree obviously. I think she's more left wing, way more than Starmer and that can make a diffcult environment for her. In regards to housing she is never going to win, because we are often told we need housing, but then everyone says not in my backyard. Vast swathes of Kent have been built on, and it always feels strange when other Counties are saying no. I think we've got a major infastructure issue where all this is never joined up, you get joined up thinking sometimes, but then developers after they get the contract, try to shirk their responsibilities. Or if somewhere needs buidling on and they can't get permission, they just hire someone to burn down what's there. I just find it hilarious in this country the amount of fires that happen in convenient building locations and they never seem to get investigated....soz I seem to have gone all over the place now.
I keep hearing that we need 1.5million new homes yet the British population is falling. Something is very wrong.
The new houses are for the illegal migrants who Labour hope will vote for them in future I hope I am wrong but I dont think I am
I can only speak as a parent, and kids are staying with their parents now until nigh in their 30's, because they can't afford anywhere or because they have huge tuition costs etc. One of mine took the gamble on getting his own place at an early age, and as it happened (and against my advice) he got on that ladder at the right time (hindsight eh), that enabled him to take advantage of the market - along with other personal life choices. We have to remember though they are taking out way longer mortgages than we ever had 30+ years. The other stayed at home and went to the nearest Uni, rather than like some do, travelling to the other end of the country. This saved on accomodation costs (which I thought was a sensible move), but also meant he wasn't getting on the housing ladder. Different paths, different choices and sometimes with hardwork and a bit of luck one way or another each story pays off. My concern would be social housing though, people are living in ****holes and it's because of years, decades of total neglect that these people have got left behind. People can't help the life they are born into. Not joking I think if I had to live in some of the conditions these people live in, I'd think I'm better off....well I won't say it. Do we need 1.5 million houses, I'd probably say yes, even if the population is falling (I don't know) and that's to replace the derelict **** that exists out there and to improve the standard of living at the bottom of the ladder. Just an opinion mate, nowt more.
Opinions are like arseholes mate, we all nave them and are entitled to them. From my point of view i see people who leave school determined to make a life for themselves, they get a job work hard and save and eventually get a deposit for a house. After that they generally improve as years go by until they are comfortable with what they have. Then you have the kid from next door who went to school with them that can't be arsed working and expects the council to give them a flat/house then moans about the rent.
as brb has said. We definitely need way more housing. Theres a reason rents and house prices are out of control (at least in the south). If more houses are built, then that means landlords wouldn't be able to charge what they want and house prices would fall. Some people might say, i don't want negative equity, i'm going to lose money on my house if it goes down. I say nonsense, if you are living in it and you can pay the mortgage off and don't lose your job, then it just means more people can afford to get onto the housing ladder and buy a house if thats what they want. A house shouldn't be there to see your bank balance go up, it's a home and a place to live. I hate seeing how housing has now become an investment vehicle. Likewise, if there is more availability in houses, it means landlords need to be more competitive to actually have a tenant who will rent rather than having the house sit empty. I especially hate how a lot of housing and new housing is brought by overseas investors but i understand it's not a zero sum game. Developers want to make money and won't just build, Labour costs and materials are high and to get planning permission is a ****ing night mare and probably costs just as much as building a house (the man power to jump through hoops, planning permissions lawyers etc but i'm just guessing here). It's a messed up system.
I agree with pretty much all of that. When you talk of landlords and their pricing that points to the fact that councils are not building enough homes. They allow planing permission for companies to build new estates yet claim there is not enough land to build council homes on. A balance needs to be struck somehow.
I think there is a story behind every person. I got in a hell of a lot of trouble in my younger years and if you asked me at the time the path out of it, I couldn't have given you an answer. Where I got lucky was I had good legal advice, probabtion officer that genuinely cared and wanted to help, a decent relationship...and actually even the coppers were decent back then, all that joined up along with a job led to the path out. But it takes time and everyone pulling together. Without that I could have been another one of lifes failures, and today that same support is no longer there for others. It goes far wider than anything I've mentioned so far. Some people just get into the vicious cycle of life, drugs, crime, prison, homeless, drugs, crime, back in prison. - and a lot of it is about how you break that cycle, for some it will work, for others it won't. Dare I say eventually we get tired and old having had a family, the testosterone calms down and that then brings maturity and the past experiences of life. I look at it like this mate, it's easy to be a critic, it takes a lot more work to be a help. You have to help them find the way out, and give them reason to want a way out, sadly we are all performing to the task of our previous background, it;s how we make that first step forward to a better life, health and prosperity. So I don't begrudge people on the bottom of the ladder anything, even if it is their own fault. Much like migrants don't chose to be migrants.
Mate i grew up in one of the poorest areas of Manchester at the time. My dad was an engineer and my mam was a machinist (making coats). We were poor but got by. My oldest sister left school and got a job straight away as a typist, my other sister did the same and i left school to become an electrician in an engineering company, all good so far. My oldest sister married a plumber my other sister a joiner. The building trade fell flat and both husbands got made redundant, the plumber got a job as a labourer in an engineering firm and when that job collapsed got a job with BT as a cable layer where he worked until he was 70. The other brotherin law (the joiner) got made redundant at the same time and never worked again. That's the difference between people and their attitude to work, some are lazy bastards who knock out 4 kids and live on the child allowance and those who just have one but make sure they have a good life.
It's hard for me to comment because I don't know of anyone that fits in your last paragraph. Now if you had said that to me in the late 70s or early 80s I'd have agreed, but I genuinely don't know or see people like that in 2025. Maybe I'm just going round with my eyes closed.
The Welfare System is full of people who do not want to work, the latest wizz is Mental Health issues, and there a plenty of "Experts" who discover problems that never existed before to fuel the feeding frenzy on the money we provide through taxes which is why this and the last Government tried to reform the Welfare State so that only the people who need help receive it and now this Government are finding out why the Tories were unable to fix it
