Friday, September 28, 2007
Invasion of the Home Snatchers
We are living in a time when economics and the market have become the driving forces behind how we live and how are culture is defined. A good example of this is around accommodation or dwelling. Property developers and many companies who flog or rent properties no longer use the words home, flat, house, dwelling - they now use the word "development", "luxury apartments", "property", "investment" etc. It's as if these bastards are doing a splendid job in alienating people - being without a decent home. A really good example of alienation. House and home no longer exist. When more well-off people buy a house, they no longer buy a house they buy into greed - buy to let, buy to exploit. We shall have to wait and see how this very nasty development will pan out on the social and cultural landscape.
On an indirectly related note, I went past a Foxton's Estate Agent today. I thought it was a coffee bar - coffee and ice cold soft-drinks available to customers. The decor looked like a fucking multi-coloured nightmare - furniture in cardinal colours - all brightly lit with neon - you would need a welder's mask to walk into the place. The place looked as if it suffered too much interior design - panache and style were conspicuous by their absence. The employees appeared to be twelve year olds in suits. My suspicions were confirmed - Foxton's exist solely to encourage people to flog their property through other better established estate agents.
On an indirectly related note, I went past a Foxton's Estate Agent today. I thought it was a coffee bar - coffee and ice cold soft-drinks available to customers. The decor looked like a fucking multi-coloured nightmare - furniture in cardinal colours - all brightly lit with neon - you would need a welder's mask to walk into the place. The place looked as if it suffered too much interior design - panache and style were conspicuous by their absence. The employees appeared to be twelve year olds in suits. My suspicions were confirmed - Foxton's exist solely to encourage people to flog their property through other better established estate agents.
Labels: culture, Economics, Estate Agents, Greedy Property Developers, property, Society
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
I was passing through Lavender Hill, Battersea SW11 on the bus today. I was amazed by the number of estate agents alive and kicking in the area. Every other shop was an estate agent, there was even a cluster of three different estate agents next to each other. This was unreal, this was mad. Has the local economy become so dependent on the buying and selling of its houses.
Is this the South Sea Bubble revisited. When this fucking blows, it will be an economic tsunami. Already the cracks are starting to appear. City gents are already starting to throw themselves out of buildings.
Is this the South Sea Bubble revisited. When this fucking blows, it will be an economic tsunami. Already the cracks are starting to appear. City gents are already starting to throw themselves out of buildings.
Labels: Economics, Estate Agents, Greedy Property Developers
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Who are the biggest State scroungers?
I checked out this short article in Socialist Worker.
It caused me to question who are the biggest State Scroungers - big corporations or the disabled and the unemployed. Funny that a banker, David Freud, is pointing the finger here!
Now check this out, on his own admission when working for the Channel Tunnel he commented in hindsight
""We were predicting that on Eurostar there would be 21 million passengers (annually)," admits David Freud of Warburg, the investment house which sold Eurotunnel shares to the public.
The actual figure was less than a third of that.
"So the traffic forecasts were not just out by a little bit. They were completely potty; they were nowhere."
Source BBC
This man has reviewed welfare reform insisting that private interests kick the unemployed and disbled back to work. Oh well, there is a saying, if you point your finger at the funeral it will drop off
It caused me to question who are the biggest State Scroungers - big corporations or the disabled and the unemployed. Funny that a banker, David Freud, is pointing the finger here!
Now check this out, on his own admission when working for the Channel Tunnel he commented in hindsight
""We were predicting that on Eurostar there would be 21 million passengers (annually)," admits David Freud of Warburg, the investment house which sold Eurotunnel shares to the public.
The actual figure was less than a third of that.
"So the traffic forecasts were not just out by a little bit. They were completely potty; they were nowhere."
Source BBC
This man has reviewed welfare reform insisting that private interests kick the unemployed and disbled back to work. Oh well, there is a saying, if you point your finger at the funeral it will drop off
Labels: corporate, Economics, money, politics, scroungers, taxpayers
Friday, March 23, 2007
Any Bank You Like
The Royal Bank of Scotland has told its employees to bank with the employing company or face disciplinary action.
I want to ask three questions
1) Where is choice - this notion that New Labour and the Tories Babble on about.
2) Where is the Free Market
3) Where are Human Rights - not the kind that are referred by the "politically correct" brigade* but the Human Rights where one is able to do what one wants to do without breaking the law, offending, hurting, getting in one's face etc.
* The Politically Correct Brigade are those bozos who hear things they may not like and declare them as "Politically Correct" because they are unable to articulate otherwise.
I want to ask three questions
1) Where is choice - this notion that New Labour and the Tories Babble on about.
2) Where is the Free Market
3) Where are Human Rights - not the kind that are referred by the "politically correct" brigade* but the Human Rights where one is able to do what one wants to do without breaking the law, offending, hurting, getting in one's face etc.
* The Politically Correct Brigade are those bozos who hear things they may not like and declare them as "Politically Correct" because they are unable to articulate otherwise.
Labels: banking, Economics, finance, free market
Any Beer You Like...
The above link goes into detail
I shan't be buying Greene King again, I used to like it, neither shall I buy Ruddles.
It seems that this company muscle out the smaller brewers - flogs pubs to greedy property developers who want to turn the pub into luxury apartment.
The linked article points to what happened in Lewes, I used to go for walks around the surrounding countryside and nip into the Lewes Arms for a pint or two of Harveys. Nice beer and a very nice friendly pub too. I am quite saddened by this news.
So this is the wonder of the free market. Choice - "you can have any beer you like, so long as it ours"
This passage in the article summarises my sentiments entirely
But this dispute is not just about beer. Across Britain the traditional "community" local is under threat as never before. According to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), 56 pubs close in Britain every month, most of them urban locals. Camra's head of research, Iain Loe, says: "The bricks and mortar are often worth more, in the short term, for conversion to flats than the place is as a going concern, even though it may have been making money for 200 years and would continue to do so. Then people move into the new flats and find there's no community, no focus, which the local would have provided."
I shan't be buying Greene King again, I used to like it, neither shall I buy Ruddles.
It seems that this company muscle out the smaller brewers - flogs pubs to greedy property developers who want to turn the pub into luxury apartment.
The linked article points to what happened in Lewes, I used to go for walks around the surrounding countryside and nip into the Lewes Arms for a pint or two of Harveys. Nice beer and a very nice friendly pub too. I am quite saddened by this news.
So this is the wonder of the free market. Choice - "you can have any beer you like, so long as it ours"
This passage in the article summarises my sentiments entirely
But this dispute is not just about beer. Across Britain the traditional "community" local is under threat as never before. According to the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), 56 pubs close in Britain every month, most of them urban locals. Camra's head of research, Iain Loe, says: "The bricks and mortar are often worth more, in the short term, for conversion to flats than the place is as a going concern, even though it may have been making money for 200 years and would continue to do so. Then people move into the new flats and find there's no community, no focus, which the local would have provided."
Labels: Economics
