Have the smelling salts standing by...

The real working class couldn't afford to vote labour. Labour governments did sod all for the low paid. They usually meant more strikes and hence getting laid off with no pay as my father was. Then it was a real struggle to pay the rent and other bills. You have no idea what it was like to be working class as the majority of people who vote labour now don't. You certainly don't understand what happened to the low paid workers due to inflation and stuff like that.

Life improved much more under conservative governments than it ever did under labour with the exception of the NHS starting.

You may have a different impression but your parents were not low paid if you have.

They did very little, but that's more than the tories did.

Inflation happens under all governments. Right now it's too high.

No.

Wrong Diana. But don't read the Daily Excess - it's not worth it.

It's not, some will have greater needs such as those with young kids.

It's not empathy you're lacking it sense. As there is good and bad in all people of all natinalities and all places w hy do you assume every single person in that tower is equal to each other i n every way.

Don;t be so stupid it happens. It happend next door to me, they rent the t wo bed flat to problem tennents. The previous one tunred the gropund floor flat into a mini zoo he had rabbits giunue pigs all wandering around the ho use he had straw on the floor insteard of carpets he had 2 or 3 dogs that ran riot, he used to jump over the fence to look into next doors house as h e saw himslef as teh niergbourhood watch man, he asked for keys to my place , he used to record what time I came and went.

Not everyone is good, but of course you should treat them all with compass ion but just suppose the fire was arson caused by one of the residents ?

He'd be stupid to help do illegal and dangerous DIY, and in most rented pla ces you can't even paint or wallpaper without permission and do you really think that removing supporting walls in a tower block is a good idea.

Then they become concil tennets .

It happens sometimes, but people argue about it anyway.

Of course they do. Council estates would become perfectly ok places. The mi nority of bad actors would get concentrated into a small patch somewhere aw ay from everyone else - and would spend their lives infighting without both ering the rest of us much. It would be easy to identify these areas by the all concrete architecture.

Unfortunately Britain is far too fixated on a lot of unrealistic ideas to e ver put such a solution - or indeed any solution - into practice.

NT

What makes you think these areas would be "somewhere away from everyone else"? They'd have to be somewhere. Maybe they'd be near your place of work or house - then you'd better lock things up very well.

Only in the minds of some.

And the reverse can be the case. Someone decides to move into a run down street for whatever reason. Possibly a cheap buy. Gives it a lick of paint, and others follow suit. Exactly that has happened over the years to many old city centres, etc.

Go on them. Tells us all how much better off they are under the last 7 years of the Tories. Haven't had a good laugh yet today.

In the 1000-odd I visited for technical inspection, I think one stud partition internal wall removed.

The biggest 'problem' was replacing non-standard fittings - things like taps, door handles, kitchen units and switches. We almost always had to rip them out and put stock tat in their place.

the fact that I said they should be

mmkay

Britain is not short of countryside in which one could situate very small new villages. Complete with enough cctv to track who went out that night & what they were wearing or driving.

Maybe they'd need to be convicted of something first. If residents knew they could get rid of their arses with cam evidence they might be keener to gather it.

NT

Yes, I'd expect something like that. It's a grubby business.

One valid concern, I think, is the tenants of sub-lets - what happens to them?

Ah you're Terasa Mayhem!

There's not going to be countryside converted into hovels for offenders.

Erm, try again.

No, as I said.

NT

Surely the obvious way is a prison? You control what everyone does in that. In theory.

But then it costs many times more per head than any benefits ever. A win win situation for a true Tory.

We were talking about people that act antisocially on council esates. Prison is not usually appropriate.

NT

No, hanging is the only economic approach!

These are already social housing, not the luxury variety shown in the papers.

The developer is Berkeley Homes, which was built up from nothing by Toney Pidgley, who had no proper education, is dislexic and grew up with travellers (AFAIK). So he is in the Alan Sugar mould, not Duke of Westminster.

He has simply sold the block of social housing at the cost of building it, to the government who have made it available to K&C.

However, I can't help wondering how long it will be before we get to hear about one or more of the new tenants exercising their legal right to buy ?.