DO you live in a council house, and maybe fancy buying it one day?
Millions of people have done this and it’s got them well and truly on to the property ladder. But if that’s your plan, you’d better be quick.
Because Angela Rayner, the ginger-growler (her words, not mine) gobby Manc Housing Secretary is on the march.
She is thinking of ending the right-to-buy scheme, by which council tenants could purchase their homes at discounted prices.
The scheme was introduced in 1980, by the then new Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Mention the name Thatcher now and you’ll hear a mouthful of abuse from the Lefties: “Evil cow, Thatcher.” That’s what they reckon.
Now, I wasn’t always her biggest fan. She left parts of the country in ruins as industry after industry was shut down.
But there’s no doubt the right-to-buy scheme was phenomenally successful.
I was just 20 when it came into effect. Two years later my sociology lecturer grudgingly told me it had led to the greatest redistribution of wealth in the country’s history.
He was a good bloke — but a Trotskyite and a supporter of the far-far-left Militant Tendency. Yet even he had to admit what a brilliant thing the scheme had been for the working class.
Suddenly millions of people who previously had no hope of getting a mortgage were property owners.
The proportion of people who owned their homes went up by 12 per cent over the next ten years.
And it has continued to be a good thing, even if we have failed to build enough social housing to make up for the stuff that’s been sold.
One person who was delighted to take advantage of the scheme was, er, Angela Rayner. Yup, she bought her own council property. And trousered nearly fifty grand when she flogged it later.
I have no objection to Rayner buying her council house. Good for her.
But she shouldn’t have done so if she thought it was wrong, should she?
It’s yet another example of Labour Party hypocrisy. Another case of, “Do as I say, not as I do”. Rayner thought it was OK to buy her council house — but won’t let you do the same.
It’s the same as the ghastly Labour Baroness Chakrabarti being against grammar schools — but sending her own son to one of the most expensive schools in the country.
Or Labour’s Emily Thornberry being against selective schools — but making sure her kids were bussed out of the borough to one.
Rank hypocrisy.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party is about to declare war on landlords.
Thus making the housing crisis worse by driving more and more of them from the market.
And at the same time this is going on we learn about Labour MP Jas Athwal. He is a landlord. He owns 15 rental properties in London and it has been revealed that they are ridden with ants and black mould and the tenants were scared to speak out in case they got evicted.
More hypocrisy, then.
Labour is very quickly showing us that it cannot be trusted. Even more than the Tories — and they were bad enough, let’s be honest — it is one rule for them and one rule for the rest of us.
Think again, Angela. Let other council tenants enjoy the benefits YOU were very quick to take up.
ANOTHER day, another horrible tale of children behaving like feral beasts.
Five kids were arrested following the death of a gentle and kindly 80-year-old man, Bhim Sen Kohli, near Leicester.
Was it done because they thought it fun? Was it a racist attack?
Somehow, so many of our children lack a moral compass. They cannot distinguish between right and wrong. It’s not the consequence of poverty, either.
A couple of days before, a judge was outraged to discover that the mum of a 12-year-old boy who was in court for taking part in riots, had decided to go on holiday. To Ibiza. While her son was in the dock.
Utterly disgusting behaviour.
That is where most of the problem lies. With parents incapable or unwilling to take responsibility for their appalling kids.
THE BBC presenter Katie Derham is in trouble for saying that the words to Rule, Britannia! are “incredibly problematic”.
Katie is presenting the Beeb’s coverage of the Proms (which of course the BBC hates).
I used to know Katie – and she’s a good lass with a fine sense of humour.
I think she came out with that garbage because these days people feel they have to. We always have to apologise for our past.
Incidentally, while I don’t find the lyrics to Rule, Britannia incredibly problematic, I do find them truly bloody stupid.
They were scribbled down by a Scottish bloke called James Thomson.
Look ’em up, if you doubt me. Mentalist ravings of a tanked-up Rab C Nesbitt.
I WAS sitting in what they called the “departure lounge” at Croatia’s Zadar Airport last Friday, after our flight home had been delayed.
I got talking to a nice Orthodox Jewish chap and his family, who were supposed to be on the flight. And he had a real problem.
As an Orthodox Jew he and his family were forbidden from being on a plane after sunset on the Sabbath.
The flight had been due to leave at 3pm, but as the delay mounted it became clear he couldn’t get on the plane at all.
“Isn’t there some sort of loophole for situations like this?” I asked.
Nope, was the reply.
He hired a car and drove his family 150 miles to Zagreb, reckoning on arriving just before sunset. I greatly admired his religious commitment.
But I was also grateful that my lot, the Methodists, don’t give a toss what time you get on a plane.
Plus, they’re cool with bacon.
I LIKE Noel Gallagher. He speaks a lot of sense.
And he’s a talented songwriter responsible for one of the best albums of the 1990s, Definitely Maybe.
Frankly, you can keep the rest of Oasis’s stuff. Just that furious first album does it for me.
Some of their later work, especially bloody Wonderwall, makes me want to gnaw off my right hand.
But at their best, they were a fine band. Not deserving the snobbery of some commentators.
I wouldn’t pay to see them play, though. Not even a tenner down the local pub.
I learned my lesson about going to see ancient pop stars still strutting their stuff when I saw Bob Dylan a few years ago. He sounded like a demented dog, growling away.
THE right-wing AfD party trounced the opposition in the state of Thuringia in eastern Germany.
Across Europe, people are rising up against enormous, unsustainable numbers of migrants arriving every day.
They resent the crime that comes with them and the cultural upheaval.
Sometimes the voters turn to far-right parties. But more often they are parties which are left wing economically but conservative on social issues and immigration.
Such as BSW in Germany – which also did astonishingly well in the election.
Slowly but surely liberals are being ousted from every government in Europe.
