I think our housing shortage is caused by many factors. Yes people living longer as you say. Also lots of single households now due to divorce. Immigration which has caused our population to soar far beyond it's resources.
I think BTL has pushed prices up but has not really increased demand as such because the same no of properties exist and the same no of people exist.
I do agree with you that a huge part of the welfare problem is that the council now pay private landlords to house social tenants. This is utter madness. In my mind if the council have no houses left then they just can't give anyone a house. Full stop. I don't really understand why the goverment/taxpayer is responsible for finding grown up adults a house. I mean aren't we supposed to support ourselves. The houses we do have should be enough in number for the genuine disabled. I think the whole point of right to buy is that everyone would stand on their own feet and own their own house.
I also agree with your point that people are angry and fed up. Our country is too crowded now. We don't have enough resources for the number of people living here and thus we are now scrapping like rats in a barrel.
However the only way out of this mess is to grow the economy. More jobs and less people on welfare. Fix the basics - health, Law and Order, Education. By fix I mean change if necessary as I do think our NHS needs to be a system we pay for even if it is subsidised.
The trouble is Britain is in decline no matter what party rules.
Until we get rid of the huge interest bill we are going to struggle to spend money on health, police, education.
The only way we can start to turn this around is getting people back to work and off benefits and grow the economy.
We are also going to need some hard decisions re things the UK can no longer afford to provide.
We brought in a welfare state and the NHS back in the forties with a much smaller population, who lived a shorter life and with many conditions that could not be treated. Neither system can cope with the demands on it now so it is time to scrap both and have a more 'bare bones' system that the UK can afford. Then we can start to repay our debt and then invest hopefully.
Alot of people will go on about pensions and yes this is a huge bill just now. However since we are all going to get it none of us should object to it. I'm still 13 years away from mine so I'm not on it yet but no I don't mind people who have 'paid up' their pension getting it. Also remember as people are now having less children the people who will claim it are also falling. Also with obesity I reckon people might start dying earlier. As the boomers die off the number of people claiming should start to fall. Combine this with a slow increase in the age to claim and the state pension almost about to fall into personal allowances (so soon they will get taxed) and believe it or not this problem will disappear.
The only way to stop crime is to make the penalty so bad that people will stop doing it. Just now there is next to no penalty and look at what is happening. I say cram the prisoners into cells if we have to. I mean if you are law abiding you have no worries do you.
I saw plenty of lazy white people on the 'how to get a council house' show as well. However there did seem to be a large number of non british people thinking they would come across and get a 'free house and benefits' and that example with the romanian family was a real piss take and kick to the teeth of our working taxpayers (and yes I know it was in 2013 or whenever). There was one white man in his sixties who had worked his whole life and his son had died and he had turned to drink. They housed him and I was very glad about this as he seemed to just need help to get back on the straight and narrow after his grief. He was polite and grateful and trying to help himself unlike the romanian family who were aggressive, pushy, entitled and had arrived here about 5 mins ago literally.
I know plenty of people in the UK who came here legally and have worked their socks off and made a good life for themselves and I have no problem with them. They pay their taxes and contribute and I've had many great polish tradesman before they all went back to Poland (it being richer than the UK now)
I think we all need to lose some of 'our rights'. We have grown into a very entitled group of people who nobody is allowed to say boo too. I lived in the south of England for 5 years in my late teens/early twenties and was called 'Haggis' alot in banter. It did not bother me one bit. Now people would be screaming about the english being racist to scottish people. Common sense people.
I suppose we can just keep giving out benefits, pushing up our debt and interest until the whole thing snaps. Then we will end up with no welfare system at all and no healthcare at all except fully paid for by us. Then survival of the fittest will ensure only the self sufficient will survive. However I don't want it to come to that as there are genuine disabled people and genuine short term unemployed people who do as much as they can to help themselves. They should not suffer along with the feckless scroungers who are sinking the ship. However if we don't stop the rot now that is exactly what will happen.
I don't see any other party who are going to address welfare and impose law and order and stop some immigration (before the country literally bursts) so yes I'm voting reform.
I'm white, female, uni educated, was a high tax payer till I retired.