Westminstenders: The Bill Cash Appreciation Society

[RedToothBrush]

We've had a new thread pretty much everyday for the last week or so, so I'm short on inspiration.

There haven't been too many new developments today. There have been two ministerial resignations. Both were ministers close to Boris Johnson.

We had a vote to add an extension if we still have no deal agreed at the end of next week to the Withdrawal Bill. May has said she will do this anyway; this would merely tie her hands. It passed by 5 votes. It now is fast tracked to the committee stage and third reading.

A business of the house amendment by Benn to secure a debate and Indicative Vote 3 next week failed after a speakers vote. Bercow followed convention and didn't create a majority where there was not one (though under Erskine May he is free to do the opposite at his discretion).

Corbyn has met May for talks which have been described as construction, though we have no further details though curiously Emily Thornberry put out a statement demanding a ref on whatever was decided which suggests Corbyn isn't keen on the idea. Rumours are of Schrodingers Customs Union: somehow being in a union but not a union. It can't be called a customs union. And Liam Fox has said Corbyn can't have his union. Though he may have a vested interest as he loses his job if Corbyn gets his way.

Oh and the Commons photocopier broke so no one knows what is currently supposed to be happening.

Otherwise it's been a quiet day, all things considered. Too quiet?

BCF I don't see the danger in a PV of Revoke vs that deal

Absolutely! No-deal on any PV ballot paper is undeliverable, we'd just be back where we are right now, arguing on how or if to implement.

There does seem genuine confusion over what no-deal actually is, i've lost count the number of people who think its the status quo! ie remain.

re housing - we need to be heading back to the zero carbon policies and sustainable homes that DC dumped as soon as he could when the developers sat on land and refused to build because they wouldn't make "as much" profit

Govt's being bent over by housing firms needs to be stopped. The tiny badly built boxes with miniscule windows, no storage and barely room to put in a single mattress in the "2nd bedroom" are not fit to be called homes. The nation's health is based on their homes, especially when paying over the odds for one of the smallest on the planet. Making them sustainable, for the environment as well as for the health of those living in them is seemingly something no one wants to tackle since LD's left.

Of course a PV is only currency if we haven't left - either via WA or no-deal ....

Can anyone tell me about the full facts organisation. Are they non partisan and anti fake news?

Lonely I completely agree BUT the Govt has just come out with lots of zero carbon and zero fossil fuel on New Builds timing targets. This could gum up building completely in the way cars are now suffering from dieselgate and uncertainty over move to electric / autonomous / clear air zones. Targets not backed by strategy and carrots and sticks are only going to make things worse.

The problem with Right To Buy was Right to Sell - at a windfall
This fed the price spiral

I know people hate price-fixing, but I'd have suggested that once people bought, the council would receive back from a future sale anything more than say 2% inflation per year

2bees
fullfact.org/about/funding/

Last time we toured new builds it was shit. That's the ones that we could get into. 3 housebuilding firms had a pea-shingle car park that you couldn't get a wheelchair over. DW waited in the car, while I went around and shouted out what I found out of the windows. I don't think we were popular.

Two of the developments were on large plots of land and a selling point was they'd drip 10 houses a month onto the market "to keep prices stable". If there's scope to fuck around like that, then how much of a "crisis" is the "housing crisis" ? After WW2 they were building over a million houses a year .....

@siennamarla
NEW: I'm told Labour NEC officers have just agreed the process for selecting MEP candidates.

Electorate will include the #5million disenfranchised last time.
And the missing million too?
Hopefully.

As somebody whose job is looking at local authority accounts

it is madness that they are allowed to borrow to buy the freehold of a Mercedes dealership, but not to buy up former council houses and save a fortune in housing benefit

and yes
Labour had 13 years to deal with it but chose not to

Hi 2Bees I googled Full Facts previously.

It was set up by a Tory Party donor originally but doesn't seem to show that bias now.It employs teams of people and helped with the Leveson Inquiry.
I think compared to lots of on line information it is fairly reliable.I read that from January 2019 it has started the unenviable task of providing fact checking services to Facebook.

As someone spending a fortune on private rental housing, I completely agree that the current problem is the failure of successive governments. No good just blaming Thatcher when Blair had over a decade to fix the problem.

Andrew Adonis @Andrew_Adonis

Happy to spend the night in the Lords if that’s what it takes to overcome the filibuster begun by Lord Forsyth. So are the great majority of peers

This really will be one for the history books.

howabout Germany has for years had strict building regulations - I note that the properties I've lived in have all been well-insulated and ventilated, bigger rooms too.

Much cheaper property overall though, like most of Europe, though than in the UK

Big differences re housing costs

1. There is no Council Tax on occupants, just a small tax on the property itself, paid by the owner, even if they let the property (hidden in the rent)

Land tax looks to be about 1/10 that for comparable property in the UK, made possible by so much more income tax going back to the individual German states

2. BIG difference is in tenants rights - that's what the UK must change, because many people can't or don't want to buy

I alway chose to rent in Germany - I'm renting now and will probably find a forever place when I retire shortly and rent that

The tenant before me had lived here over 40 years - there is great security of tenure
A sitting tenant is an asset in a property sale and stays put

No problem about redecorating, even putting in your own preferred carpets / tiles / wood etc

Many tenants buy their own kitchen and then sell it to the next tenant, ot take it with them^

Michael Forsyth - the former despised Secretary of State for Scotland?

He did not care about Scotland then.........

Giving each UK nation a veto in future raises the question why it wasn't done in for the referendum ?

^ This!

Add that to heavily subsidised childcare in Germany

• my colleague pays 110 Euro per child (aged 4 & 6) per month -

and we see that the 2 main burdens on ordinary people in the UK are much higher than elsewhere

Life doesn't have to be so tough in the UK - it is political choices that made it so

those that want no deal which are a significant number of the electorate whether we like it or not could also argue that the world is watching them being ignored and disenfranchised.

They could argue that but I think most of the world knows is watching them trying to undertake an act of unprecedented self-harm and others trying to save themselves from it.

They are not being ignored or disenfranchised. If they were Article 50 would have been revoked by now.

BCF, my ex rents in Germany and his t&cs were so good he has no intention of buying unless he starts a family (and possibly not even then). Iirc, a lot of the rental properties in cities are big blocks of apartments owned by pension companies who value long term income security.

A whole UK franchise was agreed on before the 2016 Ref. The same as for a general election I understood.

Those of you who are looking to stand as MEP candidates - the Womens Equality Party could be an option? Not sure PR actually works for independent candidates, so you kind of need a party.

As for the confirmatory vote - I think it would have to be a straight choice between remain and leave on the deal that has been agreed. It should not be too complicated.

I know the no dealers will complain but you can't put something on there that you don't want to implement. Also, it splits the leave vote so in theory isn't good for leavers anyway.

Personally I think if the question was deal versus remain, deal would win. Leaver won't vote remain, but some remainers will vote for a soft Brexit.

I've long thought we should have a formal federal system, with an additional chamber containing 25 senators elected by PR from each UK nation

At least major decisions - treaties, building nuclear power stations, siting of nuclear weapons, declaring war etc - should require approval of that chamber too.

Deliberately the same principle as the USA having 2 senators per state, despite huge variations in population between states

heavily subsidised childcare in Germany

the adult to child ratios are higher though. When it was suggested to do that here during the Coalition government, there was jumping and up and down about how awful it would be.

Thank you all for your support

2bees if you really want to push your real displeasure at my posts for all to see kindly post on here your pm to me ( I can't because I deleted it) .

Over and out.