Was Thatcher's 'property owning democracy' a myth?

Loughton_Monkey

cells wrote: »

why would it be so bad for housing to be free*?

everyone who is marred (or equivalent) gets a OK house gifted to them from the state a few months before their first kid is born. Sale can only take place to buy another home.......

Which planet are you from?

Generali

cepheus wrote: »

Interesting interpretation, failed utterly then?

Undone subsequently to some extent.

Still the UK is a far less Corporatist country than in 1979. I don't think you can place the blame at Lady Thatcher's feet for a lack of progress since 1990.

cells

Wich planet are you from?

The 'state' built most of what you see around you including 6 million homes

Suggesting that they commission 0.3m homes a year is hardly something out of this world

cells

N1AK wrote: »

In some ways it was. Looked at holistically Thatchers policies on property might not have been in the long term best interests of the country, though obviously that depends on your opinion on various issues like the size of the state etc.

Personally I think selling off council houses well below market value, while also slashing construction, was a mistake. People often criticise Gordon Brown for selling gold at what turned out to be a market low; imagine how much the market value of the council houses sold cheap under right to buy would be worth now...

It depends when it was sold

Due to the high interest rates of the 1980s a house sold then was probably a net benefit to the state

Eg a house sold for £10k in 1982 would be worth around £313k in lower debt today (£10k gilt issued at 11% average interest over the 33 years)

So unless that same house sold for £10k is worth > £300k today it was probably a good move financially that it was sold back then

Loughton_Monkey

TheBlueHorse wrote: »

why do we need council housing at all. people should be responsible for themselves. The Govt should have no role to play in looking after people. It should provide education, health, roads, police, courts, prisons, rubbish collection, street lights and army and not much else.

People pay tax to provide the above things for themselves and other tax payers. I pay through the nose to house my family. Why should I also have money taken off me to house other people - they can do it themselves.

I agree.

Furthermore, I would strongly advocate that the NHS, Education, Police, and maybe a few more minor things be 'hived off' from government. Not in a "privatisation" way, but in the same way that the Bank of England is independent of Government and not subject to political interference.

Professional management of NHS, Police, and Education would/could be infinitely more cost effective, and run far more efficiently with a long term business view. They would cease to be political footballs except perhaps in the 'fight' over degree of funding allocated from the public purse.

I find the 45 different police forces, 14 different area health authorities, and god-knows how many education authorities almost insulting to the tax payer. Each one 'doing its own thing' and 'inventing its own wheels'. If Tesco decided to devolve into 150 local areas and allow each one to come up with their own branding, pricing, computer systems, supply chains, wage structure, training schools, store size...... then they would be bankrupt within a year.

Government should stick to defense/national security, revenue (taxation), funding, infrastructure and legislation. Local government should stick to potholes and emptying bins.

Other things like Environment, Culture, International Development and Scottish Office can all be disbanded or heavily downsized. Change "Environment" to "Fracking" [a couple of guys to hand out fracking licenses]. Abolish Culture, since we lost any national culture decades ago. International Development can be a small department of good salesmen to sell British goods overseas. Scottish Office should give Scotland back to the Scottish (without the Queen or the £ of course) and let them join the Eurozone.

The boy Farage can be used to wind up our membership of Europe, after which he can go back to the circus with all the other clowns or elevated to the House of Lords (same thing).