Brexit, the economy and house prices part 5

Karmakat

Arklight wrote: »

The face masks have nothing to do with pollution. Tokyo isn't even particularly polluted.

After the war there was wide scale deforestation around Tokyo in the mountainous areas around Saitama and Kanagawa to use as lumber for building materials.

The trees were replanted with Japanese cedar, a hardy type of tree that grows very quickly and provides (slightly lousy) timber for construction. It's also loaded with pollen that around 50% of adults are allergic to.

In the summer all this pollen blows down off the mountains and billows around Tokyo. Hayfever in Tokyo was almost unknown before this. People wear masks to try and filter it out.


It's also considered polite in Japan, if you have a cold, to wear a face mask to protect others.

You are twice as likely to suffer hayfever in a city than in the countryside due to air pollution trapping the allergen particles

From your link to wiki (which I had to remove so that I can reply) it also states "urbanization of land in Japan led to increasing coverage of soft soil and grass land by concrete and asphalt. Pollen settling on such hard surfaces can easily be swept up again by winds to recirculate"

So the allergens can neither go up nor down......we cannot keep chugging !!!! into the air and concreting over the planet to accommodate more and more people or these same people will suffer as a result

kabayiri

ilovehouses wrote: »

Yes, there was a risk people might've voted UKIP instead of Tory in the 2015 GE without the commitment.

So the risk was that people might have used our democratic process to vote for some people saying things that resonate with them.

Hmm, okay. Sledgehammer to crack a nut then.

Thrugelmir

ilovehouses wrote: »

It amazes me anyone ever thought they were a thing.

Like Jeremy Corbyn or the SNP you mean. Illusionists of the first order. Life is cyclical. Lessons need to be learnt first hand.

kabayiri

ilovehouses wrote: »

...
It amazes me anyone ever thought they were a thing.

Maybe UKIP were a disparate bunch who hit upon a genuine concern.

I guess every party starts from some particular driving point. On LBC not so long back, Nigel Farage invited in the spokes people for 2 new parties which had sprung up as a result of Brexit.

Isn't this a good thing? Maybe, moaning on the sidelines and not voting is really the worst thing.

The problem seems to be Cameron's assessment of the issue, and his way of dealing with it.

Corbyn doesn't escape attention either. He was like a ghost during the campaign.

Herzlos

UKIP did hit on a genuine problem. But the cause of that problem is Westminster and not Brussels.

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

Agreed, if people like Arklight had their way we would concrete over the whole country just to snub the middle classes.

Of course then we would have to deal with flooding because the ground could not absorb the rain, there would be no trees to recycle the air, and no-one would want to live here because it would be an awful place to be.

That's without even starting to consider the farmland, and it will still be used after Brexit, maybe the use will change but that is better than the eu paying farmers to leave it fallow.

We NEED open land, it isn't just a plaything for the middle and upper classes. It is a part of what we are, it is embedded in the psyche of the British people.

You're arguing a point that wasn't made. We only need to "concrete over about 0.5% of the land mass. That's essentially nothing.

kabayiri

Herzlos wrote: »

...
You're arguing a point that wasn't made. We only need to "concrete over about 0.5% of the land mass. That's essentially nothing.

We could have made that same assessment a decade ago, or even 2 decades.

The same constraints would still apply.

For a variety of reasons getting agreement and consensus to build on the land seems overly difficult.

It's interesting how a lot of land here is owned by relatively few. You'd think that would make the task easier, but land has always been equated with power.

They want to build on some fields not so far from me. You'd have thought they were planning to build a prison the way residents bordering the fields have responded. These are comfortable people in the main, who will be moaning about how their offspring fleeing the nest can't afford homes elsewhere.

I don't think hitting 340K a year home building will be easy.

Thrugelmir

kabayiri wrote: »

Maybe UKIP were a disparate bunch who hit upon a genuine concern.

Independent candidates at a general election are classic examples. Single issues bring people together to effect change. Once achieved normality sets in.

Herzlos

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/brexit-london-job-moves-latest-dublin-thomson-reuters-forex-a8352216.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#link_time=1526378299

Another sign we're moving towards a soft Brexit, and an end to this whole "just walk away" garbage?

I've also heard rumours of the Tories preparing for another snap election.

triathlon

Brexit will now effect housing in anyway, soft or hard Brexit. But as a businessman I think it's now well past the time where we should have at least a little meat of the bones. Only 6 months to go an we are out and yet we know nothing.
Millions of hard working loyal eastern europeans also not knowing what the future holds for them, it's disgusting.

mayonnaise

Herzlos wrote: »

I've also heard rumours of the Tories preparing for another snap election.

Just a last ditch attempt by the usual brexit extremists on the Tory backbenches to blackmail the PM.
Their ideological hard brexit is evaporating fast and they know it.