Reply to: Rural revolt gathers pace

[Pickle2]

Well?

Constable, obviously.

[sasguru]

What do you call a policewoman with a shaven fanny?

Well?

[Drewster]

What do you call a policewoman with a shaven fanny?

Baaaiitch! ..... and then you slap it!

Whats being a Policewoman got to do with that?

[Pickle2]

please don't give them an excuse with your romantic image of the countryside gained from a Constable print that you used to have in your house wall in the 80s

What do you call a policewoman with a shaven fanny?

[Mich the Tester]

There used to be cheap housing in villages, back in manorial times when farm labourers could hire a cheap house from the landlord and stay there for life as long as they agreed to work on the farms until retirement; their children could take over the lease and usually did, often building a new house, which the landlord liked as it added new rent to his estate. It worked OK in Britain and many parts of Europe, like Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, but then along came all these governments with their ‘social justice’ and their inheritance taxes, perhaps all well and good for the urban poor, but not much good for the rural communities. Result; half the European aristocracy ended up in poverty while the other half, who owned land in cities and shares in corporations, became unfathomably rich, and the poor farm labourers have to pay top dollar for their homes, competing against wealthy city types with 6 or 7 figure incomes.

[Moscow Mule]

And I take it that a man with your convictions sold your house on for dirt cheap to a farm hand?

Wasn't my house.

[minestrone]

Ok, forget it. Have your free market.

Village life is tulip anyway, that's why I moved away.

And I take it that a man with your convictions sold your house on for dirt cheap to a farm hand?

[sasguru]

Not at all, I'm suggesting that low cost homes in rural areas should only be available to people who can demonstrate a local connection (either by work or family) and not to Jonny two-jags for his weekend home.

You don't believe in the free market, then?

[Moscow Mule]

Ok, forget it. Have your free market.

Village life is tulip anyway, that's why I moved away.

[Moscow Mule]

Anyway are you suggesting some lazy drongo from a Zomerset village should be given a free house just because he was born there?

Not at all, I'm suggesting that low cost homes in rural areas should only be available to people who can demonstrate a local connection (either by work or family) and not to Jonny two-jags for his weekend home.

[Mich the Tester]

My family had lived in Kensington for generations. Why should I be priced out of the market by wealthy russians?

Kensington? Pah! New money! My family once owned a castle in Rheinland-Pfalz and owned several vineyards, two villages and a large chunk of forest. Why should I be denied my birthright just because they buggered off to Manchester in the 19th century and then went bust in the 30s? Why should some hotel owner be allowed to exploit my forefathers’ efforts for the sake of profits? It’s wrong, I tell you, it’s wrong! I shall now proceed to reclaim my Schloss!

[sasguru]

Have you thought what will happen to our villages when people faced with the choice of living with their parents or moving to a city choose the city?

The villages have survived for centuries with all sorts of pressures. It's not like this new one is particularly serious. In the end, things will even out.

Anyway are you suggesting some lazy drongo from a Zomerset village should be given a free house just because he was born there?

[ASB]

It comes from the fact that this way of life won't be tenable in the near future. Why should younger memebers of a family who's lived in a village for x generations be priced out of buying new homes in that area because of people looking for a second home?.

My family had lived in Kensington for generations. Why should I be priced out of the market by wealthy russians?

This is of course made up, but there is no god given right for somebody to be able to live where they want. In some areas second home ownership has made things more unaffordable, but my village in somerset was pretty unaffordable to most "locals" best part of 20 years ago.

[Moscow Mule]

Er, because they don't have the money, and the other people do.

So, people who get paid **** all, but do a valuable job in farming should be ****ed over because Jonny 2-jags and his family want somewhere nice to stay at the weekends?

[expat]

Why should younger memebers of a family who's lived in a village for x generations be priced out of buying new homes in that area because of people looking for a second home?

Er, because they don't have the money, and the other people do.