The horrible Coronavirus crisis has I think taught us a few very important lessons about hyper-mobility society we’ve been living in and the damage to lives and the environment that is the inevitable cost of it all. Zoom and more People have really woken up to video conferencing for a start. Maybe many of those so important ‘business’ trips aren’t so important after all. Maybe it’s not really necessary to fly 3000 miles to meet that client or supplier over lunch and an expensive bottle of wine. Because of the restrictions Coronavirus has placed on travelling and socialising, we can see it’s qu ..read more

In the UK, politicians and hand-wringing professionals from organisations like Shelter are always complaining about ‘Britain’s Housing Crisis’ and that ‘young couples can no longer afford to buy a home’ or ‘greedy buy-to-let landlords are snapping up properties that should go to first-time buyers’ and so on and on and on… They say that prices have risen so fast that young couples can no longer afford to get on the housing ladder. They say we are in the midst of a ‘HOUSING CRISIS’. Paxman asked why are our politicians so crap? Jeremy Paxman asked why are our politicians so crap? Well, in my opi ..read more

In the UK, politicians and hand-wringing professionals from organisations like Shelter are always complaining about ‘Britain’s Housing Crisis’ and that ‘young couples can no longer afford to buy a home’ or ‘greedy buy-to-let landlords are snapping up properties that should go to first-time buyers’ and so on and on and on… They say that prices have risen so fast that young couples can no longer afford to get on the housing ladder. They say we are in the midst of a ‘HOUSING CRISIS’. Paxman asked why are our politicians so crap? Jeremy Paxman asked why are our politicians so crap?Well, i ..read more

David Cameron – The man that called The Referendum that led to Brexit Yes, I admit it, I voted in 2016 to leave the EU. And now I bitterly regret being taken in by all the nonsense spoken by Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and the other jokers. Reasons to be Cheerless – one, two, three To be honest I voted leave for three main reasons. One, I was and still am, concerned about the way immigration into south east England is causing great problems – travel, housing, schools, hospitals, GPs, water resources and so on. Two, I loathed David Cameron. And Three – I never dreamed it would actually happen ..read more

An irritating opera singer, men in hotpants, James Corden and some meerkats Can you AFFORD to use Price Comparison websites? Landlords and Letting offers all kinds of landlord insurance at great value prices. One way to help keep these insurance products very competitive is to NOT appear on so-called price comparison websites. And of course it must be said that not all insurance providers do appear on these sites. Almost all price comparison sites, whether they are comparing insurance, meals out or anything else, have to charge the companies that appear there a lot of money. This is simply bec ..read more

This blog is usually about property, landlord stuff, money and a little bit of politics (as Ben Elton used to say). But I’ve written this because I am so disgusted as the way British people are increasingly becoming enslaved to US culture …and why!? Hey! Can I get some cookies to go? Or, translated into proper English this means ‘Have you got any biscuits to take away?’ Yes, this is of course a curmudgeonly attack on the way British Culture is being increasingly usurped by American Culture!  I have never understood why a great people like the British should be so in awe of a country in which ..read more

Dept of Communities and Local Government wants to improve the process of home buying and selling. The Department of Communities and Local Government is looking at ways of improving the home buying and selling process in the UK. Except Scotland, where it’s different. Well, I say Three Cheers for them for finally addressing this problem. For too long, sellers have been able to gazump and buyers to gazunder, just before Exchange of Contracts. This is incredibly stressful and costly for both the gazumpee and the gazunderee – words as ugly as the practice itself! I believe that the solution to impr ..read more

How the polls distorted recent elections I think that the experience of the last few years clearly shows that it’s high time we addressed the problem of polling. I would go so far as to say that it is regularly distorting the democratic process. Let’s take a look at a few recent prominent examples: The 2015 UK General Election David Cameron was facing a Labour Party lead by Ed Miliband (remember them?) with an ascendent SNP. The talk was that the Tories were unlikely to win and the best they could expect was a minority government. At this time UKIP were riding high and and were snapping at Cam ..read more

Landlords – how to save around £5500 letting your property There has been a lot of discussion recently about how letting agents regularly rip off tenants – and they do. The government is belatedly introducing legislation to restrict their fees to tenants. But they also rip off landlords and whilst it’s difficult for tenants to avoid them, it’s much easier for landlords, as long as their property is local. Given letting agents outrageous fees to landlords, it’s incredible they have the nerve to invent all the other charges they make to tenants – that’s why most tenants and landlords alike disl ..read more

What a difference a decade makes! At the time of writing (2017) over 100 new pieces of landlord legislation have been introduced since 2007 to make life more difficult for the small private residential landlord, whilst favouring major corporate ones like insurance companies. Why have there been 10 years of anti-landlord legislation? It used to be The Bankers (and rightly) but increasingly since 2007, private residential landlords have been the target for a relentless onslaught of legislation by central and local government. I think that no other group in society has been attacked so relentless ..read more