Making the news today....

[htb]

IIRC the handing out of methadone started before the SNP were in control, so its not happened exclusively their on their watch.

By saying handing out Drugs I was referring to cocaine meth etc, not methadone

[trigger_andy]

1 minute ago, htb said:

IIRC the handing out of methadone started before the SNP were in control, so its not happened exclusively their on their watch.

By saying handing out Drugs I was referring to cocaine meth etc, not methadone

It may well have started before the SNP where in power but they've been in power for how long now? They have had ample time and opportunity to turn this shocking statistic around but have failed miserably.

 

I guess its not something they really want to do, why rock the boat of their voter base, huh?  

 

It matters not to which drug you where personally referring to, the fact of the matter is the SNP dish out shockingly high doses of drugs at the very same chemists family's, generally uwnwittingly, pop into on a daily basis. My wife was a Dispensing Technician and could tell you a few horror stories, and thats in a small town. 

[Honda]

3 hours ago, htb said:

IIRC the handing out of methadone started before the SNP were in control, so its not happened exclusively their on their watch.

By saying handing out Drugs I was referring to cocaine meth etc, not methadone

The problem originated even further back than that: Shuggie Bain

 

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart (goodreads.com)

Edited July 30, 2021 by Honda

[Big J]

It's not exactly news, but I found this to be an interesting and succinct summary of the housing crisis in the UK. 

 

 

I have honestly got no idea how anyone starting out could afford to get onto the housing ladder now and fully expect the market to crash in the coming years as increasing interest rates make mortgages completely unaffordable for millions of people.

[Steve Bullman]

4 minutes ago, Big J said:

It's not exactly news, but I found this to be an interesting and succinct summary of the housing crisis in the UK. 

 

 

I have honestly got no idea how anyone starting out could afford to get onto the housing ladder now and fully expect the market to crash in the coming years as increasing interest rates make mortgages completely unaffordable for millions of people.

They’ve been saying the market needs to crash for years yet it never does.

 

realistically I think the only thing that could really make it crash is a big decline in population and therefore demand.

[nepia]

The housing market has always been a boom-bust one and I don't expect that to change.  I'm not knowledgeable enough to understand all the economics but yes, the market will dip in line with history but I just don't know when or exactly why!

[Big J]

Just now, Steve Bullman said:

They’ve been saying the market needs to crash for years yet it never does.

 

realistically I think the only thing that could really make it crash is a big decline in population and therefore demand.

 

I agree, to an extent. 

 

The government cannot afford for the housing market to crash. Given that housing is inherently more unaffordable for lower income families, they're presiding over a situation where with runaway inflation, they either increase the base rate (and bankrupt millions of low income home owners) or allow an unregulated increase in the cost of living, bankrupting fewer people in the short term, but pushing the problem (and exacerbating it) further down the road. 

 

My parent's first house was a 2 up 2 down in Derby in 1981. My mum was 20 at the time, and had a very junior position in the housing office. Probably a smidge over minimum wage. Her annual salary was £4k and the house cost £8k. In 1997 when we moved to a 4 bed house in Little Eaton my parents between them earned about £33k (lorry driver and teacher) and the house was £113k. Still affordable. That same 4 bed house is now valued at £470k and you'd need to have a combined income of £84k (20% deposit) which leaves you a monthly mortgage cost of £1417 (1% fixed rate), but that would increase to £1985 at 4%, or £2423 at 6%.

 

The affordability of housing in the UK has massively decreased in our lifetimes 😟

[Stere]

 

 

Small fluctuation or plateaus might happen  but look long term trend since  1970's

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by Stere

[Steve Bullman]

18 minutes ago, nepia said:

The housing market has always been a boom-bust one and I don't expect that to change.  I'm not knowledgeable enough to understand all the economics but yes, the market will dip in line with history but I just don't know when or exactly why!

I foolishly waited 16 years for it to crash whilst wasting probably close to £150,000 renting, give up in the end and bought. It will be just my luck for it to crash now though.

[Commando]

It's not exactly news, but I found this to be an interesting and succinct summary of the housing crisis in the UK. 
 
 
I have honestly got no idea how anyone starting out could afford to get onto the housing ladder now and fully expect the market to crash in the coming years as increasing interest rates make mortgages completely unaffordable for millions of people.

Why will it crash? There’s still plenty people with money wanting to buy, whether it’s 1st or second homes or properties to invest in. I think your maybe falling into that trap of predicting the future to fit ur own agenda.
I know plenty young lads in agriculture that have knuckled down and saved hard, laid off the booze and done the graft and have brought property.

IMHO too many seem to think it’s a right to own a house….It ain’t, you gotta work for it.
Also people forget the 80s when the interest rate was averaging over 10%. Massive chunk of monthly wage just in interest.