Minor News items - Not worth a thread of their own

[Dragon Slayer]

50 minutes ago, Piero said:

White smoke appears, and the bells of Christendom ring out!

 

Fumus albus apparet, et tintinnabula Christianitatis sonant!

 

 

Wonder why the Chicago born new pope became a naturalised Peruvian?

(It's akin to changing your surname 2/3 times)

[Mr H]

[1velocity7]

On 5/8/2025 at 7:00 PM, Dragon Slayer said:

Wonder why the Chicago born new pope became a naturalised Peruvian?

(It's akin to changing your surname 2/3 times)

maybe its easier to aquire little boys in peru

[1velocity7]

On 5/7/2025 at 8:38 PM, Grumpy Owl said:

I would like one day to buy a home, but there's no way I'd be tempted to buy any new-build.

 

For starters, they're all out of my price-range.

 

Secondly...

 

New build estates plagued with constant problems

from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70ze74l6jpo

 

In a nutshell, these big developer firms are only interested in making profit, lots of it.

 

Many of these new-build developments are built cheaply and shoddily. They might 'look nice' when they're finished and done out inside, but do they justify the cost?

 

If you're paying between 250k and 500k for a 'new' home, you shouldn't have to expect to deal with 'snagging' issues, and glaring problems like incomplete roads/footways or sewerage issues.

 

 

bbc done a bit on how youngsters buy their houses/flats

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cddegv618ezo

 

it just confirms how impossible it is.

remember when your mortgage was based on 3.5 times your wage

now even the shitiest house starts at 200k you need to be on 50k/yr

 

[k_j_evans]

52 minutes ago, 1velocity7 said:

bbc done a bit on how youngsters buy their houses/flats

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cddegv618ezo

 

it just confirms how impossible it is.

remember when your mortgage was based on 3.5 times your wage

now even the shitiest house starts at 200k you need to be on 50k/yr

 

You can get a three-bed house round here for 80 grand or less. But saving is alien to people these days - get a huge TV, get a car, have a foreign holiday - save, eh????

[wagdog19]

1 hour ago, k_j_evans said:

You can get a three-bed house round here for 80 grand or less. But saving is alien to people these days - get a huge TV, get a car, have a foreign holiday - save, eh????

Have been looking at accomodation in Lincolnshire, it's almost 40% cheaper than my current equivalent! 

[Grumpy Owl]

2 hours ago, k_j_evans said:

You can get a three-bed house round here for 80 grand or less. But saving is alien to people these days - get a huge TV, get a car, have a foreign holiday - save, eh????

Where do you live?

[Mr H]

3 hours ago, 1velocity7 said:

bbc done a bit on how youngsters buy their houses/flats

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cddegv618ezo

 

it just confirms how impossible it is.

remember when your mortgage was based on 3.5 times your wage

now even the shitiest house starts at 200k you need to be on 50k/yr

 

The average wage last year in England for full time workers was £38k so not impossible I guess.

 

Where I live you can get a pretty decent place at 200k and something luxurious for £300k that's at listed prices prior to negotiation.

 

Edit. Most houses will have two earners these days...so deffo doable innit

Edited May 10 by Mr H

[k_j_evans]

15 minutes ago, Grumpy Owl said:

Where do you live?

County Durham. Look at houses in DH4 and DH5, for example

Edited May 10 by k_j_evans

[Grumpy Owl]

And there was me thinking that a hospital was somewhere where sick people went to be treated, then when they were better they went home again.

 

Plans for aquarium in hospital entrance revealed

Quote

A 483-gallon (2,200-litre) aquarium is proposed for the upgraded entrance of Birmingham Children's Hospital, plans reveal.

The tank would be four-metres (13.1ft) tall and filled with more than 300 fish from about 61 species.

It is hoped the feature would help reduce stress and anxiety for both patients and visitors, boost mood, provide distraction and give children the opportunity to socialise.

The entirety of the hospital's entrance is being transformed by a £3m fundraising appeal called It Starts Here - which has already raised more than £2.5m.

from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vnv5g4jqlo

 

 

[Mr H]

7 minutes ago, k_j_evans said:

County Durham. Look at houses in DH4 and DH5, for example

I'm not too far away.....

 

But we mustn't let on how good living is and quality of life up North

 

Even minimum wage earners live pretty good up here......

 

 

It's glum and doomy, don't come up here

[Campion]

3 hours ago, 1velocity7 said:

bbc done a bit on how youngsters buy their houses/flats

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cddegv618ezo

 

it just confirms how impossible it is.

remember when your mortgage was based on 3.5 times your wage

now even the shitiest house starts at 200k you need to be on 50k/yr

 

  

The reference to the bank of mum & dad brings to mind Rachel Reeves's recent attack on pensions, bringing them into the scope of inheritance tax. 

 

So what are the ptb doing here?  The housing "shortage" is really only a side-effect of their mass immigration and multicultural agenda - economic growth too is just keeping pace with the increase in population, and GDP per head has been static since about the credit crunch. To prop up the immigration levels they are now encouraging families to pass wealth down the generations while the parents are still alive, so enough young people can still get a home (the graph in the bbc article shows home ownership of young people starting to rise again in the last few years).  Imo this is all about keeping the rebellion at bay and the normies happy enough in their bondage and keeping faith in the system, while they're being replaced or 'integrated' into the new global multicultural order.   

[Mr H]

3 minutes ago, Campion said:

  

The reference to the bank of mum & dad brings to mind Rachel Reeves's recent attack on pensions, bringing them into the scope of inheritance tax. 

 

So what are the ptb doing here?  The housing "shortage" is really only a side-effect of their mass immigration and multicultural agenda - economic growth too is just keeping pace with the increase in population, and GDP per head has been static since about the credit crunch. To prop up the immigration levels they are now encouraging families to pass wealth down the generations while the parents are still alive, so enough young people can still get a home (the graph in the bbc article shows home ownership of young people starting to rise again in the last few years).  Imo this is all about keeping the rebellion at bay and the normies happy enough in their bondage and keeping faith in the system, while they're being replaced or 'integrated' into the new global multicultural order.   

I spoke to a professional economist about the housing shortage issue. What he said was it's nothing to do with immigration really.

 

The problem arose when Thatcher closed down all our industry. So we now have a situation where many places in the country are deserted. Everyone forced to live in or near cities to work. And it's in these areas where there are shortage issues. Planning issue.

[Campion]

12 minutes ago, Mr H said:

I'm not too far away.....

But we mustn't let on how good living is and quality of life up North

Even minimum wage earners live pretty good up here......

It's glum and doomy, don't come up here

  

"It's grim up north" - J B Priestley?  

 

I live up north too, but I often come across people who sold up property in the South to buy somewhere nice, if they can get a decent job here that is.  The secret's already out, but then I don't think we continue to make as much growth on property as the southerners do. 

[Mr H]

2 minutes ago, Campion said:

  

"It's grim up north" - J B Priestley?  

 

I live up north too, but I often come across people who sold up property in the South to buy somewhere nice, if they can get a decent job here that is.  The secret's already out, but then I don't think we continue to make as much growth on property as the southerners do. 

It really is so much better up here.

 

Can't believe I spent so much time down south

 

Yeah, there are quite a few moving up here. Nice to be in the outdoors and we have some decent cities too....

[Campion]

8 minutes ago, Mr H said:

I spoke to a professional economist about the housing shortage issue. What he said was it's nothing to do with immigration really.

 

The problem arose when Thatcher closed down all our industry. So we now have a situation where many places in the country are deserted. Everyone forced to live in or near cities to work. And it's in these areas where there are shortage issues. Planning issue.

 

But cities are also where the immigrants want to live, so there is more competition for homes than there would be without immigration. There's a fair amount of white flight from city centres to the outskirts. Plus also added pressure in the university cities which can attract a lot of foreign students. 

 

I do agree though about industries being closed down in smaller towns and pit villages etc. It's also an issue of big corporations wanting to cluster together in places like the south east, rather than spread themselves evenly around the country. I read in another forum about how the south east of England is basically subsidising the rest of the UK, without which the place would decline into extremes of wealth and poverty.  

[Mr H]

3 minutes ago, Campion said:

 

But cities are also where the immigrants want to live, so there is more competition for homes than there would be without immigration. There's a fair amount of white flight from city centres to the outskirts. Plus also added pressure in the university cities which can attract a lot of foreign students. 

 

I do agree though about industries being closed down in smaller towns and pit villages etc. It's also an issue of big corporations wanting to cluster together in places like the south east, rather than spread themselves evenly around the country. I read in another forum about how the south east of England is basically subsidising the rest of the UK, without which the place would decline into extremes of wealth and poverty.  

Yes indeed. How much impact that has had vs the mass migration from former industrial towns I'm not sure. I suspect not so great.

 

But if we don't want immigration then folks need to start doing the menial low paying jobs, get more technical skills and also start having babies. 

[Mr H]

@Campion

 

Another major factor according to the economist. Was Tony Blair's policy of sending everyone to uni.

 

As Unis normally in big cities. Graduates often tend to stay there after graduation. then more businesses built in those areas, then more people want to move and so on it goes

 

Wasn't the case before. You worked local to.where  you were born and didn't go to uni

Edited May 10 by Mr H

[Campion]

20 minutes ago, Mr H said:

Yes indeed. How much impact that has had vs the mass migration from former industrial towns I'm not sure. I suspect not so great.

 

But the northern industrial towns are still highly populated aren't they, despite the low birth rate and internal relocation?  Benefits are likely to slow down the 'on your bike' Norman Tebbit tendency.   

 

20 minutes ago, Mr H said:

But if we don't want immigration then folks need to start doing the menial low paying jobs, get more technical skills and also start having babies. 

 

Rather than making those jobs more attractive?  At the low skilled end of the scale, a labour shortage is about the only leverage they have in the workplace when they can be easily replaced if they get too bolshy. High immigration benefits the employers at the expense of the employees.  But yeah, I agree we should be having way more babies. 

 

16 minutes ago, Mr H said:

Another major factor according to the economist. Was Tony Blair's policy of sending everyone to uni.

As Unis normally in big cities. Graduates often tend to stay there after graduation.

Wasn't the case before. You worked local to.where  you were born and didn't go to uni

 

Guilty as charged your honour   It also tends to break up extended family networks too, which fits with the agenda for a low social cohesion society. 

 

I'm not suggesting forcing people to stay put, but thinking about your earlier point about technical skills, how useful really are most of the university courses they do? As opposed to hands-on technical skills  - I'm guilty of that too, having not used the knowledge I learned during A levels and the degree.  I had to start over again to learn practical skills to get a job in the real world. 

 

Edit. At least I went to uni when there were grants, and I didn't end up with a student debt. I was helping to keep the unemployment figures down in Thatcher's Britain  

 

 

Edited May 10 by Campion

[Grumpy Grapes]

4 hours ago, 1velocity7 said:

maybe its easier to aquire little boys in peru

 

"Paddington" the 2014 movie, has the Weinstein brothers as Executive Producers.

 

[Mr H]

8 minutes ago, Campion said:

 

But the northern industrial towns are still highly populated aren't they, despite the low birth rate and internal relocation?  Benefits are likely to slow down the 'on your bike' Norman Tebbit tendency.   

 

 

Rather than making those jobs more attractive?  At the low skilled end of the scale, a labour shortage is about the only leverage they have in the workplace when they can be easily replaced if they get too bolshy. High immigration benefits the employers at the expense of the employees.  But yeah, I agree we should be having way more babies. 

 

 

Guilty as charged your honour   It also tends to break up extended family networks too, which fits with the agenda for a low social cohesion society. 

 

I'm not suggesting forcing people to stay put, but thinking about your earlier point about technical skills, how useful really are most of the university courses they do? As opposed to hands-on technical skills  - I'm guilty of that too, having not used the knowledge I learned during A levels and the degree.  I had to start over again to learn practical skills to get a job in the real world. 

 

Edit. At least I went to uni when there were grants, and I didn't end up with a student debt. I was helping to keep the unemployment figures down in Thatcher's Britain  

 

 

I haven't done any analysis, but many of the villages/towns near me are sparsely populated or populated with old folks. And if you go to places like Middleborough there are streets completely empty...

 

I would say at the low end labor side it's difficult and not profitable to make it more attractive. And we also have a lack of technical skilled labor at the mid end, e.g radiographers and technical builders. We used to get a lot from the EU to plug the gap, many coming from places like Poland but now not so easy, so people are coming from further afield to plug the gap often initially via illegal means, sometimes not 

 

Yes completely agree. Our education is fkd and way behind many asian countries for example for technical skills. I too did the same as you after uni... My degree was pretty worthless and had to.do a professional qualification to actually get a job.

[Grumpy Owl]

39 minutes ago, k_j_evans said:

County Durham. Look at houses in DH4 and DH5, for example

Thanks, that's interesting, I just had a quick look on Rightmove for DH4 and see what you mean.

 

Unfortunately while I'm open to relocating - much of my work can be done online so I'd be able to continue to work remotely - north-east England is a bit of a stretch for me, as I still have family and friends here in the West Midlands, as well as down in Cornwall, so it would be a bit of a jaunt by train to see them as I don't drive!

 

23 minutes ago, Mr H said:

I spoke to a professional economist about the housing shortage issue. What he said was it's nothing to do with immigration really.

 

The problem arose when Thatcher closed down all our industry. So we now have a situation where many places in the country are deserted. Everyone forced to live in or near cities to work. And it's in these areas where there are shortage issues. Planning issue.

 

I would politely disagree with what your economist told you. Housing shortages in the big cities are due to immigration.

 

9 minutes ago, Campion said:

 

But cities are also where the immigrants want to live, so there is more competition for homes than there would be without immigration. There's a fair amount of white flight from city centres to the outskirts. Plus also added pressure in the university cities which can attract a lot of foreign students. 

 

I do agree though about industries being closed down in smaller towns and pit villages etc. It's also an issue of big corporations wanting to cluster together in places like the south east, rather than spread themselves evenly around the country. I read in another forum about how the south east of England is basically subsidising the rest of the UK, without which the place would decline into extremes of wealth and poverty.  

 

The housing shortage here in Birmingham is simply because many family-sized homes (3/4/5 beds) are being snapped up as soon as they come to market by investors who convert them into HMOs (houses of multiple occupation), fuelled by a demand for smaller 1/2 bed properties from immigrants coming to those cities to work, often by themselves (initially!).

 

Certain parts of Birmingham have very high population densities as a result, where previously a family-sized home may have housed two adults and 1-3 children, now it is occupied by up to 6 adult couples.

 

More worryingly in recent years is the trend of snapping up family homes and then converting them into 'exempt accommodation', where providers are paid by local authorities to house what might otherwise be termed 'undesirables' - no disrespect intended, but homeless people 'dumped' from other cities, as well as recovering drug addicts and minor criminals. And then of course all the 'asylum seekers' and bogus refugees.

 

Its then no wonder that there is a housing shortage in places like Birmingham, and no matter how many new homes get built, there just isn't the 'supply' to keep up with the 'demand'.

 

[k_j_evans]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Owl said:

Thanks, that's interesting, I just had a quick look on Rightmove for DH4 and see what you mean.

 

Unfortunately while I'm open to relocating - much of my work can be done online so I'd be able to continue to work remotely - north-east England is a bit of a stretch for me, as I still have family and friends here in the West Midlands, as well as down in Cornwall, so it would be a bit of a jaunt by train to see them as I don't drive!

 

 

I have relatives in Walsall Wood, not that far away from you - and I don't think their house was all that expensive - although a lot more than up here

[k_j_evans]

2 hours ago, Mr H said:

@Campion

 

Another major factor according to the economist. Was Tony Blair's policy of sending everyone to uni.

 

As Unis normally in big cities. Graduates often tend to stay there after graduation. then more businesses built in those areas, then more people want to move and so on it goes

 

Wasn't the case before. You worked local to.where  you were born and didn't go to uni

Hmmm. Sunderland Uni (really a poly) has loads of Chinese students. Do they really stay and work at Nissan or Amazon (There's not much else now)? When I did training for M&S there were graduates in real subjects (like architecture and even engineering) working on the tills. Sending everyone to uni was a wonderful way of making unemployment seem lower, but sadly devalued everyone's education.

[k_j_evans]

2 hours ago, Campion said:

 

I'm not suggesting forcing people to stay put, but thinking about your earlier point about technical skills, how useful really are most of the university courses they do? As opposed to hands-on technical skills  - I'm guilty of that too, having not used the knowledge I learned during A levels and the degree.  I had to start over again to learn practical skills to get a job in the real world. 

 

Edit. At least I went to uni when there were grants, and I didn't end up with a student debt. I was helping to keep the unemployment figures down in Thatcher's Britain  

 

 

Well, I only went to unit to get away from home with the least amount of argument. I didn't stay in that town for more than 6 months or so after I finished. I've never used my degree and spent most of my early work years falsifying my CV to make it look at though I didn't go, so I wasn't considered over qualified for the things I wanted to do. BUT, it did teach me to research, budget, get in and out of buildings through a police cordon without getting caught and walk fast - but then, so did school (well, not the police bit).