labour lost!!!

[nichomach]

I think it'd be more to the point to start imposing some limitations on lenders; low interest rates aren't being artificially maintained by the government, they're set independently by the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, the problem isn't the interest rates as far as house prices are concerned (except in the sense that they make stupidly high multipliers just about affordable - now, but maybe not later), it's that the lenders aren't imposing the old 3.5x your salary rule. They're lending 6 or 7 or more times salary, and that's partially responsible for really heating up the entry level of the property ladder. The other parts are lack of reasonable council housing, and a massive increase in buy to let. The former, the government could (and should) do something about - the latter, I'm not sure what the answer is, but I don't think monkeying with interest rates is going to solve it, since if they go up, the owners will just jack up rents to compensate.

[G4Z]

I dont have much time to comment as I have to go back to work, but tbh ;abour has had 7 years to fix these problems that the tories created, what have thye done about it...?

well noting, they have not came good on their election promises (drinks licensing and fox hunting spring to mind.)

I voted liberal as in my mind they are the only logical choice given the failings of the tories and labour. not to mention they took us into a very costly war with iraq (thats partly why gordon brown cant cut fuel duty)

[Rave]

Yeah, if it wasn't for the fact that I've been entirely priced out of the housing market, I'd be pretty happy with this government. There's a load of other stuff to moan about (war on Iraq, ridiculous money wasting PPI schemes etc. etc.) but they've still achieved a hell of a lot more than John Major's government ever did. I accepted a long time ago that we'll never have a government that I'm entirely happy with, so I try to keep things in perspective.

My (admittedly basic) grasp of economics tells me that an unprecedented boom in house prices such as we are seeing now must inevitably lead to a bust at some point. It's happened every other time. I can just about afford to rent for a few years longer; if house prices aren't sensible by the time I'm 30 I'll look at moving abroad.

BTW, the average age of a first time buyer in this country is now 34.

Rich :¬)

[Stoo]

/me hopes his Canadian citizenship application hurries up

(voted lib-dem btw)

[Russ]

Ski, if the tories get in power, they want to double the interest rates.

atm, if you have a mortgage on a 68k house, and the interest rates goes up .25 % you'll pay a tenner a month more... now if tories doubled the interest rates, you'd be paying 160 pound a month more than you already do, so then try gettin on the property ladder, thast why there so much talk of investment properties at the moment, cos rich people arent getting payed there high interests any more, so there buying house and renting them out for the money they'd get interest under the tory goverment, but his is good, if people are buying houses, its makin jobs..

and i cant remember who said it, but infact theres less than 1 million un employed people in the UK atm, compared to over 3 million with tories, and the people without jobs, are the 1's who dont want to work quite simply, and theres still people like maggie thatcher who prove there stupidity by saying what a great man ronald regan was, although he was part of the reason millions lived in fear of a nuclear war..

[Skii]

Russ

They are going to double sooner or later regardless of who is in power, you think they can stay the level they are right now ? They are already starting to creep up.
This is what happens when you hold them down for so long and that mountain of debt builds up. The bubble will burst soon, because its been allowed to grow and grow.

[Rave]

/me hopes his Canadian citizenship application hurries up

(voted lib-dem btw)

Canada, I hadn't thought of moving there, good idea m8! Cheers!

Rich :¬)

[Stewart]

First time ever a Party in power has come third, apparently.

Looks like the Tories might be poised to have a crack come the next General Election.

[nichomach]

Russ

They are going to double sooner or later regardless of who is in power, you think they can stay the level they are right now ? They are already starting to creep up.
This is what happens when you hold them down for so long and that mountain of debt builds up. The bubble will burst soon, because its been allowed to grow and grow.

Errr...sorry, Skii but Deloitte's reckon that interest rates are likely to peak at the end of next year at around 6.5% - bit different from the 15% they hit under the last administration. Now, unless the Tories got in and removed interest rate control from the Bank of England, the rate will fluctuate regardless of who is in power, since the government no longer sets interest rates. I'd point out that that 15% was quite delibarately set by the Tory government as an inflationary control measure. The Bank currently set the rate according to what they judge is good for the economy. The rates haven't been artificially held down, they've just been low as a consequence of a strong economy. Now, I agree that there's a problem with debt, and a serious one at that, but it's probably a mistake to assume that it's a huge bubble that will go bang.

[Rave]

Looks like the Tories might be poised to have a crack come the next General Election.

Come on mate, don't kid yourself. This is the reaction Michael Howard provokes in everyone I know:



He's got about as much chance of winning the next election as a one legged man has in an arse kicking competition.

Rich :¬)

[RVF500]

Labour lost......good!!

[Stolly]

Removing interest rates from direct political interferance is the best thing the politicians have done to the economy in 20 years.

Vote for the Tories ? Are you mad ? Wasn't Howard the home secretary who dreamed up the poll tax ?

Wasn't Major the PM who dreamed up "back to basics" in order to stop the constant scandal of Tories going to jail, accepting bribes, being found dead hanging from ceilings with oranges in their mouths while at the same time being guilty of sh*gging Edwina Curry behind his wifes back ?

How about the totally mis managed BSE crisis ? The scientists say we had a problem, the Tories denied everything and John Gummer went on TV forcing his daughter to eat a beef burger for the cameras !

Thatcher was great for the country, she broke the unions deadly embrace on the economy, she removed the millstones of the hugely inefficient nationalised industaries from our necks but since 1990 the Tories have lost their way and it wil be some time before they find their way back.