Government theft of another’s possessions is plain wrong

Government theft of another’s possessions is plain wrong

13:32 PM, 11th September 2019, About 5 years ago 27

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The attacks on landlords are coming thick and fast and no political  party is the landlord”s friend. However, the worst possible fate that could befall our businesses would be for us to have them stolen from us. Last week Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell proposed just this in an interview with the Financial Times. Click here

Julian Jessop, former Institute of Economic Affairs economist has now spelt out clearly what landlords amongst others would face under a Marxist Government in an excellent article for the Telegraph, Click here. As he states, a sustained attack on property rights is no way to run a prosperous economy. I would add that there is also the small matter that theft of another’s possessions is plain wrong and the Government should be protecting property rights; not ripping them up.

Landlords clearly need to wake up. Many seem to still be supporting Labour, have their heads in the sand or are in denial. I understand tribal loyalty towards Labour, having been brought up poor and having voted Labour for most of my life. But Labour is no longer what it was.

Of course, the Conservative Government has also behaved atrociously towards landlords who are its natural supporters. Their attacks have paved the way and emboldened the extreme left in this country through the confiscatory Section 24 and now the proposed introduction of indefinite tenancies which will mean property owners lose control of their own property. I have written to Tory MPs and the Housing Minister to urge them to reverse direction, but there is no sign they are listening.

This is the context in which Labour has felt able to propose the legalised theft which ‘Rent to Buy’ in the PRS would constitute.

Together with the proposed theft of 10% of large companies’ assets (the next stage will be another 10%; another stage will be the theft of smaller companies’ assets and so on), landlords should unite against these attacks.

There is no easy solution regarding which party to vote for, but it is very clear which party must be stopped if we don’t want to face mass confiscation of our businesses and property.


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Dr Rosalind Beck

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22:27 PM, 14th September 2019, About 5 years ago

I just happened to watch the latest edition of the Pledge on Sky. Out of a panel of 5 it was good to see three of them - Michelle Dewbury, Nick Ferrari and Andrew Pearce - coming out against McDonnell's plans, calling them Marxist and so on and more or less defending landlords. They could have said a bit more about what it would mean for private property rights pre se if the state takes control of our belongings and decides whom to give them to, but they did talk about how this could lead to landlords selling, a house price crash and plunge many into negative equity and how others would simply board up their houses. It makes a nice change to see 3 out of 5 panellists on our side.

On a separate note, I was just thinking things through and had an interesting thought. If Labour got in and they started tearing up the free market economy and abolishing private property rights (incrementally, which would be the cleverest way to do it), and if the business people who could leave the country did, then the economy would start going into freefall. This would presumably mean that interest rates would have to rise. So, if tenants were given the right to buy our houses they could find themselves with huge monthly mortgage payments they couldn't afford and the properties would be repossessed. That would be karma.

Luke P

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22:53 PM, 14th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Dr Rosalind Beck at 14/09/2019 - 22:27
Repossessed and sold by the banks at large discounts to…BTL landlords!?!

Appalled Landlord

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13:03 PM, 15th September 2019, About 5 years ago

There is an interview with McDonnell in today’s Sunday Times. It is mostly about taxation, but includes the paragraph:

"McDonnell is similarly keen to face down criticism of Labour’s plans to let private tenants buy their homes, insisting they would have to do so at market rates: ”We would not allow anyone to lose out.”"
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/john-mcdonnells-plan-to-end-tax-avoidance-send-cunning-advisers-to-jail-52cbn7ln8#

Last Sunday he evaded Andrew Marr’s question “It would be fair market price?”, having just floated the idea of a “fair price assessment”.
https://www.property118.com/mcdonnell-and-marr-lull-landlords-over-rtb-on-behalf-of-the-labour-party/

A socialist government, led by Marxists, would have a very different idea from the market about what a “fair price” would be.

If tenants can obtain a mortgage and have saved a deposit they can already buy - at full market value - similar homes to those they are renting. So what would be the point of forcing their landlords to sell?  Was McDonnell lying to the Sunday Times about the policy?

Kathy Evans

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14:17 PM, 15th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Appalled Landlord at 15/09/2019 - 13:03
Surely private ownership of property is totally anti-Marx., so no one should have right to buy whether social housing or private? They are reformists - which doesn't make life any better for us. "There is no parliamentary road to socialism": write out 1000 times - imposing your will on the proletariat through parliament is just like being an industry "boss" and leads to state capitalism (which would be what I suspect Corbyn wants as he'd be in the driving seat up there with the party elite), not socialism (think Russia and China). I spent many years (I'm afraid) as fully paid up Trot and what these people are espousing is not Marxism. "as soon as this pub closes ... I'll man the barricades" (with apologies to Alex Glasgow)

Kathy Evans

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14:18 PM, 15th September 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Appalled Landlord at 15/09/2019 - 13:03
I'm sure he was lying - lying is what politicians do best

Appalled Landlord

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11:36 AM, 8th October 2019, About 5 years ago

“Jeremy Corbyn’s son is believed to be renting out flat, formally a council home, for £150 a night on Airbnb - despite his father's party calling for a crackdown on the holiday letting service.”

“Sebastian Corbyn, adviser to Labour Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, bought the two-bed East London apartment for just £162,500 in 2016,”

“The flat was previously owned by Paddington Churches Housing Association, a major social housing supplier to poorer Londoner, and was sold off on a 125-year leasehold in 2010. The property was then purchased by Mr Corbyn six years later.”
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1088469/jeremy-corbyn-news-labour

Obviously, if the Marxists ever form a government and start seizing private property or selling it below market value, this flat will be exempt.

DALE ROBERTS

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12:48 PM, 8th October 2019, About 5 years ago

Reply to the comment left by Neil Patterson at 11/09/2019 - 13:40Government's agenda is crystal clear. The climbing social housing pandemic is a political time-bomb. If government can deflect this problem away from themselves and create the delusion that it is PRS driven they escape blame. Legislation is being enacted to make the PRS responsible for the shortage. We finance the fiasco by force. It appears we will be beaten into submission by even harsher legislation as successive governments seek votes to remain in power.

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