Local Government Ripoffs

Elderly gentleman in a tiny retirement flat in Diss paying £1300 plus in Council Tax so that local councillors, who in the UK are officially unpaid but who in fact receive 'allowances' of up to twenty thousand pounds a year, can spend his money on  their pet projects. That gets my goat, Hastings is another council that's expensive, but I'm sure Diss and Hastings are not alone, just two that I happen to have experience of.

What is this passion for devolution and more and more layers of expensive bureaucracy? Has the UK has gone completely mad?

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Hillsborough Lies

I'm sure some late arriving fans at Hillsborough arrived with a few drinks in them, in fact I know so because a friend was in a local pub before the game. However a police force that lies for nigh on thirty years is a disgrace. The victims were probably all people who arrived in a timely fashion, they were always innocent sports fans. I've said before that the British Police Forces  in general are not fit for purpose, but South Yorkshire are quite possibly the worst of a terrible bunch. It's not just Hillsborough, but child abuse victims too. A Police Complaints official was making the point on television last night that an entire generation has come to mistrust the police. Before trying to change their minds we need to create a police force that is fit for purpose.

Malcolm Snook

Rhino Poachers Get My Goat

I find poaching of Rhino and Elephant more than a little distressing, I abhor whaling too, just for the record. Why human beings want to destroy the most amazing creations of nature is beyond me. I mean, I can understand the profit motive in the hey day of whaling, even though I don't like it, and I can understand that ivory can be beautiful, although no carved ivory can possibly invoke the wonder inspired by a fully grown elephant, but when it comes to Rhino you have to add in the absurdity of the fact that the monetary value of Rhino horn comes from grinding it down, to pander to a stupid superstition still held by large numbers of Asian people who now have the money to pay ridiculous sums for a worthless, in terms of efficacy, powder. All at the expense of dwindling stocks of magnificent animals.

I hope the Chinese and others coming to Western Universities really are learning something and taking it home because whilst I'm all in favour of more armed and physical protection of animals in game reserves, surely education is the only long term cure. There is no such thing as a cure all and I seriously doubt that Rhino horn cures anything. And if anyone can show that it does I'm sure we can make any active ingredient synthetically.

Malcolm Snook

The Great ISA Ripoff

We all love banks and bankers don't we? Well,  they certainly don't love us savers. If companies like Wellesley can do bonds worth 7 to 8 percent then why are major banks like Barclays offering a paltry one and a half percent to people with substantial savings to invest.

The banks believe they can rip people off because ISA's don't get taxed, so people feel better about them and because banks offer a government backed guarantee, and certainly that security means something in this day and age. However it does not account for the obscene difference.

My own generation paid absurdly high interest rates on our mortgages, which often rose hundreds of pounds per month in very short order. It went on for many years too. Yet now getting a good return on savings with any degree of security is become laughable.

Not that I don't have huge sympathy for young people today running up large debts for their education, that nice Mr Blair's education, education, education reform. Idiot, but that's another subject. Aside from Wellesley, Hargreaves Lansdown might be worth a look, I certainly am, looking anyway!

There is a way that the suppliers of products and services can enhance their cash flow, their profit and their customer and brand loyalty at the same time as helping we who save in preference to borrow. The idea is explained in detail in a chapter of my book 'Of Land, Sea And Sky'.

Perhaps, like Van Gogh it will all catch on after I've gone!

Of land, Sea And Sky

There's Always A Bureaucrat In The Way

British Bureaucracy drives me mad. It's one of the reasons I want to stay in Europe - it offers an escape route! I watch a lot of Grand Designs on the television, even the repeats. I find the presenter Kevin McCloud, insightful, enthusiastic and engaging. Recently I watched an episode where a couple purchased an old run down RNLI lifeboat station, built on girders above the sea.

Hell of a challenge to make a marvellous home from that, but they did it. Clever, determined, go for it kind of people. They also preserved the place. After huge investment and hard work, outside it now looks very much like it did when it was built. Inside it was just an open space with a sloping slipway. To make that a home you have to put in floors and stairs, walls and plumbing, the lot. So, preserving the interior isn't really an issue. Nonetheless, the planners, bureaucrats that is, denied the owners a hand rail they wanted. Petty.

If it was a Tudor building and someone wanted to rip the heart out of it I can see that there would be a point to stopping them, for future generations and for posterity, but what happened here was an abuse of power, I get a say so I'll use it, I have power, I will wield it. I can't see the planners being invited to dinner parties there, so they'll never see it again. The thoughtful Mr McCloud made a comment to the effect that you win some battles and lose others and that whatever you try to achieve there's always a bureaucrat standing in the way. How true. How very, very true.

Malcolm Snook

I've Been Assigned A Case Officer!!

You might think from the title of this blog post that I'm on parole, probation or accused of something, but no I'm just a small landlord who, after years of working hard and seeing pensions devalued (especially private pensions), invested in property and who provides affordable housing and is responsible about repairs etc. I use professional letting agents to make sure everything is legal and correct and of course leasehold properties also have managing  agents charging as much as they can for the upkeep of the building and communal areas.

So, on  Saturday, out of the blue I get a letter, which says it's a reminder, but which is news to me. Why does bad news always come on a Saturday when there's very little chance of getting anything done and messing up the weekend?

So, now I need a licence to be a landlord in Hastings and pay up quick to get a discount down to £185 or it will be a monstrous £460! Profiteering by a council, who could think such a thing. After two phone calls to the managing agents, one to the property management, two to the council and a lot of time filling out forms online and on the phone I've now made my application for a licence. I have a reference number to show I'm a fit and proper person as well, and the managing agent has one too.

However, as a final shot I'm told I'm being assigned a case officer and in some weeks time I MAY get a licence to carry on my business.

Along, probably with thousands of small landlords what will actually happen is that in the next two years I will sell up and probably invest every penny I own overseas, because that's how fed up I am with British stupidity, bureaucracy and stealth taxes. I don't mind anyone looking to see if I have a criminal record, because I don't, I've never even had a single point on my driving licence, but this is creating artificial jobs; bureaucrats don't make anything or any contribution to the nation's economy, if we still made stuff in the UK we'd be a sight better off. Unfortunately anyone who works, or worked, hard and invested is now a target to pay the national debt and top up councils.

We were conned into opting out of SERPS, then Gordon Brown wiped billions, literally billions possibly five hundred billion pounds, off the value of private pensions so he'd have more to spend, now those of us who invested in property to secure our futures are public enemy number one. Ironically the government is advertising on tv that we should take pensions advice from them. Too late for me but if you're thinking about trusting them think again.

The only one who can secure your future is you and politicians, national or local, of any party are your opposition! That's Britain today and by the way if you vote to leave Europe you could lose your right to live somewhere else when it all gets too much!

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