The problem with domestic rent controls are not new. They were coming to a climax in the mid 1970s when, finally, even the then Labour government gave up being extra stupid and introduced a climate whereby domestic residential property could be let and not entail the owner facing in effect confiscation.
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The Law which had caused the original mess was the Defence Of The Realm Act of 1915 (DORA) – no doubt passed into effect as an emergency response to the First World War. For instance, pub closing hours were imposed. The mess persisted for at least sixty years. The cost to personal lives and the economy was vast.
However, here we are again: the sillies are getting on top and imposing housing law that does not work. It won’t do anybody any good.
In the same vein, tax relief on contributions to pension pots got underway in, I think, the late sixties. (The top rate of income tax hit 130% in 1968 and something had to be done to head off the screaming left.) But the advantages to serious savers were so great that, in the end, jealousy set in thereafter and a huge rise in annual unit cost per £ saved is society’s reward. Oh Dearie Dearie Me.
It is getting worse. HM Treasury now propose that senior NHS consultants find that part of their earnings are negative under the current tax regime. The result is that the NHS is running out of their best staff. All this is achieved by the Conservatives.
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It was Kipling who remarked that “when it comes to slaughter you’ll do your work on water and you’ll lick the bloomin’ boots of him that’s got it.” Now there’s not much slaughter going on here at the Alexandra Rehabilitation Unit but there is a requirement for truth. Yesterday the ambulance coming to fetch me to the Chelsea and Westminster ended up at my home address, 59 Drayton Gardens. This cannot have been down to the ambulance team since they do not instruct themselves. It had to have been caused by the ARU or the ward at C and W. However, despite perhaps twenty phone calls it proved impossible to identify the sinner. Extraordinary.
One of the physios at ARU recommended that I complain to the C and W Complaints Team. However, I am not an idiot since I have already established that the complaints team have no intention of investigating matters. So I passed up this avenue of enquiry.
But I did ask the ARU matron who, by way of reply, asked whether it matters. Here I give up since the implication is that all language is a waste of time.
This is Blair in action.
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I keep on hoping that US stock markets will turn down and unseat the ghastly Trump. No such luck. Yesterday saw fresh highs. I am damned if I know what is going on.
Simultaneously, Mnuchin claims that Trump does not need to release copies of his tax returns. Here there is no doubt that Trump has committed a criminal fraud on a material scale. If Americans cannot seize the opportunity to unseat Trump on this evidence, they are a very silly lot. Meanwhile Kim is steaming into Vladivostok…
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Finally, it takes a Conservative to be surprised by the success of Farage’s Brexit Party.