As we head on to Thursday’s General Election we can reasonably assert that none of the parties has considered in public the financial position of the UK. This is amazing. That said, anyone who trusts Labour with a cheque book is more trusting than I. One must just ignore the fact that there has lately been a rush from overseas to buy gilts. Conditions are bad overseas but they ain’t that bad.
Labour wish to control rents. We have seen this before: in the sixties and seventies the consequences of rent controls originated with DORA (Defence of the Realm Act 1916) finally crystallised in homelessness and squalor to a degree that even the densest of socialists could see the silliness of it all.
But just what is it about property that causes otherwise sensible people to lose their marbles? Over in Australia their government has lately made it a criminal offence to assist overseas buyers, typically Chinese, of Australian property unless a heavy tax is paid. Ye Gods! The miracle of overvalued property is that the vendor is able to sell thin air for hard cash. And a government bans this! Truly crackers – particularly given that Australia has a vast space for its population into which to expand.
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Afren (AFR) reported just after the close Thursday night. It is perfectly clear that there is a vast supply of shares to be issued. So why the stock is 3.5p bid is beyond me. 1p at most would be more to the point.