... The Great Estate: The Rise & Fall of the Council House starting in 15 minutes on BBC 4. I might learn something new.
UPDATE: I did. Quite a lot to take in.
Triple layer tinfoil
1 hour ago
Monday, 11 April 2011
This evening I shall be mostly watching...
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6 comments:
Must have missed this.Are you going to write it up with commentary?
DBC, nope, it was lots of one-sided bits (some pro-, some anti-) and any overarching narrative I expected fell apart early on in the programme and disintegrated once he got to about 1979.
A decline whose origins he backdated to 1977 when Labour govt - allegedly - said "Council housing is no longer for working class but for underclass" and pulled the plug on it.
The commitment :-
“By 2010 we will ensure that all social tenants benefit from a decent, warm home with modern facilities.” Labour Party Election Manifesto 2005.
One outcome : - http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/dec/26/cut-regeneration-tony-blair-housing
I watched it and I agree. It suddenly fell apart at the 1977 remark, plus the usual anti-Thatcher stuff (and before you say anything you know that I am not in favour of council house sales as done by Thatcher etc!).
But I think it was also confused about 'council housing' and 'new towns'. My old dad built spec housing for sale for some new towns and London overspill, so it was not all 'council housing'. Plus Ebenezer Howard was not a 'council houser' he was a garden city-er - different thing.
L, there is (or was) a big overlap between the LVTers, the garden city-ers and people who like the idea of social housing. Or, in a modern context, people who want to liberalise planning laws. It's different means to similar ends.
MW. If the linked is the 'planned political economy' then I am anti it. But I can see roughly where there would be common ground. As you know I am not happy about gummint doing much at all - mainly because it's always ends up corrupt with graft and backhanders and vote buying and producer capture and is inefficient. And I am not at all sure about Garden Cities because it all goes back to one man or a select group of men imposing their idea of utopia on everyone else. I much prefer things to evolve as part of the spontaneous order of unhampered human action - subject to there being a sensible tax system, of course.
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