Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Richard Hakluyt]

I don't trust the Guardian on this issue at all either; they will knee-jerk against it. I want property prices to fall due to a large increase in supply; but at the same time England has a lot of beautiful countryside for such a densely populated country and i don't want the place concreted over 

In all fairness it is a very difficult problem to solve and I will be amazed if this government manages to do so.

[Sheilbh]

I don't trust the Guardian on this issue at all either; they will knee-jerk against it. I want property prices to fall due to a large increase in supply; but at the same time England has a lot of beautiful countryside for such a densely populated country and i don't want the place concreted over 

In all fairness it is a very difficult problem to solve and I will be amazed if this government manages to do so.

Yeah. Nimbyism is a hell of a force in the country. The left-liberal papers bought by renters don't like new developments on aesthetic/standards/environmental reasons, the right-wing free market papers bought by landowners don't like new developments on aesthetic/will reduce house prices reasons.

There are valid issues in everything they're saying but we are a very anti-building/development country despite the fact that, according to the ONS land-use survey, more land is used for golf courses in this country than housing (only 6% of land is built on for housing). Everyone is really worried about the housing crisis and affordability etc, but they never occur enough for it to change their fundamental position that we shouldn't build anything ever anywhere.

[The Brain]

Underground arcologies?

[Syt]

[Sheilbh]

One thought from an interesting stat/piece on the US. Given all our talk about the death of the High Street and the impact on retail, e-commerce still only accounts for under 20% of retail sales.

If we're moving to even a third to half of people regularly working from home - what impact will that have on all the other bits of the economy, especially the office space areas like the City

[Tamas]

One thought from an interesting stat/piece on the US. Given all our talk about the death of the High Street and the impact on retail, e-commerce still only accounts for under 20% of retail sales.

If we're moving to even a third to half of people regularly working from home - what impact will that have on all the other bits of the economy, especially the office space areas like the City

See, these highstreet chains are like the music record companies 20 years ago. They are making a needless bloody fuss because their unhealthy profits are no longer the way they used to be.


Funnily enough though, I think a long term move toward remote working would be the saving of local communities and high street. Not as a source for shopping but as a place to socialise. Go and have your lunch there, sit in a cafe to work, go to the communal working place that opened there etc.  Judging by feedback on my workplace's move toward remote working, while employees' response have been overwhelmingly positive, there are people worried about either their lack of proper working space, and/or the social aspect of losing their daily dose of socialising. Moving those to local communal areas like the high street makes perfect sense to me (once the pandemic is gone) and I am fairly certain things would organically and quickly move that way if they are let.

Of course it would mean big city service sector would suffer but for decades it has been popular to woe the demise of loca communities in favour of ever-increasing big cities, so we shouldn't switch woeing the demise of big cities without pausing.

[Sheilbh]

And also there's a generational/class issue. So young people in London who are flat-sharing have on average a 10m2 private working space. Otherwise it involves negotiations over who gets the living room, kitchen etc.

Maybe we all wrote off WeWork too soon

[Tamas]

And also there's a generational/class issue. So young people in London who are flat-sharing have on average a 10m2 private working space. Otherwise it involves negotiations over who gets the living room, kitchen etc.

Maybe we all wrote off WeWork too soon

Yes I imagine its pretty terrible for those people but if their workplaces would commit to remote working a lot of them could switch to cheaper accomodations further away and be under better circumstances.

[Sheilbh]

And also there's a generational/class issue. So young people in London who are flat-sharing have on average a 10m2 private working space. Otherwise it involves negotiations over who gets the living room, kitchen etc.

Maybe we all wrote off WeWork too soon

Yes I imagine its pretty terrible for those people but if their workplaces would commit to remote working a lot of them could switch to cheaper accomodations further away and be under better circumstances.

Unless they're in London because they like it here

I have realised taht basically without being able to go out, I'd be very happy living in not-London. If I can go out, I prefer it here.

It might encourage others who need to move on to get out though.

[Tamas]

It might encourage others who need to move on to get out though.

That's a key point I think. It would destroy my last hopes of buying a property in the South East that is not downright terrible But I think it is bound to happen.

[Sheilbh]

It might encourage others who need to move on to get out though.

That's a key point I think. It would destroy my last hopes of buying a property in the South East that is not downright terrible But I think it is bound to happen.

But by then you'll be able to move to Lincolnshire!

[Tamas]

It might encourage others who need to move on to get out though.

That's a key point I think. It would destroy my last hopes of buying a property in the South East that is not downright terrible But I think it is bound to happen.

But by then you'll be able to move to Lincolnshire!

[Sheilbh]

Really struck by Macron in Beirut today and the complicated post-colonial legacies in 2020.

Johnson - in the event of laws changing in Hong Konh: "Britain would then have no choice but to uphold our profound ties of history and friendship with the people of Hong Kong."

Macron - in addition to proposing a new political pact : "The priority is aid, support to the population, unconditionally. Because it's Lebanon, because it's France."

Very much a year of the past isn't even past.

[Duque de Bragança]

So much for Macron's ™Nouveau Monde™. (New World) 

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/politique/emmanuel-macron/desintox-nouveau-monde-les-marcheurs-ont-la-memoire-courte_2826151.html

[Maladict]

We did once live in a house with an avocado bathroom suite

My parents' bathroom looked just like that, a slightly lighter shade of green and wood instead of the brown tiles.
They kept it until the late 80s, maybe even longer.