SE23 Forum

I sympathise with some of what you say, but I'm trying to reconcile your preference for right-to-buy with your desire for a house price crash. Are you trying to put council house tenants who buy their homes into immediate negative equity???

Or do you want to have the price crash first and then have tenants buy their houses - compelling the councils to sell at the bottom of the market, like when Gordon Brown flogged our gold reserves for euros?

Secondly, while a house price crash would indeed make housing more affordable, the supply of housing at those depressed prices will surely be reduced - especially if people are pushed into negative equity. Who's going to sell if they don't have to? To say nothing of the impact on consumer confidence and the economy generally that such a crash would cause.

I could make a cheeky comment like, 'Put the factory workers near their stinking factory and the bankers in their Canary Wharf penthouses,' but I won't. Instead I'll just ask: are you assuming there's only one bread-winner in each family? Not sure that's the norm these days.

Can I put a few points across as a local resident and local trader both for and against.

I don't have any issues with landlords of shops or living accommodation if they are fair - in fact if my shop landlord wasn't fair and didn't care about our community I wouldn't be able to trade in FH, he is so fair so bring more of him on board!

If your business is in property and you have worked hard to achieve this then why not reap the rewards especially if you are fair.

Do I agree with people choosing not to work and having free housing?
No.

Do I think people trying to better themselves and needing a little help should have?
Yes

Do I think people with disabilities and such should have help?
Yes

In short I think people that don't want to get off their backsides and work for a living if they can should not have help, but others that may need help short or longtime depending on circumstances should.

Not to me, I'm afraid. I don't remember my employer complaining that I was 'inaccessible' when I used to commute into central London every day.

If all he is saying is that it would be good if everyone could walk into work, I'm sure nobody would dissent. But in my view the sort of social cleansing he's suggesting as a way of achieving that desirable objective is disproportionate and rather cruel.

It's about time someone spoke up for the feckless, incompetent and idle. We do our bit, you know. Someone's got to watch daytime TV. And I can assure that for some of us getting off our backsides is easier said than done.

I look forward to that day Robin, sadly it will be quite a long way off for me, but not too long. Please keep me up to date on daytime telly

So how do you find CW - i dont like it that much - yet have only been here 5 months - im in Churchill Place

When I was a slave I had to work in and around CW on many occasions
I found the place seemed to be full of loud, brash and overpaid chavs.
With lots of overpriced shops and restaurants that my salary could not afford.

I certainly agree It is one of Thatcher's great legacies.

Yep I know Bank Street - I have found that some of the people who work here are quite rude as they just walk straight across your path with no sorry or apologies when you have to pull up and stop

Westferry circus is ok - yet bit blowy when I wander around at lunchtime

I prefer the old place near London Bridge - well i did spend many years in that area

I will say there are loads of shops/bars etc and the security boys do make you feel a bit safer and it has looked amazing over the chrimbo period with all the chrimbo trees and lights on all other trees, suppose i just need to get used to it after so many years of working in SEI/London bridge area

I walk up Bank st every lunch time

Can I just ask if you like living in FH or not and if you make use of the local businesses, I can't work out if you do or don't and I'm just wondering.

Because you are young, intelligent, well-educated, charming, with good social skills and (I'm guessing here) healthy, good-looking and with a well-honed physique. You have come up to London like Dick Whittington to seek your fortune, as I did when I was your age. You'll be able to survive slumming it for a bit until you acquire your first billion. (I missed out on that bit.) When you write your memoirs ('Thank You, Mrs Thatcher: An Essex Boy's Pilgrimage'), you'll be able to look back with ironic affection to the time you had to live in a rather shabby, rather boring South London suburb with the appropriately naff name of Forest Hill.

The people living in 'sink estates' in central London on the other hand...

Lot of "Haves" and "Have Not's" on here. Any "Have a bit" here at all? Anyone who reads the Guardian and The Telegraph for opinion and the Daily Mail for the laughs (but not the Kardashians, can't stand the Kardasians). Anyone who is not a toff wanting to turn the Sainsbury's into Waitrose but also not a Marxist revolutionary planning to turn the local Sainsbury's into a Co-Op?

Any, well......normal people?

Well I count myself as normal [ well sort of ]