Shamus

Basingstoke is very busy at the moment. The Malls have a reasonable Christmas market and access from the car parks and railway station is good. The older part of town seems to be benefiting from some small independant businesses opening. I think people from 20 miles around Basingstoke will travel there. It's a lot less stressful than travelling into Reading.

+1 Sums up the fiasco nicely: https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2018/11/13/explosive-a-plain-mans-guide-to-brexit-reality-the-eight-brexit-murderers-named/

So a General Election or a new Referendum first? Votes please

I was in Reading at the weekend. Saw the leaning crane against the old Primark building - reported on the South Today evening news. Certainly lot's of characters about - some quite friendly - actually reminds me of Bristol in the mid 90's - there may be some hope yet - well into the next cycle !

For you spyguy the last paragraph made me laugh! BRISTOL is so overrun by ‘relocating’ London twats that it might as well just be in London, it has been confirmed. Thousands are selling their houses in the capital and moving to Bristol, despite the fact that previous influxes of Londoners have already ruined it by opening overpriced vegan milkshake bars. Former London resident Nathan Muir said: “Bristol is really similar to Hackney, but how Hackney used to be in the old days, before people like me moved there and made it an incredibly annoying place to be. “You can pretend Bristol is a bit scary and edgy because there’s loads of graffiti everywhere, whilst being reassured that it’s the middle class kind that is making a gently humorous point about social injustices. “I did think I’d get an extra bedroom for my money. Instead I’ve got a hippy on ketamine living in my garden shed, but at least it’s a slice of authentic Bristol life.” A government spokesman said: “Bristol is so much like London that we’re just going to pretend it’s attached to Peckham and start calling it Brondon. “Eventually the whole M4 corridor will be full of London bastards, except for Reading and Swindon which will be paved over for a massive park and ride scheme. Some places just can’t be gentrified.” Source: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/bristol-to-be-reclassified-as-london-suburb-20170704131011

Is banana cabarat still there? I remember a female heckler lobbing a glass at the comedian back in 1999/2000!

Basingstoke £645pw in 2014. So £33540. £33540x4.5 = £150930. So with 20% deposit around £181000 for a house. So the best I could find closest to the price: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-46901073.html A bit higher: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-47440947.html

I'll like to believe you - but politicians being politicians .... Perhaps I am just being a tad too cynical in my old age Whatever happens post June 8th it would be good to revisit page 661 of this thread to see who was right!

Brexit - ha ha the Tories have bottled it. It was always going to be Hard Brexit or No Brexit. Hard Brexit being too unpalatable to most of the establishment (and most of the UK workers). Europe have got us by the balls and they know it!

Yes quite - it has been called to save the EU! Look how quick Trump has performed a turnaround re foreign policy. The politicans and media are puppets on a string.

I think this will play out as another referendum with lots of posters up (paid by business and eu supporters) saying you will be worse off by £xxxx per year if you vote conservative and brexit. So a hung parliament could be very likely. We may even see some protests with both sides and confrontations. I expect plenty of turmoil especially as the students will be mostly finished for the summer.

Bristol is looking very toppy at way over 100 miles from London! Must have a lot of well paying jobs there? However to be fair I knew of people living in Bristol and commuting to Green Park in Reading! I've lived there a couple of times in the past. First time was in the early 90's. I knew several people who bought houses in Bristol then. I remember one of them was for £27k in Totterdown!

The council has been spending lot's on road and roundabout improvements in Basingstoke but it seems like they should have been investing in some of the office buildings instead as there seems to be lot's of big companies leaving the area for Reading and London. See article and comments here: Firm moves jobs Also I have noticed a lot of offices being turned into apartments. A company called Severn Capital has recently started on one here: Apartments Basingstoke has always been a commuter place for London and once as a place many people commuted into for work. It looks like it will become more of a dormitory town now for workers priced out of the towns they work in. At least the roads may stay reasonably quiet if they are all on the trains to London and Reading!

The CEO of my previous company (in the FTSE 250) said that he hoped for a remain vote in his internal company blog. I would imagine a lot of influence is coming down to the staff from the top in many companies for the remain vote.

The new fivers are smaller and remind me of Disney dollars. The see though plastic is a bit of a fad so I would expect fthem to be spent a little more quickly than they are now.