Austin Allegro

The couple in that Daily Mail article 'worked hard' to save a £14,000 deposit between them over five years. That works out at £116 per month each. I know we don't like to say 'things were harder in my day' but really, I'd hardly call that 'hard work'...

'Pounds, Dudley, pounds...not "nicker".'

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that we are unlikely to become 'Dickensian' because even the poorest westerner has access to life-enhancing resources that the wealthiest Dickensian could only have dreamt of. For example, the internet has made it much easier to live outside the 'work-consume-borrow-work' cycle. Thanks to the internet I no longer need to work full time and pay high prices for rent/mortgage near my office; thanks to the internet I have a couple of extra passive income jobs which can support me if my main job fails; thanks to the internet I can research and compare things like insurance, savings and investments etc to optimise my income, thanks to the internet I can save huge amounts of money by utilising knowledge, eg learning to repair things from Youtube videos instead of paying a tradesman.

The country is not making any decision. The referendum was advisory - that was always made clear. It is up to Parliament to vote to leave the European Union, taking into account the will of the majority of the British electorate. That will was not just a 'brief window of emotion' but the end result of years of dissatisfaction with the status quo, as evidenced by the rise of UKIP. I agree the majority is slim - that will need to be taken into account during the process of realignment with EU countries.

I'm in my 40s so not a 'yoof' but I did spend a few years living and working in a European capital. It's actually not as easy as is made out by the EU-philes and I had a lot of headaches over tax, healthcare, residency etc which were never sorted out. It works well if you're Latvian and want to pick strawberries in Lincolnshire, but not so well if you're a self employed consultant who works between two countries, etc. I suspect a lot of young folk like the idea of going off and living in a European country but don't in practice do it. It's basically misty eyed romantic viewpoint. That said, I agree with Charles Moore who said the reason people are angry is because 1. they confuse Europe with the EU and 2. They have been led to believe that parliamentary democracy is somehow racist. I am convinced that many Remainers, especially younger ones, think that we are 'leaving Europe' and this means somehow turning our back on all the good things of Europe. They have also been convinced that before joining the EU, Britain was some sort of cultural backwater where everyone ate spam all the time. They forget that before the 1970s nearly everywhere in the world was more inward looking and monocultural. Britain was actually very engaged with other cultures through its commonwealth connections, far more so than, say, Germany.

This. Previously, I thought things like the second referenda in Ireland and Denmark to ensure the 'correct' result were the result of meddling and threats from Brussels. Now, I suspect it was politicians in those countries themselves that pushed for it. I am seeing now, respectable people such as Russell Group academics calling for second referenda and asking people to petition parliament to ignore the democratically manifested will of the British people. It is, quite frankly, sickening.

I've said many times the solution to the so-called housing crisis is for councils to provide hardstanding and utilities and charge ground rent for people to live on it in caravans. They can do this for gypsies for free, so I'm sure they can manage it for people who actually work for a living and pay rent. Water-based versions could also be constructed for narrow boats. They won't do it, of course, because they are in the pockets of volume housebuilders and are stuck in a 1940s mindset that thinks everyone should live in a suburban semi.

It's got an Aga. That alone adds a hundred grand to the 'value'. Add to that, the owners have probably spent a few hundred quid on Farrow and Ball paint - adds another fifty grand at least.

It always amuses me when I read about social engineers puzzled by why there isn't enough 'integration'. Are they really surprised that large numbers of people from halfway across the world with totally different religious and cultural beliefs don't particularly want to mingle with the British underclass, any more than British people wanted to do the same with Untouchables in the British Raj?

Never mind they can always re-use the house by having it on 'Can't Pay We'll Take it Away'. 'We have a high court writ from Mr Kevin McCloud for an outstanding payment of...' 'What mate? What? Dunno what you're talking about mate? 'You received a high court summons...' 'Never got no letter, mate!' etc etc etc

The Australian housing market summed up by Castlemaine's lager. 'Reckon we overdid it with the hedge funds!'

To be fair this is one individual. I believe the church as an institution, at least in England, is pretty careful about ethical investments these days, unlike the 19th century when there were slumlord Bishops etc. But yes, the church over the centuries has often been rather at odds with our Lord's ideas.

I wonder if it's a more a way of making passive income without being involved with stockbroking, which might be seen as too capitalist. In that sense, he may be like some teachers who get into BTL because it's not seen as a 'Tory' thing, more 'providing a service'. Clergy, like teachers, have seen a fall in income and status over the years. Of course, if he is doing it for philanthropic reasons, he can continue, making his small £500 profit a year, but if it is to make profit he should come clean and say so. The problem is that a lot of modern liberal people chase the idea of 'ethical' business.

The 'servant problem' was an obsession with the middle classes from 1914 to about the mid-fifties. The change from being able to afford servants to having to do almost everything oneself was probably on a par with the change now from being able to afford one's own home to being a lifelong rent/mortgage slave. It took a couple of generations and lots of technical advances for middle class people to accept the idea. However eventually the 'servant problem' was solved but I'm not quite sure how the 'housing problem' will be solved.

I think it was probably the equivalent of 1970s British Leyland cars with the speedo calibrated up to 140mph...it was done to look good but not much else!