PunK BeaR

With 7 kids, she has certainly had plenty of experience in the bedroom.

The thing i never understood about the Bilderberger meeting is why they have such a well advertised secret meeting. Could they not do it more covertly or use video conferencing if they wanted to retain secrecy.

I dont really think arguing specific case studies such as individual cities and the quality of the built environment has much validitiy as there are numerous other factors other than the planning system which influence their development. However, your last point i do agree with. The entire 'land market' is a govt creation which i believe is one of the primary sources of many of these issues. Thus, in effect govt, through mechanisms such as the planning system, is trying to resolve problems that govt has caused itself through its system of land ownership. As was mentioned earlier in the thread, the planning system was introduced to deal with the poor living standards at the time. Poor living standards which can be argued arose partially because of the system of land ownership.

The point i was making was not just about housing but economic externalities in general, including those which the planning system tries to address. Economic externalities as a market failure is an excuse that govts have jumped on to justify intervention. My point was merely that as they are unquantifiable, suitable internalisation can never happen. You assume that the govt intervention is the answer and seem to think that in countries like the Netherlands that increased govt intervention leads to a better quality of built environment and higher living standards. There is no evidence to suggest this causal link. In a freer market the living standards could easily be far greater.

Cleaning qualifications

But can the government satisfactorily interalise them through the planning system and other forms of intervention? I would say no chance. Many of these externalities are completely unquantifiable thus how can accurate and suitable measures ever be taken. Who is be stung for the remediation and to what cost? Moreover, the act of government intervention itself has external consequences. How do you deal with these? Yet more govt intervention to solve the external consequences of the previous government intervention? This seems to be the course taken. In the end, this leads to a situation where everything is heavily regulated and nothing can function. Wealth creation drops off and in turn so does living standards.

IIRC planning laws stemmed from earlier legislation which was put in place to ensure adequate sanitation in homes. The quality of the living environment was poor for your average workers in those days and this tried to go some way to address this. Your average joe needed accommodation close to their workplace and this land was often all owned by the factory owners who often provided sh!t quality housing and the workers really had no other choice as commuting was impractical. Whether you agree or not with its original aims, it has now morphed into something much more. The system was implemented to tackle a problem arising from the system of land ownership and all it has done is further gum up the works and pander to the needs of VIs. And now we have overpriced sh!t quality shoeboxes and an environment where hardly any industry can set up (let alone function) because of the restrictions. Although i agree stripping back the planning system would be beneficial, the underlying issue of land ownership also has to be tackled.

The money taken will go to certain groups who may not have it if not for the government intervention. I was merely asking the question if these groups would constitute a large proportion of her sales? i.e is a lot of her record sales to gadgeys?

Land Rover and Jag have always been seen as fairly prestigious british cars. Although they are now foreign owned they are still made here and still seen as british. I would imagine moving production to another country would have a huge impact on sales here. That doesnt mean to say they wont do it though.

I wonder how much of the money taken from her goes back out in payments to council employees, those on benefits, employees in subsidised industries etc, who then use that money to buy her album. In a way she is kinda subsidising her own record sales.

I was a bit surprised by this story when I read it first thing this morning but when i was out i did see a fair amount of new land rovers, especially the high end ones such as Range Rovers and the Discovery. Didnt see any jags though.

Ok but i thought a free market was one free from coercive forces which would influence trading. Would the rules required to make the system operate not in themself be a coercive force would influence the market functions? e.g. if there is a rule or law stating verbal threats are considered violent coercion (thus an unacceptable action for which enforcement will be taken) surely the pattern of trading would be significantly different than if the rule stated verbal threats were ok and no action would be taken against them.

Ive never really understood how this anarcho-capitalist world could exist without coercion or use of force. Is force not required to enforce the private property rights? Thus can there ever be such a thing as a free market if force is required just to realise the fundamental principal of it, private property rights. As for a market free from coercion. Surely the problem is defining coercion. It is widely open to individual interpretation what constitutes coercive behaviour. Thus to eliminate? coercion , a line would have to be drawn defining what does and does not constitute coercion then you would have to use force and coercion to enforce this. Again, how can such a market truly be free.

My polling station (Dundee East) was 48%. And the surrounding ones were also around 50%.

If (and its a big if) the SNP dont renege on their promise to have a referendum on independence and IF the scottish people vote for independence which i believe is also doubtful , the ultra pro-european SNP will then fully integrate the country into the EU and it will be right back where it started, governed by those idiots in Brussels.

I dont know why everyone is getting excited over a vote for Scotland's independence. I'm afraid they wont get away from their European overseers that easily.

I think the media will have a huge influence on this, as it always does. After the AV vote they will no doubt start picking out the good guys and bad guys and warping peoples minds to suit. I cant see votes of no confidence happening yet but i also dont think this coalition will last the distance either. I notice Mandelslime has already been stirring it up. Linky

Most of the good social commentary and anti-establishment songs tend to come from more obscure bands nowadays. The more mainstream music wouldnt touch these issues, probably due potential impact on record sales. Still, here is another posting Motorheads latest song. Motorhead having have always been spot on the mark and have been banging the anti-establishment drum for decades. Unfortunately, most people just dismiss their music as mindless metal.

We should probably consider ourselves priveleged just now as we currently have mostly unrestricted access to this global information system. Its certainly not going to stay this way. We will look back in years to come and reminisce about the good ol days of the internet and how it used to be.

But they are increasing the foreign aid budget by a third overall, so its going to be a lot more money going out. They are just being more selective who they give it to.

I was never much of a fan of dance music but i quite liked this track. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FgZRW27vXU

I remember i was out driving around and spotted this corker of a box dormer they have extended down the front to ground level. Classy. Here is google maps link. Dunno how to extract the image and post it though. Never mind Ugly Dormer

Thats all the rage nowadays. Make a clear differentiation between the old and the new. Dont try a pastiche as it looks tacky. etc etc Personally, i think your right, it does look like a greenhouse. Best just to leave these old stone buildings alone and dont bother with any extensions.

Would these proposals include larger housing developments? Anything other than a few houses and you get issues with roads, drainage, education etc etc. i dont think govt would leave this up to the locals to sort out. Im guessing here, but i would imagine any significant developments will still be for the council / C govt to decide.

Under the current planning system, the Council can only assess planning applications on factors they call 'material considerations'. The value of land or property is not a material consideration. By allowing the locals to make decisions will they be able to assess applications against any criteria they want?