The Explosive 80s: Property Revolution

[laughing_goat]

Did anyone see this last night?

I saw most of it, it was quite funny, especially the home improvements.

Did anyone see all the fake wooden beams that woman had in her ex-council house? Also, the look on her face when she was told her house was worth £185,000 (I think she wanted £285,000).

Property Revolution

Charts the social revolution resulting from Thatcher's radical Right to Buy legislation and visits some of the people whose lives changed for better and worse. Thatcher's policy altered the political landscape – each party had to adjust its focus to appeal to a burgeoning, house-obsessed middle class.

[2005]

Did anyone see this last night?

I saw most of it, it was quite funny, especially the home improvements.

Did anyone see all the fake wooden beams that woman had in her ex-council house? Also, the look on her face when she was told her house was worth £185,000 (I think she wanted £285,000).

Yes I saw it - sickening actually. The whole programme focused on how much profit people had made out of buying council property.

The look on the woman's face when she said one hundred and eighty five was pricless. You might be a homeowner but it's still only an ex council house love.

Shame they didn't look at the wider picture and cover the nightmare situation that some people who bought council flats are facing - can't sell - can't be mortgage - massive compulsory costs (although I did miss ten minutes of this in the middle so was it covered then?)

I did like the bit about how many people were using this new found wealth to leave the country....are the government getting the message yet?

[Space Cadet]

Did anyone see this last night?

I saw most of it, it was quite funny, especially the home improvements.

Did anyone see all the fake wooden beams that woman had in her ex-council house? Also, the look on her face when she was told her house was worth £185,000 (I think she wanted £285,000).

Well, considering she brought the place for about 5K you'd think she would be over the moon, greedy bi*ch... Really does show how some people feel its there 'right' to make shit loads on a house, when in reality they have just been lucky.

All in all a good programme - Ive never given much thought to the whole right to buy era before (I was still in nappies at the time it started), but it did well to highlighted the social changes brought about, as well as sowing the seeds for the mess we now find ourselves in.

[laughing_goat]

Yes I saw it - sickening actually. The whole programme focused on how much profit people had made out of buying council property.

The look on the woman's face when she said one hundred and eighty five was pricless. You might be a homeowner but it's still only an ex council house love.

Shame they didn't look at the wider picture and cover the nightmare situation that some people who bought council flats are facing - can't sell - can't be mortgage - massive compulsory costs (although I did miss ten minutes of this in the middle so was it covered then?)

I did like the bit about how many people were using this new found wealth to leave the country....are the government getting the message yet?

I think I may have missed the same bit, just past half way through. It did say in the TV guide that it would cover how lives were changed for better and worse, so maybe it was in those lost minutes. However, I doubt it, it seemed to be treating the ex-council tennants like guinea pigs. It did touch on the fact that some of them had to work two jobs to pay the mortgage and how banks, etc took advantage by selling them home improvement loans. But as far I I could see that was it.

[shermanator]

Yes I saw it - sickening actually. The whole programme focused on how much profit people had made out of buying council property.

The look on the woman's face when she said one hundred and eighty five was pricless. You might be a homeowner but it's still only an ex council house love.

Shame they didn't look at the wider picture and cover the nightmare situation that some people who bought council flats are facing - can't sell - can't be mortgage - massive compulsory costs (although I did miss ten minutes of this in the middle so was it covered then?)

I did like the bit about how many people were using this new found wealth to leave the country....are the government getting the message yet?

That woman just had greed written all across her. Still, 185k probably does buy a fair bit in ice-bound Canada.

Seeing the number of people on the programme who think this country's gone to the dogs and want to get out, coupled with the rising number of anecdotals who are fed up with this country, who on earth will be left in Britain in 20 years time. I shudder to think.

Kelvin Mackenzie was great. Saying he had no sympathy for those folks who had overstretched themselves in the late 80s and were blaming everyone (government, banks, credit companies) apart from themselves. Even though I was too young to experience the 1980s, I get the impression, in London at least, that the consumerism, obsession with property, cocaine use and greed which has been prevelent over the past 8-10 years, far eclipses anything seen in the 1980s. So, I reckon the fallout from this bout of hedonism and decadance will far exceed the misery seen in the early 90s.

It's gonna be very bad.

Edited December 14, 2005 by shermanator

[Smurf1976]

The 1980's, often said to be the "decade of excess" was nothing compared to what's been happening recently. The crash won't be pretty.