LondonLax

There is the same debate in Australia (and Canada, and New Zealand). The house prices in the cities are out of reach of the first home buyer. You need to already have an asset in the game in order to take part. Property is cheap only in places where there is no prospect of finding a job capable of serving a mortgage. It is a result of globalisation and the race to solid assets after the financial crisis.

Some people could game the system if they thought it was worth it to them. They might find it is just easier to rent it out and earn that income rather than put a an employee/relative. I suspect for a foreign National with no ties to the country the rental option might also be less hassle then finding a relative.

You will always get fringe groups who have an agenda against politicians of all sides. Whether these groups then attract support from the wider community largely depends on how the politicians conduct their business of Government.

Use aggressive taxation to redirect the market where it is failing the people. A severe 'empty home' tax linked to the value of the property should sort out the problem quick smart, to the benefit of the wider community. Abandoning the rule of law and commandeering property Zimbabwe style is a very dangerous road for a government to travel down.

It seems a lot of money was spent recently on cladding building to improve its insulation but the material used is very flammable and has vents to prevent damp. It seems like a case of retrofitting a solution to one problem and creating a much bigger problem as a result.

That sounds pretty horrendous. An accident is tragic but that kind of preventable neglect is so much worse.

Stepping back from the fun of the election to look at the bigger picture and I must say the UK has really gotten itself into a proper mess. Signing Article 50 to start the 2 year countdown timer for Brexit then getting itself into political chaos with no clear leadership is a pretty spectacular failure of governance. Sorting out this mess will eat up a significant chunk of the 2 year timeline. I had always suspected the UK would end up exiting the EU without a deal under May but who knows how it will go down now.

You get a lot more dynamic mix of parties in a PR system. A small single issue party can get a few members in parliament based on the number of people interested in their single issue, they then get asked to form a coalition and often grow from there into a proper party. It's hard to get a big majority and govern outright if people are not compelled to vote for a major party to prevent their vote being wasted. A party has to be spectacularly good to convince over 50% of the population to vote for them and not one of the other options. By contrast, first past the post systems nearly always tend towards becoming a duopoly over time. Australia uses AV for the lower house where you rank the parties in order of your preference and then votes are distributed in those preferences until one party gets at least 50% of the vote. What this means in practice is small singe issue parties offer to direct their core voters to give their second preference to a similarly aligned major party in return for consideration on their important issues. It means a Greens voter (for example) doesn't consider their vote wasted and will put greens first but probably Labour 2nd, knowing that their vote will end up with Labour in a closely contested seat. Personally I consider Proportional Representation to be the truest for of democracy.

May called an election when she didn't need to in attempt to increase her majority and ended up losing her majority entirely. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

If a European country was playing a match in the Middle East and the host nation decided to hold a minute silence for the victims of a terrorists act that had killed a number of the host nations citizens I suspect the visiting team would join in as a mark of respect to the host nation. One of the Australians killed last week was even a local from the city where the game was being played. The Saudi FA were told in advance by the Australian FA and the Asian Football Association that there would be a minutes silence but the Saudi officials refused the invitation to take part. The players themselves may not have known what was happening due to the language barrier, one of the Saudi players did in fact line up and observe the silence.

I suspect the Torys will win but with a much smaller majority then they hoped for, creating disunity within the party. At the same time they willbe trying to negotiate Brexit which is a bit of a poisoned chalice in itself. Meanwhile Labour will be getting their house in order having seen some hope in the Corbyn / Sanders style of politics and may well win big in the next election.

Just being a pedant, but the religion was not around in the days of Jesus. It started 600 years later. Otherwise carry on

I think it requires serious training and would be too much of a commitment for the general public. How an untrained person thinks they will react in a situation like this is rarely how it plays out when the adrenaline kicks in. There was an interview with an Australian who was stabbed in the neck and the interviewer asked what the attacker was wearing. The guy couldn't remember anything about the attaker beyond the detail of the knife he was holding. That mirrors my (much tamer) experience of being mugged by a guy holds a knife.

And one off duty officer was on the scene having a night out. He rugby tackled one of them and was wrestling him on the ground whilst the armed officers were arriving. He's also in a critical condition with stab wounds to his face and neck

Corbyn is only 3% behind Blair in 97

The minimum wage in Australia is $17.70 which works out as £10.25 at current exchange rates. It would be an interesting study on the effects of minimum wage on employment and inflation. A number of U.S states have no minimum wage but they also have workers working 2-3 jobs for 60hrs per week who still need government assistance to make ends meet. That is a totally forign concept in Australia.

Trump is just trying to drum up more custmers for the US weapons manufacturers. Same as his trip to Saudi.

I don't think you are very good at understanding other people.

Apparently the Germans have reported that they have been asking for this intel for months but the US intelligance agencies did not want to share it with Germany in order to protect their sources. Yet Trump shares it with Russia, a strategic rival in the Middle East. You must question his judgement on that surely?

It feels like a lot longer than 3 and a half months.

Turns out the 'Aussie' streaker was actually a Ukrainian false flag operative!

I think it was his back story that won it rather than the song itself.

I also thought he was more machiavellian/playing to his crowd but it appears he is just totally mental.