Chancellor Rachel Reeves: Her Time Is Up!

[Buddy Bradley]

Presumably they’re over-leveraged and have been burned by the interest rates rocketing

Well that’s capitalism for you

According to Reddit, "The actual story here when you dig into it is that letting agents fees ‘soared’ according to the Macraes, so they sacked them and do the maintenance on 60 properties themselves. They probably are leveraged to the hilt, so need to save every penny, but nobody is ‘forcing’ them to work full time - they are working at their own business"

 

[tommers]

According to Reddit, "The actual story here when you dig into it is that letting agents fees ‘soared’ according to the Macraes, so they sacked them and do the maintenance on 60 properties themselves. They probably are leveraged to the hilt, so need to save every penny, but nobody is ‘forcing’ them to work full time - they are working at their own business"

Fellas. Sell the properties. Stop fixing leaky taps in your seventies and have some fun jesus christ.

 

[Elpenor]

Robbie Fowler didn’t mention this at the seminar

 

[brogdale]

Horrible greedy cunts.

 

[tommers]

It's like a fucking Grimm's fairy tale or something. John's going to have a heart attack whilst fixing a fluoro tube cos he is too addicted to the numbers going up.

 

[Elpenor]

Horrible greedy cunts.

Usually they wheel out that Fergus wanker down in Kent, perhaps he’s gone to the great property empire in the sky?

 

[Cloo]

Looked it up, and it is real:

‘Labour has put the fear of God in everyone’: the pensioners dreading Reeves’s Budget

Growing number of older Britons feel their generation has been ‘hung out to dry’

www.telegraph.co.uk

The full article does not explain their "woes" in a way that actually makes sense, either. Essentially they might have to sell some of their dozens of buy-to-let properties.

Seriously even if they were only clearing £100 a month from each property after mortgages and everything (and I'm sure they're getting much more than that from most of them), that would still be £6000 a month? Average property price in Colchester is about £300k, so even if heavily mortgaged they'd clear a nice profit selling 2 or 3 a year which will more than last them the rest of their lives and not flood the market?

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Horrible greedy cunts.

And yet, also precisely the type of entrepreneurship that we have been told for the last 45 years that our economy needs and that people should aspire to.

It's a sickness, a perversion of what entrepreneurship should be. This pair are greedy, parasitical and grasping as fuck. But, they do not believe that there is anything wrong with that because so is the dominant culture. They are mere participants in it.

​

 

[Pickman's model]

And yet, also precisely the type of entrepreneurship that we have been told for the last 45 years that our economy needs and that people should aspire to.

It's a sickness, a perversion of what entrepreneurship should be. This pair are greedy, parasitical and grasping as fuck. But, they do not believe that there is anything wrong with that because so is the dominant culture. They are mere participants in it.

​

They'll strut and fret their hour upon the stage and then be heard no more

 

[Pickman's model]

Usually they wheel out that Fergus wanker down in Kent, perhaps he’s gone to the great property empire in the sky?

More likely under the patio

 

[Cloo]

And yet, also precisely the type of entrepreneurship that we have been told for the last 45 years that our economy needs and that people should aspire to.

'Passive income' capitalism.

 

[kabbes]

They could have bought into share funds, made a much greater return over the period and, crucially, now be able to sell bits and pieces of them as and when they needed it, instantaneously and fine tuned to avoid massive great lumpy CGT bills. But you can’t sell a seminar to people that says “just buy a worldwide index fund”. So they constantly get told the opposite — “avoid shares, they’re risky. Buy property, it’s safe”. Spoiler: it’s not safe.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

'Passive income' capitalism.

Precisely what - along with a Wealth Tax and Corporation Tax - Reeves should have targeted but did not. 'Passive Income' is where the money is being piled up, miles away from the productive economy and the tax system.

 

[Elpenor]

They could have bought into share funds, made a much greater return over the period and, crucially, now be able to sell bits and pieces of them as and when they needed it, instantaneously and fine tuned to avoid massive great lumpy CGT bills. But you can’t sell a seminar to people that says “just buy a worldwide index fund”. So they constantly get told the opposite — “avoid shares, they’re risky. Buy property, it’s safe”. Spoiler: it’s not safe.

“I know houses, I’ve lived in them all my life. And I’m handy, have decorated and done DIY all my life”

 

[brogdale]

And yet, also precisely the type of entrepreneurship that we have been told for the last 45 years that our economy needs and that people should aspire to.

It's a sickness, a perversion of what entrepreneurship should be. This pair are greedy, parasitical and grasping as fuck. But, they do not believe that there is anything wrong with that because so is the dominant culture. They are mere participants in it.

​

Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with that contextual analysis, I can't help reflecting that rentiers have always been attracted to the notion of unearned income, irrespective of political discourse. My forebears all lived in property owned by someone else, mostly farmers' tied cottages and more latterly in rented urban terraces. My bet is that few, if any, of these landlords believed there was anything wrong with how they benefited from their ownership of land/property.

The Macraes may well be mere participants in the system, but they are most certainly enthusiastic and determined participants clearly driven by avarice.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

Whilst I agree wholeheartedly with that contextual analysis, I can't help reflecting that rentiers have always been attracted to the notion of unearned income, irrespective of political discourse.

Yes, without doubt. Another example: before nationalisation signifcant numbers of miners lived in homs owened by the mining companies. You lost your job or went on strike: you lost your home.

A paper I read on the Nottingham miners indicated that the landlord was feared/hated/a tool in the development of a particular form of stunted trade union consciousness in that section of the mining workers. But, they did not appear to be admired and there was no aspiration to become one.

 

[two sheds]

I'll bet it takes them time doing essential maintenance when boilers or the like break down if they're trying to do it all themselves.

 

[MickiQ]

I'll bet it takes them time doing essential maintenance when boilers or the like break down if they're trying to do it all themselves.

That was what prompted my middle daughter and her now husband to buy a house. The boiler in their rented flat packed up in Nov and it took 6 weeks for the landlord to get it fixed apparently because he spent most of that time shopping around for the cheapest quote.

 

[brogdale]

Yes, without doubt. Another example: before nationalisation signifcant numbers of miners lived in homs owened by the mining companies. You lost your job or went on strike: you lost your home.

A paper I read on the Nottingham miners indicated that the landlord was feared/hated/a tool in the development of a particular form of stunted trade union consciousness in that section of the mining workers. But, they did not appear to be admired and there was no aspiration to become one.

Yes, I get that completely; in my family there was always a natural antipathy to landlords ranging from resentment and dissatisfaction to outright hated, but never any admiration or aspiration to become one. Landlords like the Macraes certainly appear shameless and, as you say, obviously feel emboldened by the dominant political narrative of the last 4 decades.

 

[MickiQ]

Usually they wheel out that Fergus wanker down in Kent, perhaps he’s gone to the great property empire in the sky?

Fergus Wilson, nope he's still around but he and his wife have sold loads of their properties now, they've apparently had the odd legal battle with the council recently as well over their laissez-faire attitude to maintenance.

 

[two sheds]

All the houses round here including my place originally were owned by Lord Falmouth. Loads still are, although they've been selling them off since at least the 30s. The estate retained mining rights to anything below (as I recall) 6 foot down.

It's still feudal though, one place up the road had water dripping down the walls but they were still being charged £700/month for a small one-bed house. Family of a neighbour had been renting for a good 30 years or more - rents used to be low because a lot of the houses were virtually ruins when they moved in (like his) and the renters were the ones who had to modernize, but they've been steadily going up even though there's been no investment in them for many years. When the neighbour moved out he got told he had to bring the house up to excellent condition or they'd sue him for the balance. They fucking would have as well, with nice compliant legal system down here.