Farage & Russell Brand

A more interesting programme would have been Farage with the Siddiqui's. Sid, Umar and Baasit would have made mincemeat of him.

Thank you, Ana! It really was a genuine question.

Sorry Ana. Wasn't thinking straight. It sounds like TV on the (very) cheap!

I did actually catch the Steph/Dom/Farage programme on More4 last night and I thought Steph [if he's the bloke] asked some quite pertinent questions and gave a good account of himself [in a boozey way]. Was pleasantly surprised. Underneath his tv personna lurks an intelligent bloke.

Ed Balls as chancellor feels me with terror!

Dom's the bloke, Tegan

Would this have happened if it wasn't for Russell Brand?

New Era housing estate seems to have won.

www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/18/us-investors-set-sell-new-era-estate-london-protests-westbrook

"People power works - #NewEraEstate is saved

Dec 19, 2014 — YES!!! WE WON!!! New Era Estate has been taken over by Dolphin Square Foundation / Dolphin Living! We believe at this time that this is a total victory!! Time to celebrate."

I'll repeat, People power works.

Great news durhamjen and I'm sure Russell Brand's considerable support helped a lot.

Having read a bit about it now, I don't think there's too much room for complacency. The organisation that is taking over has apparently guaranteed there will be no rent rises for "at least a year" - that could mean just a year. I wonder if there are also any guarantees as to what the maximum increase might be?

One of the young women from the campaign was interviewed on Channel 4 News and she felt that there should be some sort of rent control to prevent greedy landlords from massively hiking up their prices. The chap on the other side of the argument made me laugh when he said it was not greedy landlords that were to blame but just the shortage of rented accommodation (yes, which landlords are taking advantage of to make a financial killing - which to my mind is greedy). He then said that controlling rent would substantially decrease the amount of rented accommodation available. So what would all these landlords do with their properties if they decided to stop renting them out?

"That successive governments have presided over a legislative framework that treats housing as an asset for the rich while pricing out the poor shouldn't surprise us. When a third of our MPs are buy-to-let landlords and prominent cabinet figures such as Phillip Hammond own property development firms, we realise that there is not only an ideological divide between politicians and the public but a conflict of interest too."

Not forgetting Richard Benyon who used to own shares in New Era, and sold them to the US company which was going to hike rents up by 200%.

At least they have a year to organise themselves, Eloethan. Most of them thought they would be out before Christmas this year. Another good thing I read this week was that house prices in London dropped by over £300,000.
I presume that just means for millionaires, but it's a start.

My parents both died in 2006. I am sure there were fair rents then, so when did they disappear. When buy-to-let came in, I suppose.

A lot of people were encouraged to invest in property as an alternative to investing in the stock market for their pension funds.

Though I don't vote for him, I do know Richard Benyon who is our local MP & he has been superb in supporting people who I have been involved with & in a way I would never have expected from a Tory MP. The family & estate have a good reputation locally as landlords too & both he & his late father (who was MP for Milton Keynes) do/did not always take the usual party line. He was outstanding in the local consultation he held about Gaza & in his support for Gaza. The Estate held just 9% of the shares & decided to sell them back to the owners of the New Era estate as a result of the fuss created by Brand. I am not a Benyon apologist & I think impulsive publicists like Brand do have a role in some circumstances, but incorrect facts have been told about the Benyons' role (for which papers have apologized) & this is not the basis of good decision making for anyone.

What are the incorrect facts?

Gadaboutgran

Interesting post.

I like to hear an opinion based on personal knowledge, after all you are only speaking as you find and I note you say you do not vote for for him which leads me to congratulate your decision to post in honesty.

Some MPs are voted in, often against the natural party tendency of the area they represent, because they are hardworking, respected by their constituents and will go the extra mile.

One such was Dame Joan Vickers, Conservative, who represented what would be a traditional Labour constituency. She defeated Michael Foot to win the seat and was only defeated by 'local boy' Dr David Owen (Labour) after about 20 years.
I remember meeting her when she came in to greet all the mums with new Christmas babies at the hospital when DD was born.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/10/millionaire-tory-mp-tenants-estate-flats-richard-benyon

It seems that, as GadaboutGrans post demonstrates, as a constituency MP Mr Benyon has his admirers and no doubt, like anyone else, he has good and bad personal qualities. However, having read a little more about him, it would appear that he is ruthless in matters that relate to his own financial advancement.

As the linked article stated "New Era is one of the last estates to provide working class Londoners with a home .... until Benyon's family recently moved in as part of a property consortium". He didn't just unthinkingly drift into joining this consortium to buy up the estate - it was a deliberate act for the purpose of profiting from the house price boom in London. After the buy out, rents were put up by £160 a month and tenants were told they should either expect to pay a further large rent increase or "seek alternative accommodation".

Mr Benyon is reported to be the richest member of the House of Commons. He lives in a stately home just outside Reading, surrounded by 3,500 acres of land which includes a deer park. His fortune is estimated to be between £110-200 million.

Mr Benyon voted for the bedroom tax and has attacked the "something for nothing" welfare state, even though his own wealth was obtained not by dint of hard work and enterprise but through accident of birth - and taxpayers' money indirectly benefits him through Housing Benefit.

While Wildlife Minister he refused a request from other MPs that possession of carbofuran, a deadly poison used to kill birds of prey that is banned in Canada and the European Union, should be made a criminal offence. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas was quoted as saying: "The minister's shocking refusal to outlaw the possession of a poison used only by rogue gamekeepers to illegally kill birds of prey would be inexplicable were it not for his own cosy links to the shooting lobby."

Some of Mr Benyon's constituents also aren't too admiring of him. His neighbours were very upset when Hanson Aggregates were given permission to extract 200,000 tonnes of sand and gravel a year from woodlands on the family estate, leading it to be described as " bombsite".

Exactly, Eloethan. He sold the New Era holdings back to the consortium because he did not wish to be tainted by the scandal, and he did not need to make any more money. He is even richer than Cameron and Hunt.

r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0LEVrczO5dUpS4AhqEPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTByZDBpbXI5BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNQRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw--/RV=2/RE=1419226035/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fhackneycitizen.co.uk%2f2014%2f07%2f01%2fnew-era-estate-families-rent-hikes-benyon-landlord-takes-over%2f/RK=0/RS=Qmadvb5HKQRxYF1i1cwWERbThHs-

This does not make Benyon look too good. They only bought into New Era in March. They are not benevolent landlords.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/21/ukip-councillor-rozanne-duncan-expelled-kent-tv-interview

Another Ukipper gone. Dropping like flies now. This one's a councillor in the area where Farage is going to stand.

Farage was wrong about this, too.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/dec/30/no-surge-romanian-bulgarian-migrants-controls-lifted

A biased Guardian view, utter rubbish.

magpie I assume the article which you call "utter rubbish" is the one posted by durhamjen at 11.29.

Although it is a Guardian report and therefore automatically viewed with suspicion by some, it actually refers to research carried out by Oxford university-based Migration Observatory.

Thank you Eloethan.