The week's best put down.......

I did watch a couple of the landlord programmes but I found them so infuriating that I don't think I'll watch any more.

I thought that at least with a couple of the landlords it was hard to believe that they didn't know about the poor state of the properties. One landlord's son had actually made a note of a repair that was needed but admitted that nothing had been done.

This particular landlord, said that he and his wife got through £2,000 a week "spending money" and received £40,000 per month in rents. (Bear in mind that aside from this up-front cash, the cumulative value of the properties in this buoyant market will be increasing substantially each day).

And yet, after expressing his sincere regret at the very small amount his (working) tenant had left after paying rent and bills, he said he told the interviewer he couldn't possibly reduce his tenant's rent because of "the market". In other words, the overpriced market resulting from a severe housing shortage, enabled him to charge sky high rents and he was quite prepared to take advantage of it. Not that regretful then.

Good post Day6 and I agree with you, there is room to be a bit different isn't there?
I also agree with Rigby about manipulative and highly edited programmes of this type ( sometimes what is left out skews the whole thing.)

I keep away from any of these type of programmes - the content IMO is always manipulated, misleading and aimed only at increasing viewing figures. I do wonder sometimes if people regret taking part in them afterwards.

What was the programme? Sounds interesting, I have watched "the week the landlord ..." but would like to watch this one. (I imagine it will be available on iplayer)

Eleothogran nice post I didn't watch the programme so won't comment but it's there bubbling away under the surface all the time with some people isn't it, so subtle you re never quite sure if it's ignorance or intention but if challenged they always have a best friend, neighbour or great work mate that's 'black' I even had a letter pushed through the letterbox once telling us to go back to the jungle where we came from well as I was about 3 miles from my start of life home, it would have been a job to go back anywhere I laugh about it now but it was so hurtful at the time

Did anyone actually see/hear/read her opinions of her neighbours? ".... I mean if I want to discuss a beautiful piece of music or a poem.....they just don't understand radio 3"
Northolt is "an area God forgot"

Eeeek! I think she may talk sense!

There are lots of people with whom I have little in common, and erm, last time I looked, that was perfectly OK!

It's OK to like different things, to have different tastes and dare I say it, to despair of the way others behave. I suspect most of us would agree, unless we are in favour of totalitarian regimes where we dare not be individuals.

Vive la difference!

Come on, most of us are a teensy, weensy bit judgemental. I abhor sexism, racism etc (the list of isms gets longer the longer I live) but part of that is about accepting that it's right and proper to live and let live. (Unless of course you want to annihilate people whose views differ from yours, and that's just as bad as being a racist snob in my book.)

There is usually a bit of middle ground that's safe to tread.

Thanks Ana sorry for my confusion

I think if Katek and GillT57 both felt this woman was a racist snob then they are probably right. I agree that the reference to "Rhodesia" gives it away really.

When we lived in West Sussex and I was working as a temp, I worked alongside another temp for couple of days. She told me she had just returned from Kenya where she and her parents had been living for some time. She said that she was shocked on returning to the UK to find that there were some black faces in our small town and it was annoying because that was one of the reasons they'd come home - so many black people around them there! I said that that was inevitable because they were, after all, in Kenya where one would expect to find black faces. I added that as my husband was Asian and had been invited to this country to fill a vacancy for a learning disabilities nurse which British people appeared unwilling to take on, I didn't appreciate her comment. She then spluttered a bit and told me I'd got it all wrong, she had several friends who were black, blah, blah.... So I recognise that sort of racist attitude.

Turned out nice again.

It may be better if people had actually watched the programme before commenting on it or criticising the views of those who did see it! The woman in question was rather snobbish, rather judgemental and a teeny bit racist, due perhaps to having lived in Zimbabwe (which she rather tellingly, referred to as Rhodesia). It was very funny when she asked the potential house swap person where she came from, obviously expecting to hear Barbados/Ghana/Jamaica and the deadpan and honest reply was 'Lewisham '.

I didn't watch it but I think I will now to see if I should have died out years ago.

No, that's a different programme Coolgran, and we have a thread about it - The Week the Landlords Moved In.

She wasn't seeking a house swop as such. It's a program where a landlord goes and lives in the home of a tenant for a week.

Not judging you, just what you wrote.

If she was so 'posh' why was she seeking a house-swap?

Good for you Kate enjoy it and have a glass for me ?

Oh for heaven's sake! It was a tongue in cheek wry observation of a type of woman who should have died out years ago. Did anyone actually see/hear/read her opinions of her neighbours? ".... I mean if I want to discuss a beautiful piece of music or a poem.....they just don't understand radio 3" Northolt is "an area God forgot" She managed to ask an elderly, blind Romanian gentlemen if he was Persian and then proceeded to describe his nice flat as "very Eastern bloc."

Press reviews haven't been particularly complimentary towards her either, with the Grauniad using phrases such as "racial awkwardness" I'm not alone in my opinion.

And for those who are suggesting that I'm being judgemental- er, you're actually judging me on several fronts. Somewhat ironic.,

Now I'm off to have a pleasant evening with DH.

Just to put into context, the 'posh' lady lived in Northolt which is a suburb of Greater London. A mixed community near Heathrow airport.
Just saying

I haven't seen the programme, but I am not comfortable by the description of the woman concerned as 'posh' and the description of her voice.

It seems to me that that description is very judgemental about the woman concerned because of how she looked or where she came from and how she spoke. obviously expecting her to have migrated from the colonies

Katek
I did see the programme.
Ana
Some people see it as 'obvious' because of the way the lady from Northolt spoke.

I agree, Petra. I don't see how it was 'obvious' at all...

petra - all I will say is that you really need to view the programme before commenting on something you don't have any knowledge of, only a presumption. I don't go looking for racist intentions (not something we tend to suffer from too much here) but I can sure as hell recognise it when it smacks me in the face.

Katek
It could well have been that the 'posh' lady recognised a south London accent when she heard it, and that it was obvious from her accent that she wasn't born in that Kent village.
Why are people always looking for a racist intention when most probably none is intended.
It says more about the people commenting on the remark than the remark itself.

It was, wasn't it Maw?! The boy done good.

This was pretty good too

www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-40589164/andy-murray-corrects-journalist-s-casual-sexism