almost witty

There is nothing like a bunch of screaming financial headlines to bring out the class warrior in me. Even though I own (half) my own home.

The headline in The Metro (a London freebie newspaper that accounts for a lot of the readership in London) screamed that house prices might drop by 30%. A small headline on page two talked about food riots caused by rising food prices. Another article in the anti-Ken Evening Standard (the only London newspaper you actually have to pay for) interviewed a couple who had to cut the selling price of their house by £100k to £400k. Even though the house only cost them £250k to begin with.

If the recent election results and screaming headlines are anything to go by, people are far more concerned about falling house prices denting the value of their investment portfolio - ie the money they could be making by doing nothing - and the inability to borrow more money than, say, rising food and fuel prices and job instability. Which says volumes about the insanely warped priorities in Britain today.

For heavens sake, a house is there to keep a roof over your head first. Sure its nice to know that its worth something but falling house prices are a good thing for all but selfish investors and those people who HAVE to move house having just bought a flat…

Then again I am (in lieu of getting broadband) trying to redecorate my slightly run down flat and can now mostly be seen in DIY centres or studying home decoration magazines and Ikea catalogues. Oh dear…

• 19:43 watching a documentary about the welsh in london. shame suggs can’t pronounce geraint. #
• 22:09 First attempt at painting finished. I should have worn gloves. And how come there are no guides to cleaning paint brushes ?! #
• 00:14 Damn. first UK election under twitter and I still haz no broadband. Pain! #
• 00:23 Amusing how all the journos have funky laptops but the politicians are sticking to dead tree pulp. #
• 00:44 bbc election coverage has now jumped the shark. Imitating a cowboy shootout to show lib dem poll positions?! #
• 00:56 Wondering why ITV havent even bothered covering the local elections.. #
• 01:03 and on bbci you can literally watch radio with pictures. Almost fascinating. #
• 09:45 Waiting for the man. The BT man. #
• 10:48 @qwghlm - sounds like a policy Boris would come up with! #
• 16:20 Flabbergasted at the ineptness of BT. #
• 16:39 @ifenn - I told BT a month ago I was moving. The house I moved into had broadband working perfectly. They still can’t connect me. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Peter Marshall spotted Ken Livingstone on the Tube

Originally uploaded by Annie Mole

Sure, it may be a PR stunt to show the Mayor of London using the same transport as the rest of us without any apparent bodyguards, minders, PR flunkies or anything else … but I’ve yet to see pics of Boris or Paddick or even Sian Berry of the Green Party using the Tube.

Then again, I distinctly remember reading a quote from The London Paper (24 April, page 11) where she claimed that four people taking a taxi was “as energy efficient as a two-thirds empty bus”. That may be true, but buses still have to run so surely it’s still a net carbon increase?

Oh yes, that’s not to forget the cheerleaders hovering outside the workplace the other day exhorting us to vote for K-E-N…