Previously a Conservative voter!

Reply to the comment left by "Gary Dully" at "26/11/2016 - 10:28":

Hi Gary. I think the scariest of all of these is the Right to Buy with discounts in the PRS. I think that would result in a huge legal case. For many of us the 'discount' would be all the equity left in the property after CGT. In fact, it might be necessary to borrow to give the discount! As a person who has dragged myself up it would be a killer to have to hand over my profit from decades of work and stress to some rich kid who can meet the mortgage criteria.

I am going to suggest voting Labour. This might seem an odd choice, but consider all the restrictions on Housing Benefit that have come in under the Tories. Many of us have had to refuse HB tenants and in some areas in the rents are too high to have them as tenants.

Labour will be good for benefits and benefits are good for landlords. I would happily pay a bit more tax if it meant that we had a properly functioning HB system again.

Reply to the comment left by "H B" at "26/11/2016 - 13:07":

HB,
Labour and the Private Rented Sector?
My God, have you drank too much Tixylix?

Corbyn is more left wing than Putin.

Have you not heard what Mr Corbyn has repeatedly said about private landlords and housing benefits?

At least you can get a flavour of his plans by visiting the Labour Party website.

1. He hates all landlords, except councils for any social housing.
2. Take a look at his contribution to any debate on housing on the Hansard website, it's the only time he seems to get excited.
3. He will shortly be blaming you and me for all the rent rises for Section 24.
4. He wants all HB money diverted to council rents so that they can build houses with it.
5. He will slap higher inheritance tax rates, should you be foolish enough to die.
6. He will increase capital gains tax, he was screaming about it only last week.
7. He was praising Fidel Castro as a hero today, as a shining beacon for the people of the World.
(He's forgot to mention the imprisonment of any opposing voices)
Right on brother .... power to the people, except the people We don't like - shoot and imprison them instead).

If Donald Trump did what Castro did, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be spouting the same clap trap.

Even if he was the sweetest man on Earth, the bunch of left wing nut jobs now taking over the Labour Party will drag us back 60 years, where the unions tell the workers that they know best, businesses are the spawn of the devil and they have devised a cunning plan to defeat boom, bust, economics and the evils of capitalism once and for all.

I've seen it all before in the UK, in the seventies and eighties, where the unions gain control via the Labour Party.

We had more industrial action in just one of those years than in a whole decade since.

This is not Tony Blair Labour policies now being dreamt up,this guy is from the 1970's, just like me, I know EXACTLY what's coming if they get in power.

Let's borrow half a trillion to invest that say, straight to the pockets of a political bank called the National Investment Bank, who will control it?

Well it won't be you or me! That's for sure.

We ended up with a collapsed economy that the conservatives had to remove and they have gotten the blame for ever since.
(Ring any bells with today's situation)?

I was called out on strike after strike, without a vote, (unthinkable today), and we were told that if we didn't obey the unions we would be stripped of union membership and our jobs by default, because we had to be a union to have a job at British Leyland.

Investment collapsed, we were producing Austin Metros and Maxis, and steel nobody wanted, while the Japanese were making cars the customers wanted to drive and modernising their economy, while we begged the IMF to bail us out.

Labour always borrow more, spend it stupidly, spouting about the evils of capitalism and eventually bankrupt the country, every flaming time.

The UK is in a Global Economy, it can't isolate itself from Capitalism by wishful thinking and extra benefits.

Corbyn Labour again?

No thanks, I'd rather have austerity for 50 years than let those political dogma Lenin loving revolutionaries get anywhere near Downing Street.

Vote UKIP,

Reply to the comment left by "Dr Rosalind Beck" at "25/11/2016 - 16:07":

"I believe that it is our moral duty to at least turn up at the polling station" (I think the opposite).

I'm glad you are questioning whether our 'democracy' is truly representing you.

By engaging in any way with the political system (even spoiling ballots) you are giving it more recognition than it deserves.

Our leaders own us. They are farmers and we are livestock. Voting is giving farm animals a choice over which slaughter house they prefer. What kind of choice is that?

By engaging in politics, you give legitimacy to the bullies and thieves who claim authority over us. By giving us a 'vote' they hope we will all think we have had a fair say and will accept their rule without a fuss.

Even if you vote UKIP or Monster raving loony, you are still participating and the winner will still justify their authority and claim victory because of your vote!

If the system does not represent you, your moral duty is to refuse to recognise it. Let them carry on with their corrupt power trip. But stand up with dignity and say 'not in my name'!

Reply to the comment left by "ann capp" at "26/11/2016 - 19:55":

Sorry Ann,

I don't agree with that, but I can see your frustration.
I felt the same way for quite a few years.

Then I met a Turkish man working in London, he and his family love the UK, because we are free to choose and in Turkey they have very little choice and now dare not voice their concerns.

Participating is the lifeblood of our system of government.

Imagine if Fidel,Castro had faced an election over the last 40 years, would his relatives still be in power?
Possibly, but with a democratic mandate.

Political parties are always looking for a majority of votes over their nearest rival.
if you erode that by voting for somebody else, that majority becomes a minority and they lose.

I.e.: "swing voters" or "Tactical voters"

Your frustration as a Tory voter in a Labour stronghold would and is understandable, but the same applies as a Labour or Lib Dem voter in a safe Tory seat.

So it's down to turnout and the "floating" voter,

Or in other words YOUR MISSING VOTE.

It's worth a lot more to a political party than the votes cast by staunch supporters of any existing historical party, because they always can be depended upon, come what may, which is where people's apathy of politics is based.

SNP and UKIP voters realise that they can achieve change, because they abandoned the existing parties and voted for it.

And it worked, either at a local or national level, as their policies get poached by the failing larger parties.

E.g. The Greens, UKIP, Labour, Tory don't ignore the smaller parties they steal their policies instead.

So your vote does count, even if your side loses.
You won't get everything at once, but at least you will get something.

If your voice isn't heard at all, you don't exist and neither do your preferences.

Vote UKIP and watch the carnage of the elite, become entertaining.
They won't win outright, but they will make the drudgery of what we have now disappear.

Nigel Farage, for all his faults, has been a thorn in the side of Brussels for years.
If he would have got a seat in parliament, he would have caused a great deal of turmoil.

That's revenge via the ballot box, not the knife.

Susanne Evans or Paul Nuttal may make a great stir in the Labour and Tory support.

Marvellous, bring it on, punch ups, heated exchanges in the commons - win the argument and get your policy.
They love their country, they will never sell it for a jobs in the EU council.
I think they are brilliant.
They currently speak for the disenchanted, but other parties may follow in the future.

Isn't that fantastic?

Vote for something different and sooner or later you will get it.

We should all join our local UKIP party and start driving the UKIP agenda, which has no direction now that its prime (and only) objective has been accomplished (apart from a watching brief that it doesn't get watered down).

Reply to the comment left by "Barry Fitzpatrick" at "11/12/2016 - 13:00":

Many people (a good chunk in the south of the country) could never bring themselves to vote UKIP even though the alternatives are a shambles...which is disappointing. To be honest, I don't care if we all voted Monster Raving, just as long as we *all* vote the same way.

Just before the next local government elections we write to all our tenants about the Tory Tenant Tax and how the rent increase they have just had is down toTory policies. And then do it every election until the General Election. Two million landlords. Four million tenants. Out of a voting electorate of 35 million. Got to do some damage to the Consocialist Party.

Luke,
I think Barry is right, you are also right about landlords taking a concerted / united stance.
I have just emailed to the UKIP party, pointing out the Conservative govt's Ludicrous stance of Immigration checks on landlords, with the recent increased Penalties, TOGETHER with the leak that the Tories were contemplating asking schools to check children's right to be in the country when they compete for scarse school places.
Even further, Why is the Govt only focusing on landlords, Why not ask Doctors surgeries to require proof of residency before registering patients who will claim free, NHS, British Tax-payers funds.
UKIP were very interested in this and said they would take the matter forward. So, I think that if Landlords present some very cogent arguments against the government, UKIP at least seem prepared to listen ? ( after all, Farage is a businessman )