When will this shit end?

[steviewevie]

9 hours ago, zahidf said:

What's the battleground states? A few people are including texas and Georgia as battle ground states. Which is ridiculous, because if biden is ahead in those states...

 

Also  if biden is consistently over 50%, nationally... thats pretty good 

Well, Clinton got above 50% but lost. Same could happen again. If the election shifts from coronavirus and the economy to being about the protests, crime etc., then Trump could win.

[Mr.Tease]

9 hours ago, FestivalJamie said:

Jeremy Corbin’s Brother (Piers Corbin) has been fined £10,000 after organising the anti coronavirus protest in trafalagar square yesterday.

Who cares? 

[Mr.Tease]

13 hours ago, squirrelarmy said:

Would a London centric crash be that bad?

The cost of living is shocking down there compared to the rest of the UK. 

It's a tough sell- waste hours of your life commuting unnecessarily, spend a fortune on travel costs when you have just spent the past 6 proving you can do the work from home, significantly increase your risk of catching covid-19 and passing it on to your household, in order to keep wealthy landlords rich in London (while the government pretends its out of concern for sandwich shop workers). 

Meanwhile even if you do do all that, you're probably still going to be made redundant in a few months as most companies are planning on cutting staff. 

Om a side note, if working from home sticks post vaccine, I wonder what becomes of all the fancy office buildings in cities longer term- can they be converted in living accommodation? Do they stay empty? What other uses could be made for them? 

[mcshed]

38 minutes ago, Mr.Tease said:

waste hours of your life commuting unnecessarily, spend a fortune on travel costs

What I don't understand is why people are just realising this, it has always been perfectly possible to work without huge commutes. I have always made career and housing choices with this in mind.

I understand this is more difficult in London but it has also always been possible to not work in London.

[zeppelin]

20 minutes ago, mcshed said:

What I don't understand is why people are just realising this, it has always been perfectly possible to work without huge commutes. I have always made career and housing choices with this in mind.

I understand this is more difficult in London but it has also always been possible to not work in London.

To be fair there are certain industries where you do almost have to be in London - some things like fashion I believe. It will be interesting to see if/how that changes.

Plus, yes, people complain about the commute and cost of living but many choose to live there for the London lifestyle; the nightlife, the gigs, the events, the markets, etc.

I have never lived there personally but did see the appeal for a number of years. Regardless, my thoughts on the matter is that this has just sped up a process we would have seen anyway (significantly so though) and it's more important now to rebuild for that future rather than try to emulate where we were. That in itself is hugely difficult.

[dotdash79]

If the government want people to return the cities then the arts must be open and available. That what will bring people back, not a sandwich from Pret

[squirrelarmy]

9 minutes ago, zeppelin said:

To be fair there are certain industries where you do almost have to be in London

A lot of London based TV businesses are moving out of there. The BBC are now mainly based out of Salford. Channel 4 are moving their HQ to Leeds. Sky also have a lot of their staff based in Leeds too. 
 

With more home working there is going to be less need to be based in London. The big losers are indeed going to be the landlords charging extortionate rates for domestic and business properties. I don’t think anyone other than the Tory owners of those properties will complain if they are forced to lower those rates. 

[Radiochicken]

 

 

[steviewevie]

Tory press getting scared about tax rises...did they think we wouldn't have to pay for all this somehow?

[Ozanne]

2 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Tory press getting scared about tax rises...did they think we wouldn't have to pay for all this somehow?

They thought they wouldn’t have to pay for it. 

[fatyeti24]

2 hours ago, Mr.Tease said:

It's a tough sell- waste hours of your life commuting unnecessarily, spend a fortune on travel costs when you have just spent the past 6 proving you can do the work from home, significantly increase your risk of catching covid-19 and passing it on to your household, in order to keep wealthy landlords rich in London (while the government pretends its out of concern for sandwich shop workers). 

Meanwhile even if you do do all that, you're probably still going to be made redundant in a few months as most companies are planning on cutting staff. 

Om a side note, if working from home sticks post vaccine, I wonder what becomes of all the fancy office buildings in cities longer term- can they be converted in living accommodation? Do they stay empty? What other uses could be made for them? 

Yes - thanks to new laws that come into force in September.  

[steviewevie]

[steviewevie]

 

[Copperface]

1 hour ago, squirrelarmy said:

I don’t think anyone other than the Tory owners of those properties will complain if they are forced to lower those rates. 

A lot of pension funds have substantial holdings in commercial property.

[Homer]

2 hours ago, mcshed said:

What I don't understand is why people are just realising this, it has always been perfectly possible to work without huge commutes. I have always made career and housing choices with this in mind.

I understand this is more difficult in London but it has also always been possible to not work in London.

I moved to London because I was tired of being made redundant from media jobs. I've now had the same job for over 10 years. I was in Bristol before, so hardly a backwater.

[Lycra]

28 minutes ago, Copperface said:

A lot of pension funds have substantial holdings in commercial property.

A lot of people will be affected if the economy of London suddenly changes and that change is permanent. As you point out landlords and their shareholders will get diminished returns and that could affect pensions but it goes way beyond that. Ancillary businesses servicing offices and office staff will be hit too and that goes way beyond the coffee/sandwich shop. Everything from maintenance companies, cleaners, couriers, caterers, pubs, sandwich/coffee shops, shops in general, and London Transport will suffer. Then there's the significant potential loss of business rates for London and tax return for the government from those losing their job. No wonder Boris and the London Mayor are bricking it. 

Edited August 31, 2020 by Lycra

[steviewevie]

Maybe they could just make London a massive playground for rich Russians.

[stuartbert two hats]

3 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

Maybe they could just make London a massive playground for rich Russians.

They obviously agree with you.

[steviewevie]

 

[mcshed]

37 minutes ago, Homer said:

I moved to London because I was tired of being made redundant from media jobs. I've now had the same job for over 10 years. I was in Bristol before, so hardly a backwater.

So if you became tired of being made redundant you were presumably also consistently finding new work? Now in your situation the move may well have been worth it but it was your choice and you were aware of London commutes and living costs when you were weighing up your options and also when you choose a career in media you were aware where most of the work was?

I know many people who have worried about moving out of London as it would mean taking a pay cut, none of them who have made the move away have regretted it once it was done.

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by mcshed
Spelling

[mcshed]

54 minutes ago, Copperface said:

A lot of pension funds have substantial holdings in commercial property.

If what we are talking about is a movement in economic activity rather than a collapse then canny fund managers should be able to move investments into the parts of the economy that are doing well as a result of these changes that is after all the point of fund managers. It cannot be that once a pension fund invests in something then we cannot allow that business to struggle.

[zahidf]

17 minutes ago, steviewevie said:

 

Its  the vote share as well. Less peolle who don't know, and bidens vote share is around 50%

[Matt42]

2 hours ago, Ozanne said:

They thought they wouldn’t have to pay for it. 

^^ basically

[Copperface]

7 minutes ago, mcshed said:

If what we are talking about is a movement in economic activity rather than a collapse then canny fund managers should be able to move investments into the parts of the economy that are doing well as a result of these changes that is after all the point of fund managers. It cannot be that once a pension fund invests in something then we cannot allow that business to struggle.

Never meant to imply that at all. the point I was replying to stated that nobody other than Tory property owners would complain in the event of a crash in prices, when in fact, the whole scenario has benefits and threats, and that others may also suffer.

A vast national rebalance is needed and that would be great, but in the short term, there will potentially be a lot of pain, both direct and indirect, until that balance is achieved. Agree about canny fund managers, but many pension funds are invested directly in the properties themselves, and cannot easily move out in thee event of a downturn.

[Mr.Tease]

2 hours ago, Ozanne said:

They thought they wouldn’t have to pay for it. 

They probably still won’t- wouldn’t be surprised if after all the rumoured ones (pensions, capital gains, corporation tax), the only one that sees the light of day is the online sales tax, because that wouldn’t impact the over 65 year old Tory voters or most of the businessmen who fund the party.