UKMT Autumn 2020 - Thou shalt have a Rishi act a little fishi

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Autumn 2020 - Thou shalt have a Rishi act a little fishi

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TACD: Oct 27, 2000

namesake posted:

Never trust a Morris. Morrissey, Van Morrison, Morris Minor, all terrible.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 21:18

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# ? May 25, 2024 19:41

Camrath: Mar 19, 2004; The UKMT Fudge Baron

Fudge orders close in 2.5 hours!

Last chance to get in on the cook, guys! Drop me a pm here or an email to fudjit.orders@gmail.com to make sure you don't miss the last chance for a bit to get hooked up with sweet fudgey goodness!

# ? Sep 19, 2020 21:30

goddamnedtwisto: Dec 31, 2004; If you ask me about the mole people in the London Underground, I WILL be forced to kill you; Fun Shoe

Venomous posted:

at what point was hardcore Thatcherism inevitable? When Thatcher became Tory leader in 1975, or what?

Like, I know that Keynesianism was pretty much dead by the time Thatcher came into power, and if Labour had somehow won a majority they would have iirc shifted towards more of an ordoliberal social market economy, but I can't help feeling that Thatcherism would have come about anyway at some point after 1975, even if she was booted out after losing in 1979.

I dunno. This could have all been avoided, but I don't know how.

A cynic would point at what happened to other countries who refused to drink the Chicago Kool-Aid and wonder if we (literally) dodged a bullet.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 21:47

goddamnedtwisto: Dec 31, 2004; If you ask me about the mole people in the London Underground, I WILL be forced to kill you; Fun Shoe

namesake posted:

Never trust a Morris. Morrissey, Van Morrison, Morris Minor, all terrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1aaXjymblk&t=84s

# ? Sep 19, 2020 21:49

feedmegin: Jul 30, 2008

Noxville posted:

Prepare to be utterly shocked by this confession

https://twitter.com/spectator/status/1307266433651367936?s=21

She wax dog whistling about Mumsnet like a year ago so I'm not terribly surprised.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 21:50

ronya: Nov 8, 2010; I'm the normal one.

You hate ridden fucks will regret your words when you eventually grow up.

Peace.

Venomous posted:

at what point was hardcore Thatcherism inevitable? When Thatcher became Tory leader in 1975, or what?

Like, I know that Keynesianism was pretty much dead by the time Thatcher came into power, and if Labour had somehow won a majority they would have iirc shifted towards more of an ordoliberal social market economy, but I can't help feeling that Thatcherism would have come about anyway at some point after 1975, even if she was booted out after losing in 1979.

I dunno. This could have all been avoided, but I don't know how.

The hope for tripartite ordoliberalism in the UK died before Keynesianism itself did, I would say - the old system's method of managing inflation rested on viewing it in terms of the wage-price spiral instead of interest rates. The third leg of the tripartite system died first, with the inability of the government - Callaghan - to enforce his inflation targets on the other two legs: on labour engaging in highest-in-Western-Europe levels of industrial action, and conversely business willingness to pay wages above the inflation target in order to resolve it

The period of extreme UK labour militancy outlasted it - there was never going to be a pleasant resolution; under Callaghan the dynamic shifted to a labour militancy that was capable of holding the country hostage and fully conscious of this strategy of doing so, via the UK's critical dependence on coal to survive each winter - and yet not capable of actually commanding electoral support outside of holding that threat over the country. The mistake is thinking that a majority antipathy to union militancy was something created by Thatcherism rather than preceding it by nearly a decade, with voters only rather grudgingly giving up on hope for Labour to successfully tame the beast

There is probably an alternate universe where Tony Crosland erases Clause IV thirty years ahead of time, In Place of Strife triumphs, and the UK Labour party reorients around ordoliberalism before the oil crisis, stagflation, and deindustrialization - the same pressures that every Western country would face - really put social democracy to the test.

This is one of those flaws of FPTP - a more proportional system would have pushed the left of the party to continually and gradually rationalise compromises, as e.g. the Dutch Labour Party (PvdA) of den Uyl did over time, despite moving from a position far more left-wing than the its UK counterpart and successfully managing to expel its moderates to other parties in the 1960s. By the 1990s the PvdA is no less neoliberal than other social democratic parties around the world, but organised labour did not have to brutally burn half its bridges for the transition to be accepted with grace

ronya fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Sep 19, 2020

# ? Sep 19, 2020 22:30

Unkempt: May 24, 2003; ...perfect spiral, scientists are still figuring it out...

Darth Walrus posted:

https://twitter.com/fbunational/status/1306984128479465473?s=21

Extremely normal country.

UKMT Autumn 2020 - Our Private Thinking Space

# ? Sep 19, 2020 22:51

Lungboy: Aug 23, 2002; NEED SQUAT FORM HELP

There's going to be a lot more testing capacity soon https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/1307424336593203202

# ? Sep 19, 2020 22:53

bump_fn: Apr 12, 2004; _{two of them}

private thinking space

# ? Sep 19, 2020 22:59

bump_fn: Apr 12, 2004; _{two of them}

Lungboy posted:

There's going to be a lot more testing capacity soon https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/1307424336593203202

don�t they have to pass a law for this to mean anything

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:01

NotJustANumber99: Feb 15, 2012; somehow that last av was even worse than your posting

bump_fn posted:

don�t they have to pass a law for this to mean anything

Alright pal sounds like you're off up to your parents place in Durham?

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:07

bump_fn: Apr 12, 2004; _{two of them}

NotJustANumber99 posted:

Alright pal sounds like you're off up to your parents place in Durham?

i know this is a joke but how loving dare you insinuate i would willingly go to durham

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:08

Julio Cruz: May 19, 2006

...did they not already?

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:08

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

bump_fn posted:

don�t they have to pass a law for this to mean anything

Even if it were true who is going to contest it?

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:09

TACD: Oct 27, 2000

Lungboy posted:

There's going to be a lot more testing capacity soon https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak/status/1307424336593203202

Is this a real law or just another one of those political constructs?

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:09

The Question IRL: Jun 8, 2013; Only two contestants left! Here is Doom's chance for revenge...

bump_fn posted:

don’t they have to pass a law for this to mean anything

Well the UK Government has already said that they are willing to break International Law. The next step is obviously to break National Law.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:10

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

TACD posted:

Is this a real law or just another one of those political constructs?

It's real in that the cops will hit you with things until you believe it's real.

Possibly political hammers, for to do the political construction with.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:11

Vitamin P: Nov 19, 2013; Truth is game rigging is more difficult than it looks pls stay ded

Noxville posted:

Prepare to be utterly shocked by this confession

https://twitter.com/spectator/status/1307266433651367936?s=21

Wait what was she radicalised to?

This is such a wanky article she meanders about hating I, Daniel Blake (shocker) and Zoom calls but never actually makes the radical statement. She explicitly admits sex and gender are different but then constantly implies she doesn't actually believe that, and makes a vague rebuttal to the fake argument that "these mental lefties are saying sex doesn't even exist!" which am I blind? 1. I'm online and discourse-poisoned as gently caress and just genuinely don't see people making that argument and 2. 'well the people that say X also say Y, so even if I believe X I must unfortunately reject it' is the most transparently dishonest incoherent bullshit, just admit you don't think self-determined gender identity is valid you cowardly gently caress.

Identikit Guardian staff writer 365 posted:

then why does changing gender now mean a person has actually changed sex, and that trans women athletes should compete against female ones?

Nope, this isn't an argument anymore, the great trans takeover of sports has been worried over for half a decade now but visibly isn't happening, and in the usually direct-contact sports where it has specifically emerged it's actively being addressed by using biological categorisations that aren't locked to a gender binary.

Not saying sports orgs have figured it all out yet but this idea that 'hurf sports are letting trans women batter females' is so loving dishonest and insulting, it's peak no-nothing lib poo poo.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:11

bump_fn: Apr 12, 2004; _{two of them}

The Question IRL posted:

Well the UK Government has already said that they are willing to break International Law. The next step is obviously to break National Law.

breaking national law is easy but charging and convicting people of breaking laws that don�t exist is next level genius

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:12

OwlFancier: Aug 22, 2013

The idea that people are saying sex isn't real is something that exists entirely because terfs believe it exists.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:14

NotJustANumber99: Feb 15, 2012; somehow that last av was even worse than your posting

OwlFancier posted:

The idea that people are saying sex isn't real is something that exists entirely because terfs believe it exists.

There was quite a significant period of my life where I doubted the existence of sex.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:21

TACD: Oct 27, 2000

OwlFancier posted:

It's real in that the cops will hit you with things until you believe it's real.

Possibly political hammers, for to do the political construction with.

ah, the breaking of kneecaps in a limited and specific way

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:25

VideoGames: Aug 18, 2003

I think Hadley Freeman blocked me on Twitter because I asked her if she was so against trans people and wanted so much justice for cisgender women why did not rename herself Hadley Freewoman.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:26

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

OwlFancier posted:

The idea that people are saying sex isn't real is something that exists entirely because terfs believe it exists.

I think some of the incels say it :v:

Vitamin P posted:

Not saying sports orgs have figured it all out yet but this idea that 'hurf sports are letting trans women batter females' is so loving dishonest and insulting, it's peak no-nothing lib poo poo.

Every loving spherebrain making either/both the "big trans boxers with beards beating women is legal now" and "I'm not transphobic, I just want a nuanced debate" claims should have a full printed copy of Shades of Gray thrown at them. It's the most nuanced loving thing I've ever read on the 'trans debate' re sports, extensive citations, written by a doctor/lifter with a Master of Science in Anatomy and Physiology, takes no sides, and offers multiple possible resolutions.

They won't read it, because they want the debate to be 'trans people, do they exist or are they just men cosplaying' rather than anything approaching observable reality.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:29

mehall: Aug 27, 2010

VideoGames posted:

I think Hadley Freeman blocked me on Twitter because I asked her if she was so against trans people and wanted so much justice for cisgender women why did not rename herself Hadley Freewoman.

VG, you're great

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:30

Vitamin P: Nov 19, 2013; Truth is game rigging is more difficult than it looks pls stay ded

NotJustANumber99 posted:

There was quite a significant period of my life where I doubted the existence of sex.

Genuinely go on, what was your thinking?

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:39

Pilchenstein: May 17, 2012; So your plan is for half of us to die?; Hot Rope Guy

VideoGames posted:

I think Hadley Freeman blocked me on Twitter because I asked her if she was so against trans people and wanted so much justice for cisgender women why did not rename herself Hadley Freewoman.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:44

ShaneMacGowansTeeth: May 22, 2007; I think this is it... I think this is how it ends

VideoGames posted:

I think Hadley Freeman blocked me on Twitter because I asked her if she was so against trans people and wanted so much justice for cisgender women why did not rename herself Hadley Freewoman.

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:45

Niric: Jul 23, 2008

Vitamin P posted:

Genuinely go on, what was your thinking?

It's a sex joke :ssh:

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:51

ContinuityNewTimes: Dec 30, 2010; Я выдуман напрочь

health and safety gone mad, stu, can't even make a joke about not loving

# ? Sep 19, 2020 23:59

Lungboy: Aug 23, 2002; NEED SQUAT FORM HELP

bump_fn posted:

don�t they have to pass a law for this to mean anything

All of the other covid laws have been done as statutory instrument amendments to a public health act. The one the other day about the Rule of 6 was done at 11.30pm to begin at 12.01 so nobody could alter it.

Lungboy fucked around with this message at 00:24 on Sep 20, 2020

# ? Sep 20, 2020 00:02

happyhippy: Feb 21, 2005; Playing games, watching movies, owning goons. 'sup; Pillbug

You know it might be a good idea if UK news media stopped loving asking random passersby how they feel about restrictions, and instead scold them why the gently caress are they strolling down the promenade of Blackpool licking an ice cream when you could be dead in 10 days due to it.
"Ohhh I am so frustrated about having to stay inside if there is another lockdown, I don't know how I will cope."
"Do something about it? But I stayed in for two weeks back in April. I deserve this pint beside these complete strangers."

happyhippy fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Sep 20, 2020

# ? Sep 20, 2020 00:13

TACD: Oct 27, 2000

happyhippy posted:

You know it might be a good idea if UK news media stopped loving asking random passersby how they feel about restrictions, and instead scold them why the gently caress are they strolling down the promenade of Blackpool licking an ice cream when you could be dead in 10 days due to it.
"Ohhh I am so frustrated about having to stay inside if there is another lockdown, I don't know how I will cope."

I'm reminded of that radio call-in from early lockdown where a woman started off indignantly protesting she had a right to go out and live her life and got blindsided into agreeing that she'd lived long enough and would die for this cause.

# ? Sep 20, 2020 00:18

Gyro Zeppeli: Jul 19, 2012; sure hope no-one throws me off a bridge

TACD posted:

I'm reminded of that radio call-in from early lockdown where a woman started off indignantly protesting she had a right to go out and live her life and got blindsided into agreeing that she'd lived long enough and would die for this cause.

DIdn't she openly admit she was planning to visit a relative with some kind of chronic illness too?

# ? Sep 20, 2020 01:17

Comrade Fakename: Feb 13, 2012

Vitamin P posted:

Wait what was she radicalised to?

This is such a wanky article she meanders about hating I, Daniel Blake (shocker) and Zoom calls but never actually makes the radical statement. She explicitly admits sex and gender are different but then constantly implies she doesn't actually believe that, and makes a vague rebuttal to the fake argument that "these mental lefties are saying sex doesn't even exist!" which am I blind? 1. I'm online and discourse-poisoned as gently caress and just genuinely don't see people making that argument and 2. 'well the people that say X also say Y, so even if I believe X I must unfortunately reject it' is the most transparently dishonest incoherent bullshit, just admit you don't think self-determined gender identity is valid you cowardly gently caress.

Nope, this isn't an argument anymore, the great trans takeover of sports has been worried over for half a decade now but visibly isn't happening, and in the usually direct-contact sports where it has specifically emerged it's actively being addressed by using biological categorisations that aren't locked to a gender binary.

Not saying sports orgs have figured it all out yet but this idea that 'hurf sports are letting trans women batter females' is so loving dishonest and insulting, it's peak no-nothing lib poo poo.

The fact that someone was paid actual money for writing that piece is as damning an indictment of the UK press as you�re likely to find.

# ? Sep 20, 2020 03:09

Guavanaut: Nov 27, 2009; Looking At Them Tittys
1969 - 1998; Toilet Rascal

Specifically the ending

quote:

Here�s a Jewish joke for you: a woman spends 20 years on a book about her Jewish relatives. At last, she finishes it. �God will bless me for being a good Jew,� she thinks. Instead, God sends down a global plague. So rather than doing a victory lap around literary festivals, she must now spend her days talking to her laptop. How about that for some Old Testament punishment? Honestly, I�m starting to suspect it was me rather than the poor pangolin that caused Covid. Like the Nazis at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, I uncovered an ancient tale that should have stayed buried.

Yes, that's an unironic terrible take so bad that you should have kept it buried, because it's something that's harmful and is going to come back and hurt somebody.

# ? Sep 20, 2020 03:30

Ms Adequate: Oct 30, 2011; Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling

VideoGames posted:

I think Hadley Freeman blocked me on Twitter because I asked her if she was so against trans people and wanted so much justice for cisgender women why did not rename herself Hadley Freewoman.

Hero tbh

# ? Sep 20, 2020 05:45

Jollity Farm: Apr 23, 2010

Vitamin P posted:

This is such a wanky article

I don't believe the Spectator publishes any other sort.

# ? Sep 20, 2020 05:59

Pistol_Pete: Sep 15, 2007; Oven Wrangler

Unkempt posted:

UKMT Autumn 2020 - Our Private Thinking Space

On this subject, there's an absolutely extraordinary story in the Sunday Times about how the housing market is now becoming gummed up because every single flat built since 1945 is made out of paper mache and petrol and banks are refusing to grant mortgages against them. The more they're inspected, the more awful stuff gets uncovered. I'm quoting the whole article, 'cos the whole thing's mental:

The Sunday Times posted:

The Grenfell fire is casting a pall over the whole property market. First the fallout hit 30,000 flats with the type of cladding that fuelled the inferno. Now it has exposed 186,000 private high-rise flats wrapped in other flammable materials.

Next it could leave up to 1� million modern flats, 6% of England�s homes, unmortgageable because they cannot prove their walls are safe, breaking the first rung of the property ladder. MPs say that could hit the entire market.

The west London fire that killed 72 people in 2017 laid bare decades of regulatory failure and a culture of building fast and cheap. About 700,000 people are still in high-rise flats with dangerous cladding. Millions more face waiting up to a decade for the safety sign-off they need to sell or get a new mortgage.

Nine in 10 blocks have failed cladding checks. Flat-owners must pay for repairs under leasehold law. In one Manchester block, the bills are up to �115,000 each. �They�re trapped and they�ve got nowhere to go ... If the property chain is broken, the whole housing market could be affected,� said Clive Betts, the Labour MP who chairs the housing committee.

In the first real data on non-Grenfell cladding problems, 2,957 buildings, with an estimated 186,000 flats, have registered with a �1bn government fund to help freeholders reclad tall blocks in England, an insider said. The number of unsafe blocks is almost 75% higher than the 1,700 officials had estimated.

The housing ministry said the figure �does not reflect the number of eligible applications�, but experts expect it to be cut only to 2,200. With typical costs of �2m per block, according to the Association of Residential Managing Agents (Arma), the total needed could be �4.4bn � nearly four times the money available.

Since the government tightened safety advice in January, lenders have routinely demanded evidence that almost any modern flat is safe, even in three-storey brick buildings. England has 1� million flats in blocks taller than three storeys (about 32ft) built after 1945. Owners could be refused a mortgage if the building lacks an �external wall system� document, or EWS1 form, to say the insulation, balconies and structure are safe.

It appears most modern flats do not comply and will be sellable only when fixed. Fire engineers who perform EWS1 checks find �utter rubbish� inside walls, said Dorian Lawrence, of Fa�ade Remedial Consultants (FRC), which produces safety reports. Of 2,000 blocks inspected by his firm, 92% were given the worst rating of B2, meaning banks will not lend. Materials are �incorrect, cheap and absolutely non-compliant� and workmanship �appalling�, Lawrence said.

Betts added: �It�s inadequate regulations, poor culture in the building industry and a lack of accountability. And it�s partly linked to the price of land.� Land typically makes up more than 70% of a property�s price, up from 50% 20 years ago � raising pressure to build cheaply.

Leaseholder groups from London, Birmingham, Leeds and Southampton wrote to Robert Jenrick, the housing secretary, last month: �Many of us have ploughed everything we earned into buying our property � only to be told that we need to pay an extra third or half of its original value to fix mistakes that we did not make and that were not recognised by building regulations at the time of purchase.� They add: �This crisis is only getting bigger.� He did not reply until contacted by The Sunday Times on Friday.

The crisis could make people prisoners in flats they cannot sell for years. Some cannot move jobs, get married or afford to have children. They cannot retire.

Claire Kirkby, 39, an NHS nurse, and her husband, Alex, 34, a cardiac physiologist, are trapped with two children in Alex�s one-bedroom flat in Hackney, east London. In lockdown, Alex worked from the living room while Claire kept Isabelle, 2, and newborn Leo in the bedroom. �When my baby was sleeping, my toddler and I would sit in the dark,� she said.

They marketed the flat until an estate agent told them they could not sell without EWS1 approval, which the six-storey building does not have. For the same reason they cannot sell Claire�s high-rise flat in south London, which she has let since marrying. Because they did not know about the form, they lost �1,000 on childcare places in the area they had wanted to move to. �We are powerless,� she said.

Leaseholders face long delays to get the checks. Only 291 fire engineers are qualified to inspect buildings. The Peabody housing association has told some residents it could take 10 years. Three-quarters of 663 leaseholders who wanted to sell in the past year had a sale fall through or did not try because the block had no EWS1, according to a survey by the Leasehold Knowledge Partnership.

The EWS1 form was designed for blocks taller than 18 metres (59ft). Yet Kati Jagger, 33, and Dov O�Neil, 39, lost their buyer in July because their 38ft brick building did not have the form. �It�s ridiculous that this particular flat would have a fire safety risk,� said O�Neil, a company director. It has left them stuck in a two-bedroom south London flat with two boys, aged three and one, and an extra mortgage to pay on the fixer-upper they had bought, believing their flat was sold.

Last week Tom and Helen-Frances Dessain lost their �350,000 sale (and �1,500 in legal fees) in a four-storey block without an EWS1. They must pay both the north London flat�s mortgage and rent in Manchester, where they moved for Tom�s job as a teacher. �As if it wasn�t hard enough for first-time buyers, you�ve just shut down the market,� said Tom, 33.

The number of buildings whose residents have turned for help to the Manchester Cladiators, a leaseholder campaign, has doubled to 100 since May. Many are below 59ft. Lenders requested an EWS1 check on a two-storey building built in 1972 with brick and block, Lawrence, of FRC, said.

�It�s almost as if the default is: if it�s a flat, ask for an EWS1 form,� said Nigel Glen, head of the block manager body Arma. He adds that 73% of blocks taller than 59ft (six storeys) and 96% of those below that height do not have an EWS1, trapping leaseholders. In the past, lenders relied on building regulations to know a home was safe. After Grenfell, this was no longer true.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) created the EWS1 form in December to help unblock flat sales, which were increasingly falling through. John Baguley, a Rics director, said the form �is not the blocker�; the fact that lenders could no longer rely on building regulations. �Without the form, even fewer mortgages would be being processed.�

Where blocks under 59ft are unsafe, repairs fall outside the government fund, even though fires in Barking, east London, and Bolton have destroyed homes below this height with flammable cladding. Missing barriers meant to stop fire spreading inside cavity walls are also excluded from the fund, despite their absence being a factor in a blaze that almost completely destroyed 23 flats in a four-storey block in Worcester Park, south London, a year ago.

At Connect House, a Manchester conversion that once housed Daily Express offices, leaseholders face bills of up to �115,000 a flat � half what they sold for pre-crisis. Of the �5.2m total bill, �4.2m is to fix internal defects not covered by the fund, such as cavity barriers. �I�m a solicitor. If my building manager decides to enforce bankruptcy against me, I no longer have a living,� said Sally-Ann Dove, 35, a resident. In Birmingham, missing cavity barriers have left Vickie Pargetter, 39, David Garner, 37, and their toddler stuck in a flat with no garden. �It will probably prohibit us from trying for a sibling for Blake, as I will be too old when it is resolved,� Vickie said.

In 50 Manchester blocks analysed by the Cladiators, 52% have timber balconies, 26% compartmentation problems and 18% no fire protection for the steel frame � all outside the scope of the fund.

Scotland and Wales lack a cladding fund altogether. At Victoria Wharf in Cardiff, Alex Hough, 31, will get no government help with a �61,000 bill to replace expanded polystyrene insulation (EPS). �I face losing everything I have worked extremely hard for.�

More flammable than the Grenfell cladding, EPS is covered in render. �You could set it alight with a cigarette lighter,� said Jamie Copeland, a project manager for FRC. Seven people died when fire spread through the rendered EPS facade of a tower in Dijon, France, in 2010. Britain has allowed EPS on high-rise flats for 20 years. Albion Works, in Manchester, also has EPS and is not covered by buildings insurance for fire damage. �This is terrifying,� said Leanne Kilheeney, 31, a first-time buyer in the block.

IN NUMBERS

186,000 Number of high-rise flats registered with government relief fund
�1bn Size of government fund allocated for recladding
�5.9bn Estimated cost of recladding affected blocks

England�s fund does not cover insurance or 24-hour fire patrols, which cost one block�s leaseholders �742 a month, Arma added. Inside Housing magazine found there were 420 such �waking watches� in March and fire brigades had attended 300 fires at those buildings with patrols since Grenfell.

Tight deadlines for the �1bn fund mean only a �tiny fraction� of towers will get help to replace materials other than Grenfell�s aluminium composite material, Glen said. Work must start by March to qualify but he said there are not enough skilled workers. �This process could take five to 10 years.�

The fund, which opened in June, is aimed at helping leaseholders such as Natasha Letchford, 28. She bought 35% of her �125,000 flat in Southampton but is liable for 100% of the cost to strip flammable high-pressure laminate cladding and combustible insulation from the nine- storey block. She would lose her legal career if she went bankrupt and suffers panic attacks. �When we were putting up our Christmas tree last year, I said, �This will be the last Christmas we have in the flat!�, only to find out two months later that we wouldn�t be moving anywhere.�

The housing ministry said �ministers and officials are in regular contact with leaseholders� and are meeting the groups this week.

How can we end this fiasco?

� The Australian state of Victoria has a cladding crisis too, but no one has died. A regulator audited Melbourne�s tower blocks and prioritised fixing the riskiest first � unlike in Britain, where each council asks block managers for data and ministers still do not know the full scale. State loans and a new fund, backed by developer levies, pay for works up front; then the state pursues builders for compensation through the courts.

� Increase the scale and scope of England�s �1.6bn high-rise cladding funds to include dangerous mid-rise flats and structural fire defects across the UK.

� Rate buildings by risk for lending purposes, so borrowers are not trapped in flats that pose little danger.

� Scrap clauses in the draft Building Safety Bill that would force leaseholders to pay for not only historic failures but also anything that breaches future regulatory changes.

# ? Sep 20, 2020 08:13

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# ? May 25, 2024 19:41

sebzilla: Mar 17, 2009; Kid's blasting everything in sight with that new-fangled musket.

Christ. Super glad we didn't buy a flat a couple of years ago and kept looking until we could afford a tiny Victorian terrace instead.

# ? Sep 20, 2020 08:25

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > UKMT Autumn 2020 - Thou shalt have a Rishi act a little fishi

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