Posts by rubyduck

UK lacks engineering and tech skills to make government's industrial strategy work – report

Re: Universities and schools

Rather than "bright" please use "academically bright" or something like that. Yer average not academically interested person is by no means stupid, they're just not that good at putting their instincts into words or symbols.

However, I agree with your general message, and would like to add the point that putting together people of similar interests and abilities (whatever they are) leads to a level of discourse that far exceeds the abilities of the individuals involved .

Re: The liberal myth

As a philosophy graduate (+compuer science MSc), I have to agree. The issues in humanities are few and far between, so they have to invent them.

Re: offshore resources

Basic fact of life. Getting someone else to do it for you at a very low price ends up with you being unable to do it yourself, the ability to scrutinise what they are doing diminishing over time, and befre you know it, they have you by the short and curlies.

Ref BT.

Re: "concrete over the greenbelt"

I think that empty space is what we call farm land. The stuff that allows you to grow food. Something that every country should aim at being self-sufficient in.

You can only live in London if you are extremely rich or very poor and persistent.

Re: All the jobs were sent offshore to get it for cheap....

Fund FE Colleges (if they still exist), not schools, which are inadequate baby-minding services. We need free, or very cheap, evening courses which will allow engineers and teachers to make a few extra quid. and enable those who suffered secondary education in areas like Suffolk to catch up with the rest of the world.

UK government's war on e-cigs is over

Re: Oh god no resturant will be safe again

"Smokers not spending 20 mins outside twice a day, but sitting in the office doing productive stuff, is good for business."

It depends what sort of work you're engaged in. A lot of technical problems were solved in the old smoking rooms, and standing outside chatting to people from other sections around the ash bin.

Britain's housing crisis: What are we going to do about it?

The housing supply could be increased massively by adding a storey to every house in the land.

Where there are large numbers of late Victorian and early 20th terraces of well understood styles, local authorities should be producing designs for massive improvement and extension of these properties, making the plans available to the owners, facilitating individual and block development by signing up local builders willing to undertake the work at reasonable costs to the owner, and negotiating decent financing deals with local lenders.

Re: Economists solving the problems the last one caused

Rent control would be foolish. I remember the 70s.

A significant proportion of renters receive housing benefit. In the past it was common practice for housing benefit to be paid direct to the landlord. This changed under Labour.

One consequence of the change is that landlords catering for the low end of the market have raised rents to cushion themselves against non-payment.

Any landlord with two bits of sense to rub together would prefer a tenant whose rent is paid directly by the local authority, and would be happy to take a lower rent with that kind of certainty.

WIth that reinstated as common practice, rents should tend to roughly align with the levels of housing benefit determined by the local authority (as long as the local authority is behaving reasonably, of course)