Category Archives: housing

A cosy night in

Posted on November 5, 2025 by odeboyz

Jim and Sarah were watching TV when he got up and left the room. After a couple of minutes, he came back in wearing a coat, hat and scarf. “Are you going out Jim?” “No. I’ve turned the heating off.”

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Britain’s most expensive house in understandable money

Posted on November 5, 2025 by odeboyz

The most expensive house in Britain has been sold for £139m1 £139m is a figure which is very difficult to understand for ordinary people. So! This translation might help. £139,000,000 divided by a thousand pounds per day is 13,900 days … Continue reading →

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A Windfall Tax on Owner-Occupied Houses

Posted on September 10, 2025 by odeboyz

Why are we taxing working people more than billionaires? Tax wealth, not work.  Gary Stephenson author of The Trading Game (2024) Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is paid on houses that are usually called buy-to-let.1 When sold, they are subject to … Continue reading →

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Hidden homelessness?

Posted on August 30, 2025 by odeboyz
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Book Review: Wes Streeting ~ One Boy, Two Bills and a Fry up: A memoir of growing up and getting on (2023)

Posted on October 9, 2024 by odeboyz

To be honest I was repelled by this book before reading a page. I assumed he was presumptuous.1 I believed he was careerist student politician who’d got lucky. Wrong! Streeting is fascinating. He comes from a working-class background. (Most Labour … Continue reading →

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The Assassination of Anwar Sadat, 1981

Posted on July 31, 2024 by odeboyz

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:9 Perpetual war, endless war, or a forever war, is a lasting state of war with no clear conditions that would lead to its conclusion. Perpetual war – Wikipedia Israel was … Continue reading →

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Bob Dylan: Liverpool 1966

Posted on February 5, 2022 by odeboyz
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Canary Wharf Housing Opening Soon

Posted on September 3, 2020 by odeboyz
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Councillor Accountability in the 1990s

Posted on August 6, 2020 by odeboyz

Between 1990 and 1998 I was Chair of Havering’s Housing Committee, which I enjoyed hugely. Because so many council tenants exercised their ‘right to buy’* this led to a worrying fall in the Council’s housing stock. This especially effected people … Continue reading →

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Book Review: James Hawes ~ My Little Armalite (2008)

Posted on July 20, 2020 by odeboyz

I wrongly believed that this would stand in the tradition of Tom Sharpe and so looked forward to slap-stick humour. It isn’t Sharpe it’s a biting satire with lots of black humour. John Goode is a 45 year old university … Continue reading →

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