LLLP BBC

The BBC has been all over the news in the last few days for all the wrong reasons. Nobody seems to love dear old “Auntie” anymore. Nor does calling it “OUR BBC” appear to have convinced anyone that it is ours. The only people who believe that are the 21,000 people who work there.

It’s President Tramp, who has brought it into the headlines recently by threatening to sue it for a billion dollars. That’s quite a big slice out of its annual budget of £5.4 billion.

His is not the only complaint, the BBC has been digging a hole for a long time and it’s finally fallen in😂

Some of its fallen stars :-

  • Jimmy Saville stopped “ fixing it for you”
  • Hew Edward’s brought us “ bad News at Ten”
  • Gary Lineaker went offside in “Match of the day”
  • Greg Wallace cooked his own goose
  • Martin Bashir for hoodwinking Princess Diana.

But also the endless repeats and repeats and repeats; it’s drive to be ever more WOKE and the relentless rise in the License Fee —- £169.50 and counting !

The Beeb needs a haircut and the LLLP are ready for the challenge.

  • Strip out all the highly paid presenters.
  • Forget 24 hour news. Limit news broadcasts to breakfast/ lunch/ tea/ supper time.
  • Take out all the middle managers; editors; assistant editors; production co-ordinations; content creators; floor managers; shift leaders; communications officers; business development managers; delivery staff… the job list grows faster than I can type🤡
  • Only have real celebrities on Strictly not people you don’t recognise.
  • Have at least one Clint Eastwood film on every night.

In an excellent book published in the 1970’s, Antony Jay wrote about the BBC from the inside. It was about group think, entitled “Corporation Man” and the thing I remember most was his description of the extravagant use of Corporation money. To Licences Fee payers it was their ££££££.

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Full Loony Budget

After her decluttering budget proposals in my last post, Sir Keyer put Rach on sick leave. Not because she was sick, but because he was sick of her.

Now in desperation he has turned to the Last Laugh Looney Party for some more radical suggestions to solve out economic woes.

  • Firstly, let’s stop all public enquiries. There are currently 24 of them, most of which have been going on for years and whose recommendations will be ignored anyway. Sadly it will put hundreds of lawyers out of work 😂
  • Secondly, cancel HS2 and Heathrow’s new runway and the tunnel under Stone Henge and every other capital project which is over budget. Which is probably all of them !
  • Thirdly, close down all the Quango’s. 600 at the latest count costing £343 billion, or 30% of the Government’s annual budget. They can continue on a voluntary basis or be funded as a charity if people or businesses are willing to pay for them.
  • Fourthly, radically rethink our defence policy, based on Ukraine’s recent experience. Don’t bother buying billion £ aircraft carriers that don’t fly planes; or submarines that we never see at sea; or tanks that at £8 million each arrive years late and out of date. Retire all the armchair generals and recruit a regiment of 8 year old gaming children, who can shoot down drones in a click. For not much more than minimum wages, a Mars bar and a bottle of fizzy pop.
  • Fifthly, put all the illegal immigrants to work, while they wait for their claim to stay to be evaluated, which will probably take years. They could build new prisons, which they could then go and live in until they are finally deported. At least that way we would get something to show for all the money they are costing us.

That’s FIVE LOONEY IDEAS to be going on with, but it probably doesn’t go far enough in reducing our national debt. I would have asked the Office of Budget Responsibility to calculate how much would be saved. But unfortunately they were scrapped in step three🤡

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LLLP BUDGET

Rachael Rivet is contemplating her upcoming budget. Apparently she has a big hole to fill. £20 billion……£30 billion….£50 billion…who knows? Certainly Rachael doesn’t.

So perhaps the Last Laugh Looney Party can offer her a few ideas that would please the disaffected voters :-

  • Increase the National Minimum Wage to £20 an hour. That should get a lot of people rushing for jobs. Especially if they can keep ‘working from home’. Oh and work a four day week for 5 days pay. And go off sick on the first day.
  • Give everybody a New Electric Car to hasten our progress towards nett zero. Only of course if they qualify for the National Mobility Scam. To qualify you need to say you are depressed or at least a bit fed up.
  • Reinstate the Pensioners Winter Fuel Allowance and Triple it. At the same time increase the retirement age to 99.

How is all this going to be paid for ? How are we to fill the black hole?

Simple …….. CLUTTER

We have all got too much clutter and Rach thinks we should throw it all out …. Or more precisely, give it to her. Then she can sell it on EBay and use the money to pay off the National Debt and thereby fill in the black hole.

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Leaves Off Trees.

It’s a chilly, windy leaves off trees day.

Uninviting, but still exciting.

Transforming the last of the summer sunshine.

To a November bonfire of a year gone by.

Is there a political parallel or even parody?

Well the shine has worn off the early victory euphoria.

No more fig leaves covering up the unplanned promises.

No houses built; no boats stopped; no waiting lists dropped.

Just the autumn of a few careers, before a bleak midwinter.

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Flue Jab Cold.

Is there a link between the flue jab and cold?

I am beginning to think so.

I am the living example☹️

Flue jab three weeks ago

And BINGO,

Cold starts a week later☹️

Not just any old cold

A real MAN COLD.

Complete with headaches, a

And sneezing,

And back aches,

And exhaustion,

And brain fog,

And endless coughing,

And even more coughing.

HENCE NO BLOG!

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Bungalow Moonshot.

This post follows on from my last, on my favourite subject 🤡 BUNGALOWS. It’s obviously popular with journalists because they keep writing about it and with politicians, who keep talking about it. Older people too, keep dreaming about it. Sadly as I explained previously, they are all going to be disappointed. There is not going to be an explosion of new bungalows all over the countryside.

However, in those dreams and aspirations there is a golden key. DOWNSIZING and EQUITY RELEASE.

These two issues have the solution to some older peoples better later lives, if they have the courage and opportunity to use them. Downsizing gives them a smaller property to manage and the release of equity provides money for care should they require it in the future.

But the answer lies in the sky not on the ground. You have to build upwards not outwards. In other words you need to build much higher density housing to offset high land acquisition costs.

Large scale Retirement Villages have long been a feature of housing in America and Australia, but their adoption in the UK has been slow. Partly because of “the bungalow illusion” and also because in the UK private housing sector it has become an expensive option, only available to the wealthiest pensioners.

Government intervention in this market has been very cautious, for fear of upsetting voters. A bolder policy would be to promote retirement housing as a way of freeing up under occupied family housing.

However, either capital subsidy would be necessary if the accommodation is to be affordable to all, or guaranteed social insurance for care costs. Successive Governments have been reluctant to provide either option. Until they do we will continue to have beds blocked in the NHS and poor quality social and domiciliary care.

Posted in RETIREMENT HOUSING | Tagged | 3 Comments

Bungalow Illusions

It’s that time of the year again. The Party Conference season. The time when all Government Housing Ministers and shadow housing ministers try to explain why they haven’t built much housing lately and how they now have the answer to their prayers and the prayers of their many older voters. BUNGALOWS!

It’s an old chestnut that I have written about many times.

(You can find my earlier posts by clicking on Retirement Housing in the Topics List and scrolling down to 2017 and 2016 and 2013)

It’s a dream, a mirage in the housing desert. Politicians perpetuate the illusion because it seems to solve so many of their other problems. Older people who move out of under occupied houses release equity to pay for their future care. Large family houses are freed up for growing families. The whole housing market starts to move forward.

Estate agents couldn’t be more delighted, which is why they keep writing reports on the virtues of bungalows. The latest report is from the Home Owners Alliance, who commissioned a survey of 2,000 people across the UK in April. They found that “one in seven home owners aged over 55 said they wanted to move….and 38% would prefer a bungalow” A spokesman for McCarthy and Stone said there was a “Critical shortage of bungalows”, which is rather surprising because I don’t think they are rushing to build many.

This is all just amateur analysis of the issue, repeated by lazy housing journalists who should know better. The harsh reality is that the high cost of purchasing land and the strong opposition to building on green belt makes it impossible to build bungalows at affordable prices. Only 1% of new homes built last year were bungalows.

The other question that needs asking is are bungalows the best option in later life ? When you step outside your bungalows front door it can be cold and wet in the winter and they are not always located close to amenities.

I am all in favour of downsizing to release the equity accumulated in your family home, but only if it offers a better lifestyle and a range of support, if or when you need it in future.

There was at least one good article in The Times by David Byers, which reviewed the issue, but sadly came to the wrong conclusion. He points to a key to solving the problem, which is that “ the over 60’s own £2.95 trillion of property”. The blockages to unlocking that money are an over-priced equity release market and the scarcity of good quality inexpensive retirement housing.

In all these reports and articles they have the right keys, but, they are unlocking the wrong doors!

More in my next post.

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More 🌻 Seeds.

I haven’t just been involved with large charitable organisations, I have also helped set up several smaller groups who are no less important to the people they help.

Cluster headache is a rare a little understood neurological condition. GP’s and even most neurologists had little experience of it and there was no effective treatment. My wife is a sufferer. In 2001 along with a few other sufferers we set up and funded a charity -OUCH- the organisation for understanding cluster headaches. We started a newsletter; set up a help line; mailed information to 30,000 UK GP’s and organised a national conference. Since then treatment has improved and cluster headache is far better understood. OUCH played a key part in that and continues to be run today by volunteers 🌻

Another voluntary group I helped get started was Cheylesmore Good Neighbours in Coventry. I only offered encouragement and a small amount of support, a group of volunteers in the local community did and continue to do all their great work. 🌻 There are several posts on the things they do, which you can read about by clicking in the Tag Cloud.

The Good Neighbours theme was taken up by the “Hope” project in Coventry. A small grant I gave to them to employ a fundraiser has significantly improved their core funding to continue their work in the community. 🌻

Small groups like the ones above are often hard to get started and even harder to keep going. They often compete for funding and attention with much larger and better resourced charities.

Perhaps this business card can help?

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Growing a 🌻

My last post was about a brief encounter with a small charity in Liverpool. So if you follow it, who knows where will this thread will lead?

My first experience of working for a charity was when I joined Coventry Churches Housing Association in January 1979. It was started by a small group of volunteers linked by their Christian faith and a desire to help the homeless in Coventry. Their Chairman was a Jesuit priest who had worked with communities in Liverpool. I spent 10 years at CCHA as part of an inspirational team of people lead by Bill Martin; a man who knew no boundaries and strove relentlessly for improvement and innovation.

In 1987 with Bill’s encouragement and a seed funding loan I set up the ExtraCare charity to develop and manage nursing homes for the elderly as well as managing CCHA’s rented retirement housing. I was able to take several key people from CCHA with me and we remained a team for the next 20 years.

How does this relate to growing 🌻?

Well we started with no public funds most of our capital for new nursing home projects had to be raised from bank loans, but a small proportion came from charitable fundraising. Over the years at ExtraCare we raised over £20 million from a standing start.

ExtraCare’s story is covered earlier in this blog and you can find more posts in the Tag Cloud, “ExtraCare Traditions”. What started as a seed of an idea about “Better lives for older people”, turned into a 🌻 that improved the lives of a great many elderly residents of ExtraCare and several thousand staff.

This is a long way from a small charity in Liverpool, but a 🌻 has many seeds and there are some parallels which I will cover in my next post.

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ferris2.jpg 2,338×1,654 pixels

ferris2.jpg 2,338×1,654 pixels
— Read on grumblesmiles.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/ferris2.jpg

bungalows

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