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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/30/rentquake-will-punish-tories-at-ballot-box-suzanne-moore
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| The rentquake will punish the Tories at the ballot box | The rentquake will punish the Tories at the ballot box |
| (5 months later) | |
| Anecdote is not data, as they say, but it is strange to ignore the strength of feeling with which people talk about an issue. Increasingly, I have conversations that centre around housing. Not of the “Have you seen these lovely tiles?” variety, but about the difficulty of having a long-term home. So, I am not surprised that this is the issue many people say they hear about on the doorstep as they canvass for the upcoming local elections. Housing is where “politics” lives. Brexit and issues around antisemitism remain abstract in ways that having a home does not. | Anecdote is not data, as they say, but it is strange to ignore the strength of feeling with which people talk about an issue. Increasingly, I have conversations that centre around housing. Not of the “Have you seen these lovely tiles?” variety, but about the difficulty of having a long-term home. So, I am not surprised that this is the issue many people say they hear about on the doorstep as they canvass for the upcoming local elections. Housing is where “politics” lives. Brexit and issues around antisemitism remain abstract in ways that having a home does not. |
| Housing is fraught with emotion and need. It is where people express their dreams for themselves and their children. It is where they feel their desperation and insecurity. I know many young folk who are exhausted by renting, moving their stuff every few months. I know several people my age who are priced out of the rental market. I know people who are anxious about stalling house prices, not because they are monstrous property developers, but because their home is their pension. Meanwhile, TV shows feature architects frothing over dream homes and couples buying castles to do up. | Housing is fraught with emotion and need. It is where people express their dreams for themselves and their children. It is where they feel their desperation and insecurity. I know many young folk who are exhausted by renting, moving their stuff every few months. I know several people my age who are priced out of the rental market. I know people who are anxious about stalling house prices, not because they are monstrous property developers, but because their home is their pension. Meanwhile, TV shows feature architects frothing over dream homes and couples buying castles to do up. |
| The Thatcherite idea that home ownership is the way to lock in a Tory government for ever is now derelict. The market is not a benign force. It has pursued an unsustainable boom. An ideology that preached that social housing was about dependency and home ownership was morally superior has left generations without access to either – particularly in London. Some Tories are starting to join the dots, since it looks as though London will pull further away from the rest of the country. Estimates of the Labour vote from 2010 to 2017 suggest it has gone up in the capital, from 37% to 55%. Home ownership, meanwhile, is in decline, having peaked in the 90s. If current trends continue, London will have far more renters than homeowners in a few years, about 60%. | The Thatcherite idea that home ownership is the way to lock in a Tory government for ever is now derelict. The market is not a benign force. It has pursued an unsustainable boom. An ideology that preached that social housing was about dependency and home ownership was morally superior has left generations without access to either – particularly in London. Some Tories are starting to join the dots, since it looks as though London will pull further away from the rest of the country. Estimates of the Labour vote from 2010 to 2017 suggest it has gone up in the capital, from 37% to 55%. Home ownership, meanwhile, is in decline, having peaked in the 90s. If current trends continue, London will have far more renters than homeowners in a few years, about 60%. |
| Estimates of the Labour vote from 2010 to 2017 suggest it has gone up in the capital, from 37% to 55% | Estimates of the Labour vote from 2010 to 2017 suggest it has gone up in the capital, from 37% to 55% |
| For all the media’s preoccupation with the technicalities of Brexit or the magnetism of Corbyn, these trends tell us something politically significant: that London as a city state may be a preview of the future. This is the city of Grenfell, with cranes dangling over every new-build, with “communities” that once would have been socially housed clinging on in precarious, crowded conditions. | For all the media’s preoccupation with the technicalities of Brexit or the magnetism of Corbyn, these trends tell us something politically significant: that London as a city state may be a preview of the future. This is the city of Grenfell, with cranes dangling over every new-build, with “communities” that once would have been socially housed clinging on in precarious, crowded conditions. |
| The idea that the last election was a youthquake is wrong. The turnout was significantly bigger in the 25-44 generation, and this is where the swing from to Tory to Labour happened. These are the renters. | The idea that the last election was a youthquake is wrong. The turnout was significantly bigger in the 25-44 generation, and this is where the swing from to Tory to Labour happened. These are the renters. |
| I don’t think the significance of this can be overestimated. This is the point where demography, social mobility and the generational divide become as real as rotting window frames and paper-thin walls. This is how people live: thirtysomethings with parents; children with no space but a screen. | I don’t think the significance of this can be overestimated. This is the point where demography, social mobility and the generational divide become as real as rotting window frames and paper-thin walls. This is how people live: thirtysomethings with parents; children with no space but a screen. |
| When the majority are renting, this cannot be defined as moral deficiency or shirking – the ideology of home ownership is bust. Voters will look for a politics that recognises this. | When the majority are renting, this cannot be defined as moral deficiency or shirking – the ideology of home ownership is bust. Voters will look for a politics that recognises this. |
| There is not simply one Generation Rent, but several – enough to trigger the rentquake that will kill the Thatcherite dream once and for all. | There is not simply one Generation Rent, but several – enough to trigger the rentquake that will kill the Thatcherite dream once and for all. |
| Comedians: the new public intellectuals | Comedians: the new public intellectuals |
| I didn’t find anything Michelle Wolf said at the White House correspondents’ dinner funny. Searing, necessary, on-point – but not funny. Nothing the comedian said made me laugh, but then I mostly like silliness and situations. Not jokes. | I didn’t find anything Michelle Wolf said at the White House correspondents’ dinner funny. Searing, necessary, on-point – but not funny. Nothing the comedian said made me laugh, but then I mostly like silliness and situations. Not jokes. |
| Most comedy doesn’t make me laugh, but I am not sure it is supposed to. It is almost like we need a new word for what comics do now. Wolf not only told truth to power, but she also told it to the press, who have absolutely normalised Trump’s behaviour and who have often profited from it. | Most comedy doesn’t make me laugh, but I am not sure it is supposed to. It is almost like we need a new word for what comics do now. Wolf not only told truth to power, but she also told it to the press, who have absolutely normalised Trump’s behaviour and who have often profited from it. |
| This new mode – it is not satire, exactly – makes comedians the new public intellectuals, drawing attention to all that is wrong in the world. They are at the forefront of an oppositional cultural politics. This space often feels unchallenging, for it exists not to comfort the afflicted, but to comfort the mildly socially concerned – all of Radio 4, in other words. | This new mode – it is not satire, exactly – makes comedians the new public intellectuals, drawing attention to all that is wrong in the world. They are at the forefront of an oppositional cultural politics. This space often feels unchallenging, for it exists not to comfort the afflicted, but to comfort the mildly socially concerned – all of Radio 4, in other words. |
| Brexit is very bad for comedians’ creative processes. At a recent gig, the punchline of every joke was that everyone who voted leave was a nasty racist. This was north London patting itself on the back. | Brexit is very bad for comedians’ creative processes. At a recent gig, the punchline of every joke was that everyone who voted leave was a nasty racist. This was north London patting itself on the back. |
| Into this milieu comes Jonathan Pie to educate us on the value of free speech. Pie – a fictional reporter played by the comedian Tom Walker – exists in his libertarian way to shake up the lefty consensus. Walker co-writes with one of the Spiked crew and, like them, his libertarianism ends up being dull and mostly rightwing. His recent comments – defending the right of people to make racist comments, on the grounds that he can then “debate” them – were profoundly lacking, to say the least. | Into this milieu comes Jonathan Pie to educate us on the value of free speech. Pie – a fictional reporter played by the comedian Tom Walker – exists in his libertarian way to shake up the lefty consensus. Walker co-writes with one of the Spiked crew and, like them, his libertarianism ends up being dull and mostly rightwing. His recent comments – defending the right of people to make racist comments, on the grounds that he can then “debate” them – were profoundly lacking, to say the least. |
| In practice, someone like Frankie Boyle challenges his audience far more than Pie ever manages. There is not a line Boyle won’t try to cross. This is not comforting, but it is funny. These days, comedians can be the most serious people around. | In practice, someone like Frankie Boyle challenges his audience far more than Pie ever manages. There is not a line Boyle won’t try to cross. This is not comforting, but it is funny. These days, comedians can be the most serious people around. |
| Stop blaming women for being murdered | Stop blaming women for being murdered |
| Whose fault is it that men rape, torture and murder women? Women’s, apparently. If a woman has got away from an abusive man, he is often so “lovesick” or “heartbroken” that he must kill her – and sometimes her children. The Golden State Killer had to do the awful things he did because he could not get over a woman, Bonnie, who had rejected him. The ludicrous reporting on “incels” last week often bought into their own delusional narrative about who was to blame for their own feelings. We live in a culture that pretends that women are emotional and men are rational, yet in every other way suggests that men have certain emotions that are uncontrollable. This is a dangerous lie. | Whose fault is it that men rape, torture and murder women? Women’s, apparently. If a woman has got away from an abusive man, he is often so “lovesick” or “heartbroken” that he must kill her – and sometimes her children. The Golden State Killer had to do the awful things he did because he could not get over a woman, Bonnie, who had rejected him. The ludicrous reporting on “incels” last week often bought into their own delusional narrative about who was to blame for their own feelings. We live in a culture that pretends that women are emotional and men are rational, yet in every other way suggests that men have certain emotions that are uncontrollable. This is a dangerous lie. |
| Listen / | |
| Walking the Brexit tightrope at Labour conference – Politics Weekly | |
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