Thepbflyer

News, Politics, Society January 12, 2012

1

UKGov: Saving cash

locally has priority

over corruption safe-

guards -- When the Hastings

Borough Council oversight

and scrutiny subcommittee

voted on November

16 last year to elimi-

nate the Chief Exec-

utive position from

the local authority as

a money saving ex-

ercise, the move was

widely criticized.

The vote went exclu-

sively down party

lines with New La-

bour supporting the

proposal and Liberal

Democrats and Conservative

councilors against it. Opposi-

tion councilors decried the

vote, arguing it was not in the

interest of democracy. Jeremy

Birch, the leader of the La-

bour-run council, was accused

by his opposition peers of side-

stepping an election to become

mayor by the back door. Birch

and his party deny this and

they have found a powerful

ally in the Coalition govern-

ment.

In his response to a written

complaint that the vote to axe

the chief executive position

violated the Hastings Borough

Constitution, Alan Shapps’,

the conservative minister for

housing and local government

was dismissive of the constitu-

tional concern. Whilst the con-

stitution creates and protects

the chief executive position

(and the borough monitor posi-

tion which was also axed) spe-

cifically to safeguard borough

processes from fraud and polit-

ical corruption, Mr. Shapps

wrote: “It is entirely a local

decision how an authority’s

workforce is organized ...

However, Ministers’ expect

local authorities to achieve

value for money…. Rugby and

Wiltshire have also [gotten rid

of their chief executives].”

It is unclear whether Rugby

or Wiltshire councils had also

suspended their local constitu-

tions in order to remove their

Chief Executives or whether

the constitutional role of the

chief executive of those coun-

cils included ensuring preven-

tion of political corruption and

electoral fraud.

Eastbourne UK’s 2nd

fastest growing sea-

side resort - Following

an 11% increase in tourism-

related business last year, the

Civil Service Motoring Asso-

ciation Club has ranked East-

bourne (94,000) the second

fastest growing seaside desti-

nation in the UK.

The East Sussex destination

was ranked by growth in tour-

ism businesses, numbers of

employees in tourism and the

rise in tourist attractions.

Whitstable (30,000) was first.

CSMA ranked Eastbourne 6th

place overall as a seaside des-

tination. Other south-east

towns in the top ten included

Folkestone (46,000) at number

eight and Southend-on-Sea

(160,000) at ten.

A lesson unlearned:

Higher house prices

not always good –

Higher housing prices are

good for the economy, the

mantra goes. We hear it from

bankers, economists and gov-

ernment ministers. We pass the

mantra along in casual conver-

sation because this makes us

sound informed about econom-

ics. But deep down, most of us

wonder why high house prices

are good, when high petrol

prices are bad. We are right to

wonder. (Go to p.2)

Councillor Mathew Lock (Con): We have concerns

that the plans overstep the mark especially if … the

leader or deputy leader can make those decisions

(Hastings Observer).

Councillor Stevens (LibDem): It will also be very

interesting to discover whether the council’s su-

preme leader and his deputy will demand an in-

crease in their personal allowances.. (Hastings Ob-

server)

Amber Rudd, MP Hastings and Rye (Con): If Jeremy

wants to be an elected mayor he needs to put this

to the people of Hastings” (Hastings Observer)

News, Politics, Society Thepbflyer January 12, 2012

2

Con’t. from p.1 - Lessons

unlearned:

The myth that increasing

house prices is good for the

economy is based on the myth

that prices will forever rise and

therefore a buyer’s debt to the

bank will always be covered if

he or she needs to sell.

This is the greed argument.

Bankers love it because it

helps them sell larger loans.

After all, if prices do fall, the

bankers will get your house

and you will still owe them the

balance.

A subordinate argument to

the greed argument is that

higher house prices will lead to

more houses being built. This

postulates that not only bank-

ers and sellers prosper when

house prices rise robustly, but

building firms prosper as well.

And, the sales pitch goes,

when they prosper, they hire

us and we prosper. Then we

buy a house and to do that we

borrow, so the banks profit and

more houses get built and so

on.

Something sounding too

good to be true, generally is

too good to be true. Forget

about the speculative value of

a house and focus on what it

is. The real value of a house

includes the value of the mate-

rial and labour that went into

building it and the effort and

cost of maintaining it plus in-

flation. And a little extra if

you’ve been diligent in

maintenance. This represents

(Go to p.3)

Ironic factoid:

According to the General Dy-

namics UK website, on a

local level, the multina-

tional manufacturer of

weapons systems focuses

on the needs of the lo-

cal communities in

which it operates, in-

cluding Hasting The

website goes on to say

Hastings possesses an

attractive pier that is

home to arts and crafts

shops. This is ironic be-

cause Hastings pier, ac-

tually, looks as if GDUK

attacked it.

Book précis:

The True Believer

by Eric Hoffer – First

published in 1951, The True

Believer analyses the delusion-

al psychology of mass move-

ments and the people who

found them, focusing on the

role that self-doubt, self-

righteousness and self-hate

play in the fanatic’s personali-

ty. In this book, Eric Hoffer

argues that so called true be-

lievers are not conscious of

their envy, malice, and dishon-

esty, because their doctrine

provides a wall of words be-

tween their craven conscious-

ness and reality around them.

The True Believer’s second

thesis is that the nature of mass

movements is irrelevant to those

in them: after WW2, rabid Nazis

became Communist zealots, for

instance. Besides political fanati-

cism, the book discusses also

Christian and Islamic move-

ments. Indeed, Hoffer asserts

that his core ideas about the

psychology of mass move-

ments apply to any movement,

even innocuous ones. And giv-

en this, the author believes

dangerous mass movements

(or movements seen to be dan-

gerous) potentially can be de-

fused by engineering false or

benign mass movements to

replace dangerous ones.

The book is relevant today

to discussions about reaction-

ary Islam or racist political

parties, but also to understand-

ing issues ranging from blind

loyalty to a political party to

football fever. Read critically,

Hoffer’s ideas can provide a

tool for examining one’s own

role in certain causes. END

News, Politics, Society Thepbflyer January 12, 2012

Con’t. from p.2 -- Lessons un-

learned

the price a first time buyer

would want to pay and the

price any person wanting to

trade up wants to pay. Ideally,

the asking price would reflect

as well, a fair earnings-to-price

ratio, meaning the cost of the

house will be a reasonable

multiple of the income of the

person buying the house.

House prices, therefore, should

be optimal rather than high.

Only two groups benefit, po-

tentially, from dramatically

rising home values. The first

group includes people who are

retiring and who will need a

nest egg to look after them-

selves for a number of years

during which they will no

longer be working. However,

since each housing price spiral

leads to a housing bubble that

will inevitably collapse, rely-

ing on speculative house prices

as a retirement strategy is very

dangerous and ought to be dis-

couraged.

The second group that bene-

fits from rapidly rising house

prices is made up of those who

make money not by producing

for the economy, but by gam-

bling on it. These buyers dis-

tort the market, pushing up

prices by making low priced

property relatively scarce, and

then by selling property into

the following manic herd of

speculators. Ultimately, it’s an

informal Ponzi scheme, no

more and no less, but one that

can bring down economies.

Now is no different than 2008.

House price rises should be

roughly equal to the value of

bricks and mortar houses are

made of, plus the cost of la-

bour used to construct them,

plus inflation, plus the tender

loving care their owners put

into them. The rise in value

should be enough to contribute

to the future well-being of re-

tirees, but always remain with-

in a reasonable price-to-

earnings range, whilst, also,

discouraging speculation.

The way to do all of this is

to have a tax mechanism that

punishes speculation. And, of

course, a reform of convey-

ance law that would make ga-

zumping illegal, something

successive Labour and Con-

servative governments haven’t

done. Currently, such practical

legislation is not on the calen-

dar of the Coalition govern-

ment. END

ART: Ella Guru is a Stuck-

ist and her painting below is

called The Queen’s Speech.

The Stuckists group of artists

formed in 1999 to promote

figurative art, but, also, to

condemn postmodern concep-

tualist art as an admixture of

TIMELINE: Jan 12, 1866

The Royal Aeronautical Society

is founded to support high profes-

sional standards in aerospace dis-

ciplines. The Society sponsors the

first wind tunnel in 1870. Jan

12, 1906 Prime Minister Henry

Campbell-Bannerman’s Liber-

al government cabinet, which

includes Winston Churchill,

embarks on sweeping social

reforms. Jan 12, 1954 US Sec-

retary of State Dulles outlines

the doctrine of massive retalia-

tion in which the US reserves

the right to respond to Com-

munist aggression with nuclear

weapons. Jan 12, 1993 Sir

David Calcutt’s report on

newspaper controls is leaked

to the press. The report calls

self-regulation by the press a

failure and recommends that

John Major’s government pass

laws against newspapers bug-

ging telephones END

artistic skillslessness, media

hype, and shallow cultural vi-

sion. Ella’s art is a big depar-

ture from Hirst’s renditions of

maggoty anatomy or Emin’s

slutty, banal installations. Her

paintings have no need for af-

fected weirdness – her unusual

subject matter is the genuine

article. Known for her "under-

ground" lifestyle, she draws

her inspiration from visiting

fetish clubs and the like. How-

ever, whilst her painting is of-

ten inspired by life on the wild

side, her artistic techniques are

traditional and she admires the

Old Masters. The Queen’s

Speech features her husband,

Sexton Ming. END