Jess….re your “in reality” phrase. So let’s do reality. In

Comment on Election 2010 Conservative Minority Government Good for Labour? by Jo.

Jess….re your “in reality” phrase. So let’s do reality. In reality the Conservatives took us along the road of “extortionately high house prices are the sign of a good economy”, path long before 1997. (I recall a short end of news item more than 20 years ago about a garage in London being sold for nearly 100,000K. THAT was what the Conservatives stood for.) Along with Loadsamoney, Yuppies and get to where you want to be and do not tolerate anyone who attempts to get in your way, the only person who matters is YOU claptrap. Oh yes, and that old chestnut, “There is no such thing as society.”

But back to house prices which continued to rise and rise. No more pendulums swinging back and forwards in favour of the seller or the buyer at various times. Nope, it was all about the seller for close on THIRTY years. And what did we get? We got insane mortgage producted tailored to meet the “needs” of those who didn’t have a hope in hell of meeting the going rate. We had people being allowed to “self cert”, meaning no need to get your salary details checked. We had products allowing people to borrow SIX AND SEVEN TIMES their annual salary. We had 135% mortgage products! But hey, house prices would always keep rising so there was no risk. And oh yes, we had sub-prime business here in the UK just like they had in the US. Bradford and Bingley and Northern Rock were up to their necks in sub-prime and 135% mortgages. (The Abbey sold 135% mortgages too.) And let’s hear it for the FSA the body Brown set up to REGULATE the Mortgage Industry. What did they do exactly while all these products flooded the market? In a word, nothing! So that when the bubble burst the consequences were the crash, the crunch, the recession, the end and the nightmare many of us predicted would visit all of us in one way or another. So, Jess, to blame Brown alone for all of this is to ignore what the Conservatives began. And right now have a listen to the idiots who still hope for a “recovery” in house prices. Some of us don’t want a recovery if it means a return to insane prices no one can afford. We want a realistic housing market. We don’t EVER want to see anyone selling a house and making a profit big enough to fund the budget of a very small country.