What RF forgets to mention is that when Maggie came to power, the country was already bankrupt. Any government, even a Labour one, would have had to privatise most of the utilities to pay for the massive debts run up by the previous government.
As for the right to buy scheme, local authorities were perfectly able to use profits from the sales to create more social housing. There was only one rule which stopped them: they had to pay off the outstanding loans used to create the current housing schemes first. Exactly the same reasonable conditions a bank or building society would place on individuals who had taken out loans.
Some authorities chose not to do so as a political gesture, but instead invested the money. The income from these investments was far less than interest payments on the original loans. Lunacy. If they had paid off the existing loans they could have taken out new loans (probably on better terms) and built more housing.
Considering that the right to buy scheme has been in operation for about 20 years, you might think that by now the loans would have been repaid anyway. If so, you would be wrong. And despite the change of government 7 years ago almost the same rules are still in place. If the rules were so bad you would think they would have been removed entirely.
Meanwhile, what's happening in central government? At a time when the economy is booming, our idiot of a chancellor is borrowing money when he should be repaying loans. And his spending plans show no indication of slowing down. If the economy takes a downturn (which it must if the government keeps taking all the money) we will not even be able to service the debts, nevermind have any money to maintain services. But of course that is his plan, because by then the Labour party will be unelectable again, and once again the incoming government will be blamed for all the ills that befall our country.
Of course, he is borrowing when interest rates are low. Why are they so low? Because he gave up on the idea of actually managing the economy and dumped it in the laps of a few at the Bank of England. And the excessively low interest rates have fooled quite a lot of people that they can afford housing at prices which would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The excessive rises have happened under THIS government.
I've asked this before, and got no answer. If Maggie was so unpopular, how come she kept getting voted back in? And with a share of the popular vote far in excess of that achieved by the current government!!!
Remember, it takes 38% of the popular vote to elect a Labour government, but 44% to elect a Conservative one. Elbridge Gerry would be a proud man if he knew.
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