He's probably still sh11tting himself at having to be a politician. He spent the entire campaign seemingly safe in the knowledge he would never have to deliver on anything he said.

If ever there was a case of a politician having to be careful about what he wished for, then this is clearly it.

My thoughts exactly - Vince Cable is the same, he's had the rabbit in a headlight look on his face ever since he got the phone call from Clegg to say "You'll never guess what I've just signed us up for..." and he realised that all of those wise words that he'd been handing to the press over the years now suddenly had to be put into practice and actually, he'd never said it would really work in practice, it was all just his theory...

Isn't this about the time he joined the Cambridge University Conservative Association?

The Pledge cartoon in today's Times was good. (No link as subscriber only!)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19660345 Just seen this on the news. Good job its for charity cos I don't think it'll be number one this week

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19660345 Just seen this on the news. Good job its for charity cos I don't think it'll be number one this week

It's still a whole bloody week before the next Question Time but at least it should be worth a watch, given the panel:

Panellists include Harriet Harman, Danny Alexander, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Steve Coogan.

I wonder if Rees-Mogg will manage the whole show without his nanny. I loved his whine about others mentioning his nanny: "why do you always bring up the fact that I had a nanny? If I'd had a valet no one would bat an eyelid". These fookers aren't out of touch at all are they?

Here is the link for Vince Cables interview www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 9_09_2012/ hilarious

Here is the link for Vince Cables interview www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... 9_09_2012/ hilarious

The implosion of this coalition government may be spectacular.

The insincere weasel getting interviewed on Andrew Marr shortly.
I hope he get's a hard time.

Since when has wingnut given any politician a hard time? Marr's sucked enough political cock to put a handrail around the British coastline

Fair point.

Clegg is going to let parents and grandparents use their pension pots as security for their offspring to get mortgages and to get their feet on the property ladder.

I'd do that if it obtained a mortgage for either of mine, my pension pot is fooked as a pension pot now but its still more than is required for either of them to use as security, I've rolled over and accepted that those who control the money supply have shagged me senseless over the past forty years and so all thats left now is for me to pass on what I can to my offspring.

I'm not thinking of going anytime soon you understand though...

You got 80 grand minimum in your pot then McF?

Sounds a load of baloney to me and not getting anywhere near the root/heart of the problem.
The Lib-Dems ''admitted the scheme is still at the early stages of development'.

Mmmm!

[urlhttp://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/reality-check/2012/sep/23/nick-clegg-pension-property[/url

Quoted from that article...



I could cover that amount and bearing in mind that I don't, can't retire until I'm well past 65 (if we want to keep this house its going to be 70 as a minimum) then standing as guarantor for £10k against a property for the next ten years is probably safer than trusting NatWest to run the fookin thing efficiently, the jury is out on whether Aviva (who have bought NWB pension business) can do a better job.

Before I heard of this suggestion I was seriously thinking of taking out a further advance on the mortgage next year to give to the eldest as a deposit, her and her boyfriend have "professional" qualifications and jobs but are years and years away from saving anything like a deposit amount - when I was her age my dad lent me £500 which was all I needed to secure a mortgage on my first flat

The best thing that could happen to the housing market is the reintroduction of the three time salary guideline in terms of what you can borrow.
I'd say I hate banging on about this, but I really don't

Yup, sounds like a real idea. Let parents & grandparents use their pension pot so the kids can get a mortgage. Then the kids can rermortgage the gaff to pay for the care of their parents & grandparents. I can see this one has been thought through carefully and predict it will fly [size=30all the way to the wastepaper bin[/size

Aye, it sounds a load of bollards.

Mind, I'd be feeling desperate if I was lagging behind Nigel and his party in the polls.

Agreed.

Yep.
Average wage = £25,000
Average house price = £240,000

Also there's the issue of rent. There are too many people paying effectively a mortgage rate as rent.

I came up with a solution to affordable rents some time ago

It is already the case, which is what is causing the problem, prices for most of the housing stock on the market are far beyond three times the average 25 year olds income.

Far beyond three times mine. It's ludicrous.
If it were the rule, then prices would have to return to sensible levels

And when you then add into that equation the increasing use of one-year and zero-hours contracts (particularly for young people) it becomes even more difficult – including with even to rent.

The short-sightedness of so much going on in this country at present pretty much beggars belief.

Someone who's bought a house for £240k is unlikely to be able to afford to sell it for £75k. And that's the scale of the drop that would be required to bring house prices back into line with average earnings. So although it would work for new builds the existing housing stock would be a different matter entirely.

Getting out of the mindset of a house as an investment rather than somewhere to live is also required. Besides, we all know the valule of investments can go down as well as up, so tough luck. Gamblers often lose.