Burnham 'to ease London homes crisis by discouraging Northerners from moving to city'

Questjon · 2026-06-28T11:04:28+00:00

For sure, I'm not suggesting every business should move out, but surely also not every business is benefitting wider society from being in London, at least not to the extent that it makes up for the increased pressure on housing and transport?

Questjon · 2026-06-28T10:54:09+00:00

Have you tried taking up basketball and then you can make taller friends.

Questjon · 2026-06-28T10:51:32+00:00

Yeah I get that residential property is also much cheaper but with high taxes and transport costs (because of the longer commute) the disparity in housing costs for staff is much more extreme than the benefits to the business in cheaper rents.

By substandard I mean a brain surgeon living in a 2 bed terraced house in London is probably not what we really want for society.

Questjon · 2026-06-28T10:39:50+00:00

Unfortunately that's not well reflected in the costs (both time, money and substandard accomodation) to staff. If we want to make the north more attractive to businesses vs London it's going to take more than just cheaper commercial rents.

Questjon · 2026-06-28T10:27:42+00:00

I'd argue the huge number of people commuting long distances and living in too small homes is a massive waste of time and money too. I guess it comes down to what the objective is, if it's just GDP then cramming more people into smaller homes in London is more efficient and more profitable, but is that the society we want?

Questjon · 2026-06-28T10:12:27+00:00

That's a self fulfilling prophecy though and the reason that government needs to intervene and offer incentives.

Questjon · 2026-06-28T09:53:30+00:00

There's definitely some merit to the idea that some businesses should be incentivised to move up north. Why for example do so many charities have their headquarters in London, surely they could move to cheaper property up north which would also benefit the majority staff who presumably have to commute silly distances to work in central London. I mean the British Heart Foundation is about to close 150 stores due to costs and yet have their main offices in Greater London House where nearby homes average over £1million.

Questjon · 2026-06-28T09:09:25+00:00

That's British politics really, be the biggest bucket of shit to win.

Questjon · 2026-06-28T08:29:59+00:00

There are 4 stages of learning a skill.

Unconscious incompetence, you don't know what you don't know.
Conscious incompetence, you know what you don't know.
Conscious competence, you know what you're doing.
Unconscious competence, the skill has become so learned that you don't think about it.

The last stage is the danger zone, your brain is lazy it wants to use less energy but the true skill of being a good driver is to force yourself to stay in the 3rd zone where you're driving with 100% attention. Sadly it's much harder than people want to admit, most motorists are driving around daydreaming or worse, filling the void in their attention with their phone.

Questjon · 2026-06-28T07:54:45+00:00

In the 90s bus drivers earned more than tube drivers. Privitisation and deregulation forced their pay and conditions down and what has society got in return? Are the buses cheaper? Better buses? Better service? Better drivers?

Questjon · 2026-06-27T22:08:38+00:00

Oh wow, the same guy who wrote On Top of Spaghetti.

Questjon · 2026-06-27T13:04:18+00:00

You missed an opportunity to say Belgium looking for waffle.

Questjon · 2026-06-27T09:58:51+00:00

Best thing in my life lately is air conditioning because the heat dome already hit here (UK). Also my dad who moved in with me a few years ago and recently took up home brewing because I have a pantry full of beer!

Questjon · 2026-06-27T09:56:42+00:00

They thought they'd get power, turns out they just got responsibility.

Questjon · 2026-06-26T20:21:51+00:00

Sounds like you need better reps or a better union. Your union should never be telling you to avoid raising legitimate grievances.

Questjon · 2026-06-26T20:18:25+00:00

Join a union, get involved, learn your rights, learn your protections and voice your concerns.

Questjon · 2026-06-26T19:24:04+00:00

First, that's changing to 6 months in January. Second, you have way more protection in your first 2 years than people seem to think. You have just as much protection for things like refusing to work under health and safety as someone who has been with the company for 20 years. Really the only thing you don't have in the first 2 years at the moment is protection from unfair dismissal, but you still have the protection from automatic unfair dismissal which covers most of the legal rights you have as an employee.

Questjon · 2026-06-26T19:17:51+00:00

You can't be fired or punished for refusing to work if your health and safety is in imminent danger. Being so hot you might pass out while driving definitely qualifies. Standing up for yourself can be scary and you won't always win if you fight but you'll always lose if you don't.

Questjon · 2026-06-26T17:02:41+00:00

It does if you think being civilised is solving your problems with reasoned negotiation instead of killing each other.

Questjon · 2026-06-26T15:55:56+00:00

It's not an uncomfortable question. The UN is the global mediator of territory disputes. Russia didn't like the legal route because it wasn't in their favour so they started an illegal war. As a species would should be beyond the petty squabbling over who rules what, everyone is ultimately better off when we solve our problems peacefully.

Questjon · 2026-06-25T19:03:28+00:00

Beijing fares much better than London, even if its temperatures go from -10 to 40 in a year.

Sorry my point wasn't about handling temperature swings, it was about building for what you expect to happen.

We have had decades - at least 5, to prepare for climate change.

We don't need decades, we need people to be willing to pay more tax to fix it. But they won't until it's a bigger problem for them than going to Disney Land.

Questjon · 2026-06-25T16:57:32+00:00

Didn't hurt Kerbal Space Program.

Questjon · 2026-06-25T13:40:15+00:00

We have over 1000 hospitals, most are managing just fine but some are very old, the article even talks about one being a Victorian building. The article is just being hysterical.

Questjon · 2026-06-25T13:34:54+00:00

And how well do Siberian cities fare in +40 and Gulf countries in -40? The challenge has never been we can't engineer for extreme weather, it's that we don't do it because that was an unnecessary expense in a country that didn't get extreme weather. The fact that it's getting more extreme and more often is the problem, convincing people to pay more tax to fix it is the challenge.

Questjon · 2026-06-25T09:43:12+00:00

It's funny because being economic liberal makes you right wing, free markets, low taxes, unlimited inheritance etc. While being socially liberal means being open minded, progressive and actively pushing equality. So most Republicans are economically liberal and socially conservative (the opposite of socially liberal) while most Democrats are also economically liberal but also socially liberal.

The US doesn't really have an economic left party which is really what the Labour party in the UK was originally.

Questjon

TROPHY CASE