This Week – everyting gonna be alright

"Sorry my gran can't be here… but don't worry "cos every little ting, gonna be alright." Go on Prince Harry… assume the new Prince Philip role in the royal family.

"Keith O'Brien has been on his knees waiting for the man to come for the second time for a while now…" C. Brooker

"Sending and receiving emails makes you more stupid." Try the Web 2.0 suicide machine further below to make you smarter.

"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.” Mark Twain

“My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” Mitch Hedberg

"Self-defenestration (autodefenestration) is the act of jumping, propelling oneself, or causing oneself to fall, out of a window" KA

"Mansion tax is a terrible idea, Lib Dems. Come up with something better!" EGW
"It solves the issue of of rich people buying houses through offshore corporations to avoid stamp duty." HK
for the full argument for and against on this that I facebook-dropped on, read down the bottom.

Staying with housing this week. Two very interesting articles on Buy To Let essentially shutting the door on first timers. Coupled with an interesting piece on the fabric of Westminster changing in light of the HB cuts coming into place. Also the ole Payday lenders facing legal-challenge against astronomical rates isn't before time really.

On less gloomier matters – don't get me wrong, they're important issues and ones that need a proper discussion – would highly recommend Kusama, Deller and Shrigley exhibitions. Deller one is called Joy In People… I know that's not the kind of thing you'd think I'd be instantly drawn to – yeah well you don't know me alright!

Moving on… L has returned:

Super Morrissey Bros

Make your own Analord, fun for all the family:

You appear to have missed this important story in the Watford Observer: Man claims he is banned from Budgens after highlighting price error

The lost pubs project – all the pubs that have closed in London. Sad.

MK live from H&G last month… big.

I know we've been over this before but Simon Cowell presents: The DJ X-Factor. With the world's most credible and respected DJs lining up for an audition and Simon Cowell giving them his valid, undeniable & professional point of view…

I mean it's just crazy bad!

Back onto things which require some degree of intellect.
The Wire's excellent Critical Beats with Simon Reynolds is now downloadable right here. Very interesting.

Have a look see the next event too.

DollarShaveClub.com Don't know whats going on here??? But I like it…

Get a free starbucks with this barcode

Sarcastic Quotes

kathack.com/ – like a snowball on a webpage… nice.

Web 2.0 suicide machine

Echoes of War

http://vimeo.com/15479617

Stare at the image below for about half a minute without moving your eyes and watch as it gradually disappears. This is a variation of Troxler’s effect which essentially says that if you fixate your eyes on a certain point, stimuli near that point will gradually fade.

goproheroes.com

These Weapons of Mass Destruction cannot be displayed

…
Mansion tax ctd.

It solves the issue of of rich people buying houses through offshore corporations to avoid stamp duty. Also stops foreign owners stockpiling houses to keep money somewhere safe and paying no taxes at all. Houses and land are resources and taxing them will make sure people use homes rather than stockpile them. I am in favour of a tax on second homes as well not to raise revenue, but to make better use of resources. There are almost a million empty homes in this country and tax changes are a good way of fixing this HK

I agree – with house prices at unrealistic heights and with literally hundreds of thousands of people homeless, 'living' in appalling social housing and BnBs freeing up empty homes and unused accommodation is imperative. EB

2nd mansion tax / foreign un-lived-in mansion tax is fine with me. Taxing people simply because they live in valuable houses is plain wrong. It will push elderly people who have little or no income out of houses they've lived in for decades simply because said houses have become valuable because of where they are. Not fair, not right. What exactly is so wrong with the 50% income tax bracket? At least it's taxing people who are earning money! EGW

I never said a word against the 50% tax rate. I don't see anything innately wrong with taxing wealth rather than income and don't think it has to be one or the other it is just easier to tax homes/land. It might be a bit controversial, but it might be a good thing if elderly people sold their large multimillion pound houses bought somewhere that was the right size for them and enjoy the money they have accrued rather than hoarding it . They have become property millionaires through no effort on their own part and just happened to be lucky enough to buy a house at the right time in the right area.about an hour ago. ???Henry Keegan

Mansion tax will be affordable for those who are super rich and not affordable for those who aren't. All of London's houses will end up being owned by uber-rich people for whom mansion tax is pittance. Anybody who simply has a valuable house because of the passage of time will have to sell up, their houses only made available to those who can afford to pay the tax. Imagine what that would do to where we live. I'm sure at least half of the ageing academics living in NW3 would not be able to afford to stay. Bring on the bankers. EGW

but isn't that the situation we are in now or it will be very soon? Assets will naturally tend to concentrate into the hands of a few who can afford it. If there is no redistributive taxes on assets then we will just move to a rentier society where people like the duke of Westminster own half of London and collect rent/leashold renewals and contribute nothing productive to society. For me this is like inheritance tax which may seem cruel, but is important in redistributing wealth and stopping the monopolisation of assets.about an hour ago Henry Keegan

I agree with everything you say, but I still do not think a flat-rate mansion tax on every house worth over £2m is the way to go. It will hit an awful lot of people who live in London and hardly anybody anywhere else. All of these flat-rate things always screw Londoners. We got screwed ourselves for exactly that reason. We live in a stupidly expensive city where property prices are through the roof. Is it right to tax people just because of an over-inflated property market? If we stopped letting foreign wealthy people invest in property they'll never live on, or if we taxed those properties heavily, then perhaps the inflated property market wouldn't be so inflated after all, and a flat-rate mansion tax wouldn't screw Londoners quite so badly.? ???Emma Grenville-Wood

Right… getting dark now… better send this.
Love x