I know exactly what he meant. On 30 August this year, I wrote a post entitled:
'Apple Schnapps' Shapps at it again @ No 10. You may remember it! At the time, the government was excited. It thought it had found the solution to its problems: unemployment, slow growth, debt. All these would be cured at a stroke. How? Apple Schnapps Shapps announced that they would be building: '170,000 new homes over the next four years'.
Arturo and I were rather sceptical, to say the least! The target would entail the building of approximately 42,500 homes every year.
That was in the height of summer optimism when prospects were still rosy. The PM 'Boy David' Cameron and his Deputy, 'Wailing Lad' Clegg were still on 'jolly old hols' and the full horror of the Eurozone crisis had not yet been realised. Even the forecasts for UK economic growth were not too dismal. 'Tally Ho' Fox was riding high. Ah, those heady days of August!
Now, we are in the gloom of misty November! The Eurozone is collapsing all around us! Our own borders are in crisis! 'Tally Ho' Fox has gone to ground.
"For goodness' sake find a silver bullet, Clegg!" Cameron must have said. "We've got to keep the prols happy!"
Today, the couple of PR idols, Cameron and Clegg announced to the waiting world in the foreword to their new housing strategy:
By the time we came to office, house building rates had reached lows not seen in peace time since the 1920s. The economic and social consequences of this failure have affected millions: costing jobs; forcing growing families to live in cramped conditions; leaving young people without much hope that they will ever own a home of their own.
These problems – entrenched over decades – have deepened over the past few years. The housing market is one of the biggest victims of the credit crunch: lenders won't lend, so builders can't build and buyers can't buy.
That lack of confidence is visible in derelict building sites and endless For Sale signs. It is doing huge damage to our economy and our society, so it is right for government to step in and take bold action to unblock the market.
With this strategy we will unlock the housing market, get Britain building again, and give many more people the satisfaction and security that comes from stepping over their own threshold. These plans are ambitious – but we are determined to deliver on them
Not only are they making these bold statements, they are also planning how to ensure the new homes are to get buyers! The Guardian has an article entitled: David Cameron and Nick Clegg to unveil £400m homes plan in which Nicholas Watt, the paper's chief political correspondent, makes the following comment:
A new scheme, running to hundreds of millions of pounds, to underwrite a small percentage of mortgages for "new-build" homes. The scheme is designed to reduce the size of a deposit, particularly for first-time buyers, by shifting the "loan-to-value" ratio. Banks are currently demanding deposits of up to 20% of the value of a property from first-time buyers.http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/nov/21/cameron-clegg-homes-plan
If the housing market suffered a severe downturn, the taxpayer could ultimately be responsible for a part of the loss under the scheme. But homebuyers would first lose their deposits and the loss to the taxpayer would be shared with the bank.
Now - wasn't there another such 'silver bullet' shot from the guns of various banks some five or so years ago? Wasn't that silver bullet called 'sub prime mortgages'? Now, Arturo and me, we ain't no geniuses; we're mere under stairs cats! But, these new mortgage arrangements from the two laughing boys, Cameron and Clegg sound very similar!
I reckon we don't need no silver bullet. What we need isn't a government that promises 170,000 new homes in four years in August - then three months later decides it will have 16,000 homes. Either they haven't talked to old Apple Schnapps Shapps or they're living in Wonderland for real!
'Bye' from Arturo and me!
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