Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Landlords continue to exit the private rented sector with many actively looking to reduce their buy-to-let portfolios, leaving thousands of renters facing potential homelessness. Source - Property industry eye 16/05/24 Link Official figures show that more than 2,000 households a month are facing homelessness in England because private landlords say they are selling up, with some blaming uncertainty caused by government delays to renting reforms. The data also reveals that of those facing eviction because the landlord is selling up, more than four in 10 families have asked councils for temporary housing. Meanwhile, almost a third of landlords plan to reduce their rental portfolios and only 9% say they likely to grow them, a survey by the National Residential Landlords Association (NRLA) found. High interest rates have also deterred many landlords from investing in the buy-to-let sector, according to teh NRLA. The homelessness charity Riverside said this was evidence of a “humanitarian c...

 New joiner numbers fall as Starmer’s plans fuel fears of greater ‘elitism’ Source - Daily Telegraph - 17/05/24 Link Labour’s proposed VAT raid on private schools may have already cost the taxpayer approximately £22m, new figures suggest. The Independent Schools Council (ISC) on Friday revealed that nearly 3,000 fewer pupils started at private schools this academic year compared to 12 months earlier. The vast majority will have gone to state schools instead, where the average price of educating one pupil for a year is, according to government data, £7,460 - meaning a total cost of £21,924,940. The ISC said the drop in the number of new pupils indicated that “the spectre of VAT is looming large in parents’ minds”. It comes amid an 8pc year-on-year increase in the cost of fees, with families now paying more than £6,000 a term on average, according to the ISC annual survey. Average fees for boarders went up nearly 9pc and now stand at a record £42,459, while the average fee for a day ...

The Sussexes have travelled to Africa in search of victim points. Source - Spiked 14/05/24 Link Meghan Markle returned ‘home’ last week. Not to her children and chickens in Montecito, California, but to Nigeria – a country where she has never lived, never before visited and has no known living relatives. And yet, accompanied by Prince Harry, on a royal tour in all but name, Meghan thanked Nigerians for ‘welcoming me home’. It turns out that several years ago, the Duchess of Sussex took a genealogy test that gave her a breakdown of her ancestry. Apparently, she is 43 per cent Nigerian. For most people, this would be the basis of a fun anecdote and not much more. As Scientific American notes: ‘We all have thousands of ancestors, and our family trees become matted webs as we go back in time, which means that before long, our ancestors become everyone’s ancestors.’ Clearly there is something other than supposed familial ties that attracted Meghan and Harry to Nigeria. On this latest trip, ...

Deputy Labour leader says Chancellor has ‘serious questions to answer’ over conflict of interest guidance Source - Daily Telegraph 15/04/24 Link Angela Rayner has called for Jeremy Hunt to publish any advice he has received over an apparent conflict of interest – despite refusing to publish her own tax details. The deputy Labour leader is under police investigation over the sale of her Stockport council house in 2015. Ms Rayner, who denies any wrongdoing, has so far refused to put legal advice she received on the sale in the public domain because it was “personal”. However, on Wednesday she demanded that Mr Hunt publish any guidance he had received over ground rents after The Sun newspaper reported he had rejoined government talks on the issue, despite recusing himself six months earlier because he is a landlord. Ms Rayner said: “The Chancellor now has serious questions to answer about his involvement in determining crucial policies on ground rents and whether they would have a direct ...

Capital punishment Matt Goodwin 14/05/24 Against some stiff competition, I’m thinking Humza Yousaf, Keir Starmer, both Jeremys-Hunt and Corbyn, Michael *shivers* Gove, Dawn Butler, Nicola Sturgeon, David Lammy, Rishi Sunak (obvs), and now that Mark Drakeford has gone, whoever it is who is currently responsible for ensuring Wales remains a joyless, jobless, tourist free, 20 mph wasteland, I’m pretty sure that the worst politician in Britain is Sadiq Khan. Which is not great for me because I live in London. And Khan has just been elected for a ‘historic’ (how can it be historic? The bloody thing has only been going since 2000. I’ve got socks older than that) third term as London Mayor. The good news is he’s unlikely to make it a fourth. Because at the rate it’s going, by 2028, London won’t need a Mayor. It will need a clean up crew. You know. The sort of outfit that gets despatched in hazmat suits to council flats six months after old Mr Mackenzie stopped banging on the walls, and five m...

Russia’s discovery of vast oil reserves in the British Antarctic Territory has fired the starting gun on a mad scramble for resources Source - Daily Telegraph 13/05/24 According to evidence given to the Commons Environment Audit Committee (EAC) last week, Russia has discovered an oil field in Antarctica roughly ten times the size of the North Sea’s entire 50 year output. Much of the field is believed to be in the Weddell sea, just to the east of the Antarctic peninsula and very much in the middle of the UK’s “cheese slice” down there – the British Antarctic Territory. In Antarctica, boundaries are just “claims” rather than solidly “owned”, but it is of note that Britain’s claims in the region overlap with those of Chile and Argentina. It’s a perfect chance for Vladimir Putin to start causing trouble – and it may have made the Falklands islands the most valuable real estate on earth. Understanding why means understanding what it’s like in Antarctica. In my experience, operating down the...

Ministers would present annual report of nationality, visa and asylum status of every offender convicted Source - Daily Telegraph - 12/05/25 Link Civil servants are trying to block plans for league tables of the migrant nationalities with the highest rates of crime. The proposal, backed by 40 Tory MPs as an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill, would require the crime rates of each nation’s migrants in England and Wales to be published annually. Ministers would present a report to Parliament each year detailing the nationality, visa status and asylum status of every offender convicted in English and Welsh courts in the previous 12 months. The move, first revealed by The Telegraph and led by former immigration minister Robert Jenrick, would mirror an approach by some US states and Denmark, where league tables show the crime rates of those from Kuwait, Tunisia, Lebanon and Somalia are far higher than those of Danish nationals. It is understood that Home Office ministers are in favour o...