Saturday, November 29, 2003

Blair on middle class in the Guardian Posted here Saturday, November 29, 2003 at 10:23:38 AM     In this Blair hints at the pressures on the middle class to divide into  an upper slice that can afford the future and a lower slice, much larger, that cannot. Blair's saying the future belongs to meeting the remaining middle class and letting go of those -increasingly more - below the line. This seems to me an ultimately losing approach, in terms of civil society. Tony Blair yesterday set the tone for his "big conversation" about Labour's third term with a neo-puritan appeal to voters to face up to the social irresponsibility which underpins poor parenting, unhealthy diet and anti-social behaviour towards neighbours. Mr Blair cited social ills from drunkenness in city centres to smoking in public places, poor diet and alcoholism as generating huge costs to the NHS and police as well as to society at large. Such problems must be addressed, he suggested. To rub home the need for urgent and sometimes unpopular decisions, Mr Blair also used a Guardian-sponsored debate to warn that the middle classes will abandon key public services - threatening to drive down standards in schools and hospitals - unless Labour persists with radical reforms of the way they function.     ********

Significance of rents Posted here Saturday, November 29, 2003 at 6:58:08 AM     The are the places that vote for Bush, and that are left behind. Part of the polarization. Or is the ocean that attractive? While rents have continued to rise in many big cities on the coasts, including New York and Los Angeles, they are falling in more than 80 percent of metropolitan areas across the country. Low interest rates in recent years have persuaded many families to move out of rented apartments and buy their first homes at the same time that developers have been putting up thousands of new rental buildings, leaving many landlords desperate to fill apartments.   ********