CPR Dave

Do we still get 50+ outdoor community events per year? All the ones round here seem to have been cancelled, like the Christmas Cracker and the summer equivalent and the Small Business Saturday event etc. Even on the Southwark Presents page the only events in East Dulwich in the foreseeable future are non-council events organised by other people. https://www.southwark.gov.uk/southwark-presents?event_price=All&localgov_event_locality[0]=239&date_min=&date_max=&search=&page=2

Sorry, not having a dig at Southwark for that. I'm just shocked that next door they've chosen to abandon such an institutional community / family event so they can keep pumping out commercial stuff instead. I suppose the same could happen here next although we don't really have any longstanding family events like that one.

Could just decorate the palm tree on the middle of the roundabout. There are palm trees in Bethlehem, and palms symbolize Jesus's triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Some accounts (in the Quran for example) even have Mary giving birth to Jesus leaning against / sitting under a palm tree. Some gorilla Xmassing of our holy roundabout palm tree might be fun.

I'm not sure what to make of that, Sue "the Lambeth Country Show will not take place in June 2026." It's been going for over 50 years. Seems a shame to bin that one off in favour of the other four festivals.

Thanks Joe. Sorry to the poster of that thread if it was my comment. It was just that none of it made sense to me.

Sorry if it was something I said.

Absolute mugs. That's what they take you for.

Good stuff

"Opening hours Monday to Sunday from 06:00 to 00:00" Good news for when Co op / M and S are closed early on Sundays.

It's not magistrates that are needed, it's judges and they will rattle through these cases whether the loos are working or not. Barristers get a brief fee and a day rate.

I happen to think jury trials are a good idea and the government should be spending efforts making them more efficient and bringing them to court more quickly. However, criminal barristers have a huge conflict of self interest in lengthy delayed jury trials and I've not seen any of them mention that when they argue against these new proposals.

James Barber used to help get the pavements sorted on Lordship Lane, especially if there were "ponding" issues like this. Vote him back in May is my suggestion.

The markets only react if they think there is risk. The fact that runaway inflation has caused enough of an increase in tax receipts to cover spending with a surplus means there is no increased risk. The new tax rises can therefore be spent wholly on benefits without any increase in borrowing, again minimising risk to existing treasury bond lenders.

I doubt it! They lost £11m in the last year on revenues of £47m They blame it on the current economic malaise. I doubt anyone could turn that round.

We do need to pay the tax though because the Labour front bench can't control the back benches. So they have to bribe them with tax and spend policies to preserve their own skin.

Is the budget unremarkable? I would say slapping huge tax increases on businesses and working people to give 30 billion away to people on benefits is worthy of remark.

Zipcar have just announced they are going to cease all UK operations.

"the hundreds of thousands of new, affordable homes are somehow immune to the same market forces" This is because they are usually built very cheaply, they are very unattractive (often because climate change rules limit things like having usable windows), they are built without any thought as to how the new residents will be offered basic services such as GP surgeries, transport links and schools etc, and no one who had any choice would want to live in them. The secondary market for modern new built homes is completely different to older homes that were built with some aesthetic thought.

There's an indicative map here of whi falls foul. Sevreal dozen in SE 22ml. I dont think this is up to date though. And by the time the government have done their "independent" valuations I think we can expect a lot more to fall into this tax trap. https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/11/27/mansion-tax-map-where-the-money-comes-from/

Maybe start with the council before the papers. They often remove dead / damaged trees that are dangerous and replace them with spritely new young tress that are healthy.

The new tax will go up annually by the rate of CPI which is a lot more than 2.6% under this government. but the threshold is not going to be increased by inflation. So soon enough a lot more of you people will be living in mansions that are subject to this tax.

They will only be cheaper to run using a home charger for so long as the pay per mile rate stays low. But it won't. It will go up and up. As petrol has. We are one of the most expansive countries in the world for petrol and most of the price is tax, plus VAT on the cost and VAT on the tax. The government aren't just going to give that money up. They will get it back from pay per mile increases.

Houses subject to these taxes aren't the average house though either. They are ordinary houses that just happen to be marginally more expensive than the ones the Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer each rent out.

£63,000 in 19698 is equivalent to nearly £1,400,000 today. Don't forget too that the way mortgages work, you pay almost the same amount in interest as you do for the property. So the actual cost to buy a £2m house over 25 years is closer to £4m. Buying a family home to live in wasn't a get rich quick scheme.

Those 5 bedrooms are all tiny though. Even the largest of the master bedrooms in these old jerry built houses are often no larger than 15 square metres. For context the minimum size for a two man prison cell is 8.5 square metres. It's hardly palatial luxury being offered round here. And after you've paid £155,000 in tax to buy the house, and another £3000 a year to the council to empty your bins twice a month, this greedy government is coming after you now taxing you what amounts to another 12.5% of the value of your home every ten years.