´óÏó´«Ã½

"On tonight's Newsnight have a film about the future of the High Street - can we save it and should we even try?"


It will certainly cut down the looting if we don't!

Perhaps one major hurdle facing the regeneration of the high street through new small retail businesses is the large number of Charity Shops. The problem is the charity shops inflating the market price for high street shop rents. As they don't have to pay business rates and are effectively subsidised by donations from the public they can offer whatever the " corporate " landlords ask. Charities with shops are in effect a welfare state for the high street property market and instead of going to the good causes they claim to support the bulk of your charity donations are going straight into the " corporate " landlords pockets. It would appear that the " corporate " landlords would sooner see a shop empty rather than renting it out at a lower rate than some existing tenants pay. As the result of charity shops there is no such thing as a true free market in retail property.

We are in difficult economic times, so people want to save money where they can. The problem with shopping on the high street is firstly parking charges (astronomical :p), congestion charges, inflated shop prices (shop rents, employee costs etc) - compared to buying goods from the internet (normally with free delivery), and time itself. If the government really is serious about saving the high street, then they should abolish
parking/congestion charges and for council owned high street properties, charge less rent until economic conditions get better. If not, then wave goodbye to the high street :p

This film about the future of the High Street should be very interesting to this blogger as I declare a financial interest in some retail units in England.

Whilst any number of High Streets in our England have suffered from an 'identikit' image, somehow a small town I often visit in New Jersey, USA, is hardly any different today from a picture I saw of the place taken in the late 1930's. That is, it retain all of its American small town charm including an ice-cream parlour that has been there for several decades.

To be fair, in my high street, we do have one local furniture shop that has also been there since the 1930's but virtually every other business has disappeared - except the pawn-broker who now deals in a different type of porn :-)

Hight street is too expensive - premises, business rates, insurance - nasty landlords with dilapidation claim loonies - all that traders want from UK Council authorities is a basic low cost market stall with good car parking, toilets service access and not hugely expensive retail premises.

Retail areas are over-built & too expensive & no one can afford them after Councils 'colluding' (to be diplomatic) with firms of Charterd Surveyors & developers roll out their horrid town centre mega expensive concrete, polished floor & glass schemes.

All most traders want is a tent space with a good coffee shop & fish & chip/sandwich shop nearby.

When Napoleon said that Britain was a nation of shopkeepers - he wasn't being flippant - as all the French have ever needed is a market stall & not a shop - but the French do tend to get better weather.

In my local area, the Council have got hold of 1000 year old feudal trading laws to prevent anyone doing anything in retail without a pile of red tape & charges.

Council imbeciles have killed UK retailing & made it too expensive - with their bungs, bureacracy & obscene over building of free space, town centres & local car park charging with double yellow lines everywhere except their council car park.

The banks have over-funded the greedy nasty landlord & developers to over-build & over charge - all encouraged by the Chambers of Commerce.

All in all a rotten system - & we wonder why the country is in a mess - most are trying to get out of or downsize in retailing.

Don't save the high street - let's having something cheap, simple, effective & affordable without bureacrats & other parasites getting more and more fees out of most - that way we'll all buy and sell more at lower prices

AND for goodness sake - slash VAT to less than 5-10% as is also killing the High Street and replace with some well aimed import tariffs.

#2 re charity shop proliferation

Charity shops will be the only ones most of us will be able to afford to shop in when the austerity measures really start to kick-in.

Don't knock 'em.

SAVE THE HIGH STREET - DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER

Dismantling Westminster will go along way to ending riots and looting - well - Westminster riots and looting, if not the high street sort . . .

It might also bring and end to this sort of iniquity:

Newsnight

What about investigating why the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has deliberately decided to curtail discussion of almost everything to 400 Characters, or if one uses 16 bit characters (for the Euro symbol or accents etc) just 200 characters.

This reduces discussion to twitteresque outbursts. It also deliberately polarises arguments and gives rise to an increase in extremism.

The Guardian allows blog discussion contribution of up to 5000 characters.

Please investigate the editorial decision to 'silence' bloggers and look at the historical precedents where this has been done before. (See Croatia in the build up to the Balkan War etc.)

Find out if the ´óÏó´«Ã½ chose deliberately to destroy the country or not, and if not ask your bosses why they don't fix this problem!

John_from_Hendon @ 8

I'm afraid you really are flogging the proverbial dead horse there, with respect to the new format blogs, John.

The wretched Giles Wilson of the Editors blog parish explained why the Beeb had made this editorial decision to truncate the new format blogs to 200/400 characters, and was practically buried with an avalanche of adverse comments (of over 600, if I recall correctly).

Although I personally no longer post on the Nick Robinson or legendary Robert Peston blogs as I loathe the 'dumbed-down' Twitteresque format, the new format is actually quite popular so will probably be staying.

However, I think your point stands with the new format blogs regarding polarising arguments etc as a few of the Beeb bloggerati have also stated this.

Annie on Dr Kelly who has had no inquest and evidence is locked away for 70 years.



given what we know about the 'secret state in league with dark forces' and that doctors disagree with the suicide view why should we give the state the benefit of the doubt?

just watched Nick Robinson on the 6 news and he said that James Murdoch is a 'big figure and powerful in the media world and some would say the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is a powerful force' but the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not a media giant trying to influence public opinion and has people to answer to like the governors. Robinson was well over the top in his summery and he should retract, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has for over eighty years been instrumental in observing strict protocol over it's editorial policy...the Murdoch's have tried to subvert public opinion and if anything, repress freedom of the press....

12
stevie!

You may have opened a Pandora`s box there!

We could all tell you EXACTLY what line the ´óÏó´«Ã½ will vigorously promote with practically any issue you care to mention!

I can't believe stevie #12.The editor of the Today" programme is one of the most powerful men in the country. He decides what is on the news agenda, who the interviewees will be, perhaps more importantly who they will not be and appears to ensure that pressure groups which seek to mould public opinion get an easy ride. When last was Greenpeace "held to account" when the latest "environmental catastrophe" turns out to be nothing of the sort. I can decide what newspaper to buy. I am forced to pay the ´óÏó´«Ã½ licence fee.

IF PARENTS BEAR RESPOSIBILITY FOR CHILDREN, GOVERNMENT MUST BEAR RESPONSIBILITY FOR SOCIETY IN GENERAL.

The inability of our politicians to think rationally, still manages to surprise me in its comprehensiveness. They seem not to realise that school is an INSTITUTIONALISING experience that, in addition, alienates the 'bottom spit' beyond any life-competence. They seem not to realise that STATE CONDONED DRUGS (alcohol and tobacco) are the GATEWAY SUBSTANCES to all other drugs - the ones they 'deplore'. They do not seem to realise that the TV is a 'psychological cannula' to the deep mind, another institutionalising medium with a 'message' that nihilism, violence, perversity and animal copulation, is the cultural norm in civilisation.

THEY DO NOT SEEM TO REALISE THAT DYNASTIC WESTMINSTER IS CULPABLE.

One by one the posturing ciphers: Clarke, Cameron, Hague, Miliband, Gove et al, step up to tell us where WE have gone wrong. Never a sign of Mote and Beam awareness of the serial damage, that amateur stewardship of the nation's wellbeing has inflicted.

Juveniles all, demon driven, they blame US for their failures, committed over decades and generations. Of course, it is always possible, in the realms of Conspiracy, that some Machiavellian Overlord is DRIVING our government to degrade us, and the strangely silent ´óÏó´«Ã½ is his handmaiden. Whatever – the ciphers will go unchallenged, tonight and every night.

Weep Britain.

All the proposals in the world to rehabilitate etc will fail to reduce the prison population. Just bring back flogging and hanging and you will soon see crime DROP.

Nick Herbert, "Offending must be seen to have consequences."

Yeah, right, unless you are an MP who is on the fiddle that is.

Don't worry about the High Street, and shops, just turn the lot into residential units!
I believe that's the term used in dictatorships.

Excellent debates by Jeremy on both crime and on News International with Mensch et al :)
BTW, Jeremy's latest promo for Empire is here at last. We even get to see him on a motorbike!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

WHAT DO YOU CALL A COUNTRY THAT LOOKS TO KEN AND IDS TO FIX ITS YOUTH?

Perverse.

IN WWII WE ERECTED 'PRE-FABS' - FOR THE WAR ON TERROR: 'POST-FABS'? (#19)

Your plan for sub-divided shops, as 'residential units' is brilliant Lizzy. I seem to remember Johnnie Foreigner Lands are known to resort to similar strategies, so British town centres will feel just like home! Just the thing for the immigrant cohort, in the residential space - going forward.

Sorted.

Retail therapy:
I've not caught a fish in 20yrs and its not because I'm a poor fisherman..I gave my fishing tackle away 20 yrs ago. I recently decided to take up the old hobby again. I have purchased everything I needed online -mostly ebay -other than one visit to a shop to get the feel of a decent rod, all my new or used tackle came through the post...and that there is an illustration of how shopping habits have changed..the internet is our shop window now (more for men than women I'd imagine as women do like to wander the shops for hours on end, us men want to get in and out and be done with it, so a click of the mouse is enough for our purchase needs. I will add that at least half my recently acquired fishing gear was sold and posted to me by tackle shops up and down the country so clearly some are not only relying on what comes through their doors via the high street.

Feral youths (and adults):
Why is there loads of crime?

Answer:
Leftwing Liberalism in the schools since the 60s and an ineffective justice system. If we could solve the problems of crime -and thats really easy actually - Lawyers, probation officers, police officers and judge numbers would have to be reduced; we wouldn't need so many of them. Something tells me high levels of crime will always be a feature in British society...apparently it pays well...for the aforementioned

I know,let`s get Westminster to pass a law banning crime and empty shops and perversity.

Sorted.

MANY UNHAPPY RETURNS (#24)

I recently posted - unnoticed - some similar thoughts Kev. I pointed out that our sick society (food/drink/tobacco/sedentry/miserable/oversexcited)) are destined to need the NRS (National Repair Service) serially, until handed over to the SUD service (Storage Unto Death). Both NRS and SUD are high cunsumers and employers, taxed at every turn. I think I touched on the crime/police/court/probation/rehab loop also.

This being the Age of Perversity, Westminster must feel well served.

TIL DEATH DO US........

I tend to agree with Mary Portas. The key to rejuvenating town centres is not about restoring the model of the past. The GBP has voted with its wheels. Not mine, but too many. But left to rot they will become centres for disaffection to be played out in negative ways.

Take a look at the origins of 'the HIGH Street'. The MAIN thoroughfare, along which gradually was developed, and redeveloped, services that were needed at the time. Mary hopefully has the b**ls to remove the rose coloured's, take the emotion and nostalgia out of the equation and offer what will be supported now not try and force people to act against their will.

Who said 'people want quality.......' In my experience more and more are more and more likely to want (need??) cheap and cheerful, pile em high sell em cheap (and sell some more next week when they've broken) noisy, grubby, environment whilst plugged in to their cheap imported personal entertainment systems or glued to their mobile or blackberry. You need something to anaesthetize you from having to rub against the mass of humanity

BUT

What is our obsession with saving that which should be gently laid to rest after administering the last rites all about? Country piles, old churches, micro species, High Streets, people....... We seem to be developing a mind set that knows the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

When should outmoded institutions such as schools, government, high street banks (two for the price of one - see banks never do BOGOFFS do they?) be given long term expensive life preserving medication without someone being willing to take a decision on the long term value of the action. Sometimes it is perhaps better to just send the lilies and let them slide off into the sunset.

Is the worship of heritage and life over living really where we should be spending so much time and money.


Signed - I HATE Shopping.
(Don't mind buying things that I need or even want. But The SHOPPING experience is deeply unpleasant to me. I'd rather have a cup of tea.)

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

'the secret state' would make a good drama series.

#28 Bb´óÏó´«Ã½

That sounds like one for Michael Buerk's 'Moral Maze'.

SO GOOD I READ IT TWICE (#28)

A tonic BYT - style AND substance.

In passing: Newbury has no 'High Street', only 'Northbrook Street' - and when they pumped all the water out of the underlying swamp, to do a grand new development, we sank without trace!

'Liz MacKean reports on whether the justice secretary's assessment is correct'

There is something rather discomfiting in the presumption, and lack of self-awareness of that statement.

Why, well, who can imagine?

'the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is not a media giant trying to influence public opinion and has people to answer to like the governors'

Raising press freedom and censorship on a blog that ruthlessly obliterates anything it can get away with under vague House Rules (unless strenuously pursued until the issue blows past and it's deemed safe to release an always valid, but referred posting) is quaint, mind.

But good to see accepted that, whoever is answered to, it is not the folk compelled to pay, like it or not.

Anyway, Mr. Cameron is now a 100% fan, so supporters are in good company.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

GOD GRANT THAT CAMERON IS NEVER A FAN OF MINE (#32)

If I had an acquaintance who had spent half a million on a false-face poster, used an illegal false instrument to gain power and gleefully vilified his 'closest' (faux) colleague, I would not only shun him, but be embarrassed to have ever known him.

class is not based on numbers. otherwise there would be no monarchy, equestrian class, oligarch classes.

if people don't have an inner policeman than no amount of external policemen is going to stop them.

the reason the govt or media won't talk about the inner policeman is because its a cultural platform they reject as 'discrimination and as an 'oppression'.

the court system is designed to extract fees not deliver social outcomes.

high streets and the opening of big supermarkets. no correlation then?

uk is made up of Tescotowns that redirect the parking and so customer flow away from high streets.

local councils should be able to set local business rate. the idea its the same rate wherever you are is not a model used in housing or wages for example. so in rich areas the business rate is 'cheap' and in poor areas its 'expensive' relative to the local economy.

PERVERSITY HAS NO RATIONALE (#35)

I have said it before, but think it worth repeating.

The truly perverse individual is free from ALL constraint and 'turned on' by mayhem of their causing. They seek power/control ONLY to be in a position to bring discord and disruption.

Look around you.

@37 Well if you read 28 and found its substance good I have failed to convey my ideas satisfactorily.

I spent my working life with mad people,not all of whom were my colleagues!

What I found time and time again was that apparent perversity proved to be understandable once you fully grasped the context in which the other person`s mind was operating.

I put it to you Barrie that our politicians and journalists (and the rest of the global middle class)are obliged by circumstance to live double lives,and that most of them delude themselves that this not so, and that they really care about concepts like "England" or "hard working British families,"when their actual "perverse" behaviour betrays their real alleigances and intentions.

.
The Last Whistleblower--A Story

Why did Brown give away our gold and Qinetiq and ship in millions of poor immigrants while talking about a campaign to "defeat poverty"in Britain.
Perverse?

On the face of it,yes, but once you watched the events of 2008 unfold surely it became apparent that Brown was little more than a fall guy and puppet whose ability to run Britain in our interests was almost non-existant.

But you will not find that idea being promoted in his memoires or in the other biographies written by our political classes,or even on Newsnight Barrie!

Politicians and journalists and historians much prefer their knockabout party political pantomime world of saints and sinners and their eternal blame game!

Biasedbbc asked:

"Why did Brown give away our gold and Qinetiq and ship in millions of poor immigrants while talking about a campaign to "defeat poverty"in Britain.
Perverse?"

Thats because Brown is a £?$*@ idiot! And him been a bubble socialist (never having actually held down a real job) was enough on his CV to keep him away from anything as important as an economy. Gordon couldn't run a lemonade stand without falling into difficulties.

your second point about him been a fall guy don't wash well. He went on a spending splurge, creating non-jobs etc and putting the UK economy in serious debt. The USA Sub prime mess isn't the only reason why we are in financial peril -that which is often blamed for our woes - its because...well I refer you to my answer to your first question.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

@41 Whatever!

Lets have Max Keiser and Stacey Herbert and Tariq Ali running Newsnight for a few days,so the regular presenters can get the idea that there are other viewpoints than the standard neo-liberal ones we get from New York and the City of London.

#42 Bb´óÏó´«Ã½

THEATRICS

You are correct when you say SOME of our rulers are indeed intelligent, but have you ever notice how few (2 MP's at the last count) are actually scientists, engineers or technologists of any kind? The ranks of the HoP (and the Lords) are stacked full of those from the arts and psuedo sciences i.e. Lawyers, economists, PPE's, arts, history etc, etc.

These people are only good at arguing and winning arguments in the absence of facts. In fact most of them are selected purely because they are just good actors, some have even publicly referred to there interests in amatuer theatrics (eg Blair, Clegg). Just what's needed for prolonging the panto charade.

BTW did you follow up on the links I provided on last Friday's blog, as I don't think you quite see the full picture of who or what's REALLY behind 'the lie'?

Here they are again (contained within)...

/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2011/09/friday_2_september_2011_1.html?postId=110178536

'Until we face the truth that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is just as much part of British politics as Murdoch'

Ah, but one is a vast media monopolist with a tribal political agenda and hugely funded tendrils into everyone's homes, whilst the other... anyway, moving on...

In other news, any more on US pols stirring up hate or dodgy journos and bent bobbies?

I refer, of course, only to anyone one but Democrats or Graun hacks, ´óÏó´«Ã½ blog career wise:)

'45. At 15:04 7th Sep 2011, museV wrote:
..but have you ever noticed how few (2 MP's at the last count) are actually scientists, engineers or technologists of any kind?'

2? That many? All you need to add up a wind farm subsidy and get a target-meeting bonus.

The media are little better. A supposed science/enviro wallah near here is getting quite the rep for retyping rather partial press releases and missing the glaring holes.

The solution to such leaky competence seems to be watertight oversight, where you close stuff down when it veers off narrative, and you pretend it never happened.

Ironically, he chose to base his latest special on working from the bath, which any appreciative of the concept of a 'B'-Ark would have appreciated. Sadly, once it sunk in, he and his troops did not, and the plug was soon pulled.

It would be funny if not so serious.

#42 Bb´óÏó´«Ã½

IMMIGRATION

There are 3 primary reasons why our government secretly promotes immigration…

1. They become extra consumers, which is GOOD FOR BUSINESS. Even if these people don't join the workforce, they tend to EASILY receive state benefits that they HAVE to spend at the likes of TESCO's (high st disappearing etc) on staple foods and if they do work, they are then eligible to take out necessary loans from the BANKSTERS to buy cars etc.

2. Point 1 above is good for the CEO's of big corporations as turnover and profits increase. This is good for the economy, as far as the politicons are concerned, as this raises national GDP, and treasury tax take. It's why GDP is the GOD that they all worship. Notice Osborne getting a bit squeeky lately?

#48 cont.

3. DEMOGRAPHICS. It's an undisputed fact that if liberal democracies did not allow immigration then their populations would shrink (eg Italy and Japan). The TFR's these countries do not replenish their populations as they are below below replacement level. Now when you take into consideration aging populations and rising pension liabilities (pensions are a ponzi scheme), lower replacement levels in these countries do not support the rising costs and so will make greater economic demands on the state. IMMIGRATION is a must for them!

The solution to the above 3 points are to import immigrants especially from the poorer regions of the world, primarily because the have lower cognitive abilities which brings a two-fold benefit. First is that they are less discriminatory consumers and secondly, they have much higher fertility rates thus producing even more off spring than just replacement levels. There is a direct correlation between the two btw. But some simply won't have it.

@45 At the risk of causing repetitive bore strain it is not that important what their background is because they are stuffed dummies in a pawn broker`s shop window!

IF Parliament`s "deliberations" had an iota of relevance to what we call "government policy" and the behaviour of the Downing Street puppet regime then you might have a point.

While we were being stuffed unceremoniously into a borderless Sorosian EU of 500 million people,(all of whom are now free to arrive here and join the Chinese and Pakistanis around me)our honourable members and their cronies in the media were deliberately misleading us with distraction tactics by holding months of debate about fox hunting!

No scientists were necessary or harmed in the making of that criminal undemocratic deception Muse!In fact people of any integrity would impede the smooth running of Parliamentary "business"!

#44 Bb´óÏó´«Ã½

Tariq Ali as a presenter for NN....now you really have lost the plot.

Activist Tariq Ali is one of the worst Libertarian, Trotskists neo-con shills this country has ever suffered.

Look into his background VERY carefully and understand where all of his actions and behaviours are focussed. His ideologies actually result in the chosen few accumulating more and more profit at the expense of all others. It's very cleverly done.

He is a member of The New Left Review which has included the likes of Ralph Miliband in it's ranks. International Socialism tends to favour the chosen ones.

Muse. I want our population to halve because the British Isles cannot support anything like the present numbers to any civilised standard of life.

In the future large populations will be a curse not a boon.

My Celtic/Norse racial group have been kicked out of the British Isles in their millions and caused havoc by wiping out one indigenous native race of people after another and enslaving millions of people as well.We called it empire building but it was something much darker!

It`s time to live within the capacity and resources available to us here in Britain and cut our population to suit that objective.

All the "springs" in the third world are nothing to do with democracy. They are quite simply the result of overpopulation and unemployment and prehistoric religious ideasa bout having lots more children than you can support.

All they are doing is kicking out their excess people into Europe using soppy idiots like the Red Cross and ´óÏó´«Ã½ to bully us into accepting them.


While we keep taking excess people into Britain the third world will carry on having more babies and dumping them on us.Until something like a totalitarian backlash or war stops it happening!

We have to be more realistic and hard headed or get swept aside by the Far Right and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

@51 Muse. I don`t really know what shills are but your comments about Tariq Ali suggest a degree of indoctrination and hostility towards people of other races that I don`t share with you.

By all means criticise people for their behaviour and I am happy to discuss that as long as Barrie`s chums the Blog dogs allow.

What would Tariq A do on Newsnight that would upset you? Surely anything is better than another seance with Irwin or Danny and Ms Hertz or Rifkind??

You can attack the white underclass as much as you like,but our ethnic masters at the Beeb are very humourless about any comment that gets to close to them!

I am so close on their heels now that they are getting jumpy,so this may be what Mapp and Luchia called "Eau Reservoir"!