Estate agents: from buy it to buy me
Britain’s estate agents are in big trouble. New figures released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) reveal the number of successful transactions per estate agent have reached a 30-year low, with an average of just 17.4 transactions per estate agent made in the three months to the end of May.
“The point-four refers to a small potting shed in Keighley, West Yorkshire,” explained a RICS spokesperson. “We couldn’t make it 18 transactions because the shed had a leaking roof and a broken window. If we were living in 2000, and not 2008, then of course we’d have seen a huge demand for such des-res accommodation. But only a pigeon fancier ever showed any interest in buying it, and he proved difficult to convince. The estate agent concerned had to throw in his own Mini Cooper as an incentive to clinch the deal.”
tags: credit crunch, depression, estate agents, housing, humour, money, recessionTory money scandals are rich and timely reminders
It seems the media has sated its appetite for condemning the Labour government, at least for the time being. Now the focus is on the Conservatives, with a couple of high-profile stories this past week focusing on flagrant abuses of power and privilege at the taxpayers’ expense.
First we heard about the leader of the Conservative Party’s Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) resigning from the position after admitting he broke expenses rules. Giles Chichester paid thousands of pounds in staff allowances to a firm of which he is a paid director. Remarkably, Chichester intends to stay on as an MEP and has described his supposed error as a “whoops-a-daisy” moment.
tags: Conservatives, equality, gay rights, ghettos, homophobia, hypocrisy, impropriety, money, politics, power, sleaze
