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A reformed cynic — 13 Comments

  1. jokes aside that sounds disturbing and it looks like they really want to get their hands on peoples property.
    pitting grandparents against parents typical Fine Gael methods of divide and conquer

    • They have been gently moving for some time towards the idea of ousting people into smaller houses.  We hear about “wasted bedrooms” and people living in houses that “are too big” for them.  Like a lot of ideas, a gentle hint now usually turns into a law sooner or later.

      They can fuck right off.  Regardless of the size of my house or the number of bedrooms it is my house.  The house is my property to do with as I please.  The gubmint has no right to decide what I should do with it.  Apart from that, I am living in a community where I am familiar and happy.  I know my neighbours and they know me.  No fancy “retirement village” can possibly compensate for that.

  2. There’s nothing wrong with making the provision, it simply adds to the choices available.
    The problem comes when they start to make it compulsory (or pseudo-compulsory by fiddling with taxes/allowances etc.) – that’s when we should get suitably cantankerous.

    • I have no problem with choice.  I have a nasty feeing though that they are eventually going to decide on a tax on spare bedrooms.  The census figures give them the number of inhabitants and the number of bedrooms in each house so they can easily come up with some formula.  What’s the bet?

  3. I first read some bollocks piece a few years ago now about this, and thought then that’s early confirmation they’d be after our homes.
    The piece was along the lines of one’s housing needs, where a (immigrants at the top of the list as we know) family of umpteen and growing would be far more than this poor old bugger and his Mrs and three dogs, who really ought to hurry up and die.

    Obviously it wouldn’t apply to the apparatchiks or more equal than others who know best how the rest of us should live.

    When i relayed this to the good lady, she wondered if the pile of ashes resulting from us being forced from the home we paid for would be of much use to the needy.

    Being cynical is a good frame of mind, don’t trust the bastards.

    • I remember a few mentions in the past all right.  That’s the way they do it – a mention here, a mention there, gradually increasing in frequency until it becomes the “obvious solution” to the housing crisis.

      Frankly I am with your good lady [in spirit, not in person].  A pile of ashes sounds like a nice gesture.

  4. A cynic is merely a realist with experience; hence, the older you are the more cynical you become.

  5. It is proven that the isolation of older people does not work. Channel 4 did a two part documentary last year at the Saint Monica’s Trust homes in Bristol where they have moved a nursery school into one of the sites to change the atmosphere of the place. Would someone tell the Irish government that their idea is past its sell-by date?

  6. Assisted living, that is your very own room in an old folks home, properly staffed with some form of common room.
    £1,340 A WEEK in Edinburgh. And that’s before charges for physio and such.
    Retirement villages are okay, however we have stacks of retirement apartments in the UK. They’re better because the communal charges are lower,  with no grounds to maintain.
    One drawback is thy don’t keep pace with the housing market, so less to leave the sprogs. We are slap bang into the baby boomers, so in about 15 years all bar the best are likely to depreciate. 

  7. They call it “Assisted Living” here in the states for those older folks who can still (mostly) manage for themselves but have gotten to the point where life has stopped giving them things and starts taking things away–like their general health. Usually made up of rather high end apartment complexes thay, of course, only the well-off can afford in their older age.

    And do I recall a post of yours a year or two back about apartment complexes that were built and then abandoned for some reason or other and still remain empty today? If so, then your government should use those instead of building yet more more complexes. Makes sense to me but that’s most likely the problem. It makes sense.

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