Today I would like to talk about being a landlord of property and how it’s not all its cracked up to be. Let’s start with Peter Rachman. That guy gave landlords a really bad name. We have to turn the clock back to the 1950s and 60s and the Notting Hill area of London. Rachman was born in Poland and became notorious as a landlord exploiting tenants. Indeed Rachmanism came into the English language as a description of a greedy and unscrupulous landlord.
Rachman built up a property empire in London and packed his properties with mainly immigrants from the West Indies. He drove out existing tenants in order to maximise his rentals, which became extremely high.
The ironic thing about Rachman was his former life as a member of the Polish resistance He was interned by the Germans and later in a Soviet labour camp in Siberia where he was cruelly treated. He later fought on behalf of the Allies in the Middle East and Italy. He moved to England in 1948 but obviously the lessons learned in prisoner of war camps did little to imbue in him kindness to his fellow man and woman – apart of course in the shape of numerous affairs he had in England.
I mention this because many landlords still receive a bad Press and it is thought that Rachmanism still exists. I am sure it does, but there is another side to this story. Over the past few weeks I have heard of numerous situations where sitting tenants have stopped paying rent and almost taken up squatter’s rights. As a result the landlords have been faced with loss of rent, people living in their houses without permission and having to resort to law to get them out. This involves obtaining court orders, paying solicitors and, when they eventually do regain possession of their property, finding it at best in a filthy condition and at worse severely damaged.
Talk to the authorities on this and they will tell you that the tenants have rights. So what about the rights of the landlords in these cases?
Another thing I would like to mention today is how new technology leads to a jungle of confusion. Had cause yesterday to ring up about an appointment (won’t bore you with the details). Firstly I was given the usual five options. I pressed one of them only to be given another five. I pressed one of these and was eventually answered only to be told that I had come through to the wrong place. Suddenly I felt this was my fault. Years ago the person I spoke with would have just transferred me but in today’s automated world I had to go through the process again. The stupidity of this kind of situation was brilliantly illustrated by a friend a few years ago.
He worked in the office of a large company. Each year he renewed his home insurance through this company and could do this by visiting a colleague who worked three doors down. This year the company, like so many, had outsourced their call centres to India. My friend was told that he would have to phone this call centre. You have probably guessed what happened next. He phoned the call centre which in turn phoned his colleague three rooms away who then sorted the matter out and posted the documents to his home address. And they call that progress!!!!
When is goalline technology going to be introduced into football? After Chelsea were awarded a goal in the FA Cup semi-final that quite obviously hadn’t crossed the line, we were subjected to all the old arguments about bringing in goalline technology. So why are we still talking about this? Technology works well in cricket and tennis and it’s obviously going to come into football. So let’s stop the yabbering and bring it in before more teams have good goals ruled out or are awarded goals that aren’t
Big sports story today is how football players at all levels dive in the penalty area in order to gain penalties. There seems to be some outcry that this is happening and some people seem to think this is something new. It’s been happening for years. Most teams will have a player who flops over in the penalty area – I know Norwich City have. So let’s not get sanctimonious about this. It happens and makes a mockery of the national football respect campaign as essentially it is cheating that is supported by all clubs
Journalist Shaun Custis made a very good point on Sky Sports this morning on this subject. He pointed out that honest players and national institutions like Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen and David Beckham have all dived for penalties. He also pointed out that there is outrage and anger amongst fans if an opposition player does it but total support if one of their team does it. If say Norwich (my team) are playing Chelsea at home and Lampard dives and wins a penalty the home supporters will go mental, accusing the player of cheating. Now take those same fans and transport them to Wembley for an important England game and the same player dives again to win a penalty and the support for his actions will almost be 100%.
Yes we need to get rid of diving but I’m not sure how you can achieve this as it seems to be endemic in our game and the rewards are so big and the pressure on players so great. Even bringing in technology to help with this will only lead to confusion as often evidence on penalties is inconclusive and open to personal interpretation.
Last night as chairman of the village football club our panel interviewed coaches/managers from nine teams about their aims and intentions for next season. It was a very long but highly worthwhile night with some very interesting points being brought out. Running a football club our size with anything up to 16 teams has become like running a small business. It all functions on volunteers as well. Prime Minister David Cameron continually goes on about the Big Society and how we need more volunteers. As I have said so many times before these volunteers already exist in every city, town and village in our country. Without them the country would virtually grind to a halt. Certainly plans to tax charitable donations will in no way help the Big Society. It is an ill thought out policy that seems to go against the whole idea of self help, penalising the very people the Big Society is supposed to be supporting.
I know in these blogs that I make numerous comments on political issues and politics itself. I feel that I am entitled to do this as I support no particular party. I accept that party politics has to exist at national level but feel there is no place for it at parish and district level where the only criteria should be serving local communities without the millstone of having to tow a particular party line. On BBC local television last night an MP (his name escapes me) had the guts to attack his own party for their stance on charitable donations. He was absolutely right to say what he did and brave as well. Our society is a good one but it would be even better if everyone worked together for the common good and cast aside jealousies and petty squabbles.
This blog’s word count is now beginning to move into anorak land. Only just over halfway through April and it amounts to over 56,500 words since the start of the year. At this rate the magnum opus is going to be approaching a quarter of a million words by the end of the year and I bet I have been repeating myself in certain areas. Sorry!
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