Maybe you could rent a room?
"Push to build housing in UK challenges idyllic country image" November 13, 2011|By Anthony Faiola, Washington Post
GREAT CORNARD, England - Uproar in this sleepy town of 8,000....
The tug of war over development in Britain underscores the tensions erupting as cash-strapped Western governments come under pressure to find creative ways to return to a now-lost cycle of economic growth.
The opening shot here was fired last summer, when Britain’s Conservative-led coalition government unveiled guidelines aiming to reinvigorate construction in a country where housing starts have fallen to levels not seen since 1923....
The British housing industry is hailing the effort as the perfect economic pick-me-up at a time when the economy here is failing as the government slashes public-sector jobs and cuts spending as part of a national austerity drive....
And, they say, unlike the overbuilt areas of the United States, Ireland, and Spain, new stocks of houses are direly needed in Britain, where a baby boom and high flows of immigration have created an estimated shortfall of a million homes nationwide.
Yet the government appears to have grossly miscalculated the public reaction to the plan.
By far the biggest outcry has been on the implications of development in England’s picture-perfect countryside.
And blistering criticism is coming not only from liberal-leaning environmental groups but also from touchstones of British conservative thought, including the Telegraph newspaper....
They want to preserve their estates.
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Maybe they could go live on a farm?
"British police clear property in step to evict nomadic group" October 20, 2011|By Matt Dunham, Associated Press
CRAYS HILL, England - British police used sledgehammers, crowbars, and a cherry picker yesterday to clear the way for the eviction of Irish Travelers from a site where they have lived illegally for a decade.
By the afternoon police said that they were in control of the site and that bailiffs were beginning to move onto the disputed property.
Essex Police said two protesters were Tasered and seven people arrested after police officers were attacked with rocks, other missiles, and liquids including urine.
Residents and supporters, however, said police had used excessive force.
Evictions of Travelers, a traditionally nomadic group similar to, but ethnically distinct from, Gypsy or Roma people, are relatively common across Britain. But few are as large, or as high-profile, as yesterday’s at Dale Farm....
Authorities said the violence was coming not from residents but from their supporters - anarchists, environmentalists, and anticapitalists who came to the site from across Europe.
Agent provocateurs.
“The premeditated and organized scenes of violence that we have already seen with protesters throwing rocks and bricks, threatening police with iron bars, and setting fire to a caravan are shocking,’’ said Tony Ball, leader of Basildon Council, the local authority.
He said while “no one takes any satisfaction’’ in the police operation, he was confident that “after 10 years of negotiations to try and find a peaceful solution to this, that what we are doing is the right thing.’’
There are an estimated 15,000 to 30,000 Irish Travelers in Britain, where they are recognized as a distinct ethnic minority.
Oscar-winning actress and political activist Vanessa Redgrave came to the Dale Farm Travelers’ support, and the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination urged authorities to find “a peaceful and appropriate solution’’ to the crisis.
Where is the concern when Israel forces Palestinians off their land, huh?
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Also see: Sunday Globe Special: Down on the British Farm
