Housing - cheats and victims

A good documentary from Panorama on Wednesday - Council Housing - cheats and victims which gave the nation a clear idea about what a colossal mess housing is in.

Whether it's social housing and the lack of it or private housing and the expense or sub satisfactory repairs of it or those that sublet their council flats and others who will go to all kinds of lengths to buy someone else's tenancy; housing not introduced by Kirsty or Phil is slowly making it into prime time viewing slots.

Given the situation is going to get worse,this is a good thing.

In its hour, Richard Bilton, the narrator, managed to explore the issue of priority. Who gets the council flat? Not the pregnant woman privately renting with her partner but the childless couple living with their parents. Meanwhile the single children living at home aren't getting a look in either.

Amongst all the people interviewed, there wasn't a single mother amongst them.

Why not?

Are single mothers in council flats already? Always the first to be prioritised?

I'm not so you know that assumption to be false (I hope)

Imagine they'd approached me and I'd agreed to be in the story...

Filmed in this luxury flat I might have, probably would have, justified my existence by showing all the letters I wrote to politicians; the articles I wrote, the postcard I sent.

Would I have wept? Would I have wept at the futility of it all?

Probably not; I'd be too busy shitting my pants!