Party Vibe

there is a practice in some areas of leaving bin liners or other readily visible items jammed into the letterboxes of suspected empty second/third homes.

Of course if they are not empty (such as houses shared across an extended family) or are being looked after someone will remove the items.

If they are empty and being left empty and unused (this happens more often than many realise) then I don’t think its morally wrong if squatters make positive use of the property provided they don’t trash the place or use it to sell addictive drugs from.

The other problem though is things like this

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/essex/6048520.stm

where people from working class backgrounds get a bit of money and literally want to lord it over everyone else which is IMO as much as if not more of a problem than the existing landed gentry…

yep I think that was the area where they were highlighting this with the bin liners…

I think the councils should at least increase the council tax or surcharge people who leave the places empty.

I expect though the toffs who own these sort of places are also the types who will pay for rentaguards, sophisticated security systems and may even threaten to defend them with firearms to keep out squatters, otherwise there would be loads of squats in the area by now – or maybe though this doesn’t happen as the younger people have already been forced out?

had a feeling that may have been the case – I expect no one amongst the squatters wanted things to escalate to the point where both sides were armed and people were risking either death or imprisonment…..:yakk:

yeah this has happened in the cities as well but most squatter crews are larger, prepared to defend themselves.

There have been instances though of locals turning vigilanté; ironically it tends to be working class people who do this in the cities as they are angry that they are paying and someone else is getting “property for free!”, or out of racism when the squatters are not predominantly English.

OTOH in cities buildings owned by faceless property companies whose staff aren’t really up for a physical fight, but they have plenty of resources to get court cases put through quickly (within about 2 weeks in many cases)

But if the farmers were that fucking worried about their houses why didn’t they or their families or workers live in them?

For instance the Asian community often buy houses for their families which are often then re-let to students when elderly relatives return to their native countries; but other than failed businesses they rarely let houses remain empty like that; they cannot afford to do so….

The farmers’ action just seems like a power trip more than anything or when large companies start court proceedings within days they are just following the dogma of property ownership than being pragmatic about the situation (there are lots of people who want short-term low-cost accomodation and would be prepared to live even in converted industrial premises, this is a common practice in other countries)

Sadly though I think its changed the nature of squatting as increasingly now the mad, bad and desperate are getting involved..

yep this is exactly why the urban areas of Suffolk and Essex and even the affluent areas of SE England are becoming dismal shitholes…

All my younger friends and work colleagues from my new area who once lived in the more rural parts of Suffolk seem to be forced towards the towns; also because of this the service industries move away from villages…

@Monoghan Jig 983337 wrote:

homelessness much like having a home is all location, location, location: you’ve got to know where they throw out day to week old sandwiches, what sandwiches to eat, not pork, cheese is best because it just gets mouldy and what is mould you might get some penicillin to cure your STDs. making fire is important for boiling water, boiled water kills off germs apparently and moss is best eaten after boiling, you’ve got to get a good location to relax and sleep in, forests are normally a trap, thermal imagining from police helicopters makes it difficult to rest in permanently so you’re only hope is abandoned buildings, squats, pretending to have a home by memorizing other people’s addresses so as to pretend you have the right to roam when questioned by cops or just join the circus, get yourself into a mental hospital or live in prison…

It’s really a stupid evil game that allot of people are trapped in and there’s no solution for them, capitalism is the freedom to starve to death.

my screen name General Lighting dates back from around 2001 when I got laid off from a job as a broadcast engineer (having just been fully trained to work on very strong mains electric installations with 400 volts three phase; usually found in warehouses and larger abandoned buildings). I have always been lucky to have a home and supportive family (I’m English but of Asian ancestry (MY) and raised as a Catholic) but through raves I had recently befriended various squatters/homless folk and along with a few friends I’d help put the electric back on to squats but always in a safe manner.I’d never bypass a meter; if I had to bridge a service head fuse I’d only use 45A of fusewire (slightly under capacity) so any other defects wouldn’t cause a hazard and me and a German dude saved a whole squat full with people from going up on fire because someone else had used a chain link instead of fusewire.

the name is from the list you should make when inspecting a power distribution unit, as British sparks seem to rarely label them properly (it is only begrudingly done today because of the EU) a larger building it usually starts off as

A1/L1 – 6A – General Lighting
B1/L2 – 6A – General Lighting
C1/L3 – 6A – General Lighting

Which means that there are 3 circuits of 230V 6A for the main building lights (which should be directed to different sections of the building to avoid 400 volts instead of 230 being present) – to start with so you open the circuit breakers for everything else other than the first one before re-energising the supply; that way if any short circuits/earth faults are present “you don’t brow it”

I would often turn up on my bicycle (with the panniers full of useful tools/test equipment) at random times during winter when folk had cracked a new building and needed power/heat or for raves – a bit like Alladin but the non-PC “comedy Chinaman” version (which is based on first generation British Chinese who migrated to London) – at one point there was a picture of me in the CID office as due to a bizzare set of coincidences they thought I was selling the homless amfetamine (rather than buying a bulk supply for my own use) and training Siamese cats and bull terriers to work together in watching for CID :laugh_at:

looking back it was a miracle I only took one shock (due to bad wiring practice known as a borrowed neutral) and was only arrested once because some miserable middle aged property owners grassed us up; I never got trouble from the SSE (Scottish and Southern Energy) even though the boss man stopped me in the street once and said he knew exactly what me and my mates were up to but said “at least you are doing it safely and not wrecking the meter” (it was not uncommon for the squatters to actually pay the bills; although the energy companies often couldn’t be bothered setting up the account due to admin costs). He told my friends not to be scared of him as he’s not a copper and only wears the yellow vest for safe working in the roads and it wasn’t his job to check the billing; only to make sure the supply is safe.