azazelcrowley t1_j1ddyr9 wrote
This makes perfect sense to me as a Welsh person. Lower income areas are under constant threat of higher income areas up and deciding to purchase most of the housing in an area and colonize it, often not even living in the housing for most of the year, or even worse, actually doing so and forming gated colonial communities that have bought all the desirable land and property in your country.
Wales cannot control its border with England because they're the same country, supposedly.
This led to welsh terrorist movements that engaged in arson attacks on English holiday homes. The problem recently flared up again leading Drakeford to institute a 300% tax hike on second homes as a workaround to the problem, which was destroying several communities.
Meanwhile, the economic benefit to you as a wealthy person of having access to cheap labour is fairly well documented.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meibion_Glynd%C5%B5r
> Meibion Glyndŵr (Welsh pronunciation: [ˈməibjɔn ɡlɨnˈduːr], Sons of Glyndŵr) was a group linked to arson of English-owned holiday homes in Wales. They were formed in response to the housing crisis in Wales precipitated by large numbers of houses being bought by wealthy English people for use as holiday homes, pushing up house prices beyond the means of many locals. They were responsible for setting fire to English-owned holiday homes in Wales from 1979 to the mid-1990s
The campaign escalated from burning down peoples property towards mailing bombs to members of parliament, before dying down a bit during the Labour years before the housing crash put it on hold until recently, where Drakefords approach has been tried. If you put it to a vote, the Welsh would probably ban the English from moving or owning property here except in small numbers. Because it can't be put to a vote, you get this kind of situation.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/meibion-glyndr-decades-long-housing-22447226
It's especially bad as they keep buying housing in welsh language communities, and it's barely recovering as a language after the centuries of violent suppression of it... by the English. So for those communities to then be priced out and forcibly dispersed threatens the existence of the language. Hence, Arson.
> They were determined to discourage people buying up relatively cheap homes, as this pushed up house prices, drove out locals who couldn't afford to get on the property market and threatened the existence of the Welsh language and culture, as they saw it.
> The homeowner claimed that he was hated by the community, had been blacklisted by nationalist extremists and his life was ultimately threatened, Wales Online reported A letter claiming to be from Meibion Glyndŵr was sent to him. It read: "You are an English colonist. You are racist and anti-Welsh. You must leave Wales by March 1, 1993, or we will take revenge and you won't dare breathe. Go home you imperialist scum."
This is why it doesn't shock me at all that poorer income countries, who will tend to be more at the "Victim of their rich neighbors" end of the scale in history, would adopt this attitude.
Also;
> in the decade following the attacks, no arrests were made and most cases were left unsolved.
This might give you an indication of the general sentiment about it, given that the Welsh police are also Welsh...
And;
> Despite a £50,000 reward and appeals on programmes such as BBC Crimewatch, no one came forward in Wales with evidence against the group.
Not a single person...
And the popular newspaper cartoon of "Wales gives the English a Warm Welcome" showing a house on fire. Again. Popular.
> "This happened for a long time and I'm sure the police felt some sort of pressure. The fact they couldn't find anyone was a testament to the support the campaign received. I even think that some of the police officers involved in the operation sympathised with the situation we were facing.
middleupperdog t1_j1fsty3 wrote
I seem to remember... Yup here it is, In the UK more than half of all the land in the country is owned by less than 1% of the population.
SerialStateLineXer t1_j1isrkc wrote
Well, yeah. England is 70% farmland. What percentage of the English population do you think is farmers?
middleupperdog t1_j1jzcc3 wrote
what? like 90% of the farmland in England is not owned by the people farming it. England has no laws to limit investor ownership of farmland compared to other regions like Scotland.
[deleted] t1_j1eexvj wrote
[removed]
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