YOUR recent front page story did an excellent job exposing the ‘empty houses scandal’; without noting that the city council is almost powerless to do anything about it or mentioning real causes, eg lack of new council housing, or manipulation of the market.

We have to build homes fit to live in which are affordable and at least environmentally neutral.

The virtual ‘initialisation’ of the planning process is a connecting factor for many apparently Nimby-ish campaigns and encourages profiteers to capitalise on anti-environmental, money-wasting scams.

About half of the letters on April 17 were related to the housing catastrophe, if not the front page report. The first three letters (including one from a professional ‘politician’) missed the point and speak volumes for the fragile state of ‘our’ version of democracy.

The Green Party press officer floated a possible remedy, but why end with a rhetorical question? Successive neo-liberal government’s have, in Thatcher’s words, transformed England and Wales into a “property-owning democracy”, making it extremely difficult for most people to find a decent room of their own – don’t forget the banks actually own most of our houses. Nye Bevan was also (briefly) responsible for Housing in the best ‘Government’ we’ve ever had (to paraphrase MacMillan).

They didn’t empower local authorities to build the next generation of slums – some of the temporary pre-fab housing is still used. Churchill (and the young Thatcher) criticised them for not building fast enough.

Despite the highest population vote ever, the electoral system allowed one of the weakest ‘peacetime’ Prime Ministers to hamper the development of the welfare state. Since Thatcher’s elected dictatorship, governments have competed to destroy it and, as she infamously claimed try to change human nature – shortly after declaring War on Society.

When we understand the dual nature of the crisis, ie ecological and economic, perhaps we can start to do something about it, and we might even see some real democracy. The immediate post-war period saw a massive squatting movement and, at the very least, we need more occupations. After all, as Caroline Lucas says: “protesting is the lifeblood of democracy”.

ANDY GIBBONS, Weyland Road, Oxford