What do we do now, given the Establishment’s gone mad?

Guardian editorials are the closest Britain’s liberal establishment gets to the Sermon on the Mount - the irreducible minimum of the belief system. It’s therefore worrying to see this:

Labour’s pledge to “build, build, build” rests on the idea that supplying more homes will make housing more affordable. If only it were so straightforward.

More houses means cheaper houses. This is an absolute. Think of the alternative construction - having fewer houses would make houses cheaper. Doesn’t work, does it?

For it really is true that building the one, single, bedsit in Stranraer - or Larne - reduces the price of every house in London. Sure, it might only be by fractions of a penny but the effect exists. Equally, it might be better to reduce the price of houses in London by building more houses in London - more effect that way. But to deny that more houses reduces the price of houses is to be in denial of the most basic observation about our world. Increased supply lowers prices in the face of consistent demand.

No, this doesn’t change in the face of financialisation, landlordism, hoarding of assets, the existence of billionaires or whether it’s a company, an individual or the local council that builds the house. More means cheaper. It just does. And only if we all agree on that basic fact can we then go on to mither about financialisation, landlordism, hoarding of assets, the existence of billionaires or whether it’s a company, an individual or the local council that builds the house.

But Britain’s liberal establishment have convinced themselves that this truth is not, in fact, a truth. So, what do we do now? Given that we’ve proof that at least half of our ruling establishment - sadly the half that seems to be in power - has gone mad?

One suggestion could be that centering our care in the community efforts on King’s Place doesn’t seem to have worked out.

Tim Worstall