And another thing…

THE FIFTH item on Sky News Business this morning was that house prices have risen for the third month in a row, according to Right Move.

Can’t help thinking that if prices had fallen, the item would have found its way into a prominent position in the main news headlines.

I wonder if, in time, Sky will replace their ridiculous “Recession Watch” feature (or whatever it’s called) with a similarly entitled “Recovery Monitor”? No, me neither.

THOSE (and I include myself in this) who didn’t believe the Tories had really changed under David Cameron can think again.

Because the Shadow Chancellor has announced that the next Conservative government will control the price of your home. Yes, you read that right: the Conservatives don’t believe that house prices should be subject to the market any more, but should be controlled by central government, much like tractor production in the Soviet Union, I guess.

Now, before you jump to your keyboard and start flexing your fingers in preparation for a staunch defence of… well, in defence of anything and everything Dave and George come up with, just consider this: A Conservative government would have no faith in the market or in the property-owning democracy so successfully promoted by Margaret Thatcher.

I’m not even criticising the idea itself (although I have my doubts about whether it would actually work): maybe governments should intervene to prevent property bubbles developing. But a Tory government? Manipulating the market, managing the market, intervening in the market to stop your house becoming too valuable? It actually does beggar belief.

So if you’ve even got this far before you started writing your comment (you know who I’m talking about), just ask yourself: if the Labour Party proposed such a policy, would you welcome it? Would you say, “About time politicians started deciding how much I should be able to sell my house for – long overdue”?

I’m genuinely looking forward to John Redwood’s analysis of this particular initiative.

The British media’s obsessive coverage of what they hope will become a recession is comparable only to their coverage of the weather. Normally the BBC only get breathless with anticipation when there’s been a couple of inches of snow somewhere and one of their news editors has had to spend 15 minutes longer than usual driving into work.

But that’s nothing compared to their pure excitement at the prospect of a recession. Amid all the coverage today of “the biggest fall in house prices in 15 years”, there’s been hardly a mention that house prices are still higher than they were this time last year. Fact is, a recession would be a big news story, and there’s nothing the media like better than a news story, regardless of who has to pay the price.

But here’s the really bad news, for the media, anyway: there isn’t going to be one. And that’s thanks largely to GB’s management of the economy since 1997. Watching the likes of Nick Robinson salivating at the thought of repossessions and mass unemployment is entertaining, but is that really what the BBC is for?