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Edwina Currie’s hot take on boomers’ mortgages was met with the scorn it deserved
As mortgage payers anxiously wait to hear what the Bank of England’s latest interest raise will be, ministers are divided over how to deal with the increasing crisis that has already seen some people default on their payments – as well as pushing rents up because of the buy-to-let market.
From the school of thought that brought you ‘We used to play out in the dark/drink water from the garden hose/deliberately infect ourselves with tetanus’ came this nuggest from Edwina Currie.
The unofficial Minister for False Equivalence got absolutely torched by Twitter – and it looked like this.
1.
No @Edwina_Currie 16% wasn't normal
Mum & I bought a house
£17k, 1982 Leeds, 9% mortgage.2 x joint income. Poor but lucky
Young people now need to borrow crazy multiples on stupidly expensive housing stock.
Do your maths love 😡 https://t.co/h8nds0T12k— Carol Vorderman (@carolvorders) June 21, 2023
2.
apart from the facts and numbers you're absolutely spot on here, Edwina, great tweet https://t.co/oAxxVaxQoi
— Dan Hett (@danhett) June 21, 2023
3.
I was one of them. Our mortgages were far smaller, both in absolute tes and as a percentage of our incomes, so the payments were smaller even with very high interest rates. And we had tax relief on interest payments. https://t.co/YZjV9hAfJH
— Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola (@Frances_Coppola) June 21, 2023
4.
Honestly Edwina-can’t believe you can’t see the problem with this take…
— Dom Joly (@domjoly) June 21, 2023
5.
Facile, misleading. Just what I'd expect from a failed ex-MP with a juicy pension that I'm paying towards.
— Paul (@PaulOnBooks) June 21, 2023
6.
In my day we had mortgages with 16% interest rates, yes 16%!😱
Did we moan?
No
We got on with it.
We went without luxuries like Netflix, Costa coffees, skunk, shellac, hot tubs & leggings.
We grew our own concrete & our kids didn’t identify as cats.
And we were happier for it!😡 pic.twitter.com/Tu71q7hNBs— Sir Michael Take CBE (@MichaelTakeMP) June 22, 2023
7.
Yes, you all survived and turned into massive throbbers who can’t understand that houses were a lot cheaper back then in relation to how much people were bloody earning. Just concentrating on ‘16%’ is meaningless in context, but you know that, right?
— Simon Harris – Man Behaving Dadly (THAT’S DADLY) (@simonharris_mbd) June 21, 2023
8.
You really don’t understand do you Edwina?.
If I were you, I’d leave it to people who actually understand things.. pic.twitter.com/jACnLwT9Kc
— Leon (@CameraLeon) June 21, 2023
9.
Also remember record repossessions and bankruptcies . and certainly remember paying a mortgage off in the 90s . https://t.co/ZBMxoIrBU8 pic.twitter.com/q9yW61w7TW
— NORBET (@NORBET) June 21, 2023
10.
These comments show up the people who make them as financially illiterate as well as smug.
Not only was loan-to-salary much smaller – meaning 6% today is roughly equivalent to 13% then – but nominal wage growth and inflation drastically reduced the real value of mortgages. https://t.co/Lehy1znv8w
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) June 21, 2023
11.
OKAY BOOMER
— Robbie Scowls (@RScowler) June 21, 2023
12.
My first house cost me £21,000 in 1979. A 3 bed in London's East End. I was earning £15,000 a year. My parents gave me the deposit.
The adjoining, exact same house sold last year for £800,000. To be even close to the same ratio someone would need to be earning £550,000+— Robert Bob…. What is this nightmare? (@MrRobertBob1) June 21, 2023
13.
Edwina Curry fails to understand something part 3,953,325
— aidThompsin (@aidThompsin) June 21, 2023
14.
It didn't cost 9x average earnings to buy a house either. Mrs Currie will be telling you to stop buying coffee or eating out next. You must SUFFER to have a house. SUFFER. https://t.co/LTGsTIuCXR
— Simon Cooke (@SimonMagus) June 21, 2023
Perhaps she’ll consider this offer from Hannah Rose Woods.
I’ll do you a deal Edwina, if you sell me your house at its 1980s value adjusted for inflation, I will slowly pay you back at 16% interest and not complain about it pic.twitter.com/KvSXbt53mZ
— Hannah Rose Woods (@hannahrosewoods) June 21, 2023
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Edwina Currie got schooled by her own diaries and it was all you could want and more
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