While Londoners are shocked to learn that prime land in London for new housing and office space is now owned by billionaires and corporates from Australia, Singapore, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Sweden — and that many of the new investors are from Asia — what has shocked me is that none of the names thrown up are from India! How has that happened? Weren’t Indians leading the charge to buying up Hyde Park as though it were a colony next door to Maharani Bagh? Aren’t Indians and those of Indian origin proud to be colonising the UK? So then, how have these investors (complete interlopers if you ask me!) stepped in? Devastating for our egos, my dear! To make matters worse, there are far too many wealthy Chinese buying up London to develop into these fancy homes!
Anyway, now that we have to swallow our pride and accept that we are no longer alone in building the future for Britain, we also have to accept that these property czars will not have Punjabi or Gujarati or Marwari surnames! So the only way we might be able to rule London is if we take up Prime Minister David Cameron’s challenge and place an Indian in the hot seat as premier. But if we are upset with these developments, so are the Brits, though for entirely different reasons. It seems that luxury homes will crop up at the former St John’s Wood and Hyde Park barracks. At the Greenwich peninsula and around the Olympic Park will also rise new developments. Many of them, admittedly will be priced for millionaires.
While the investors are foreign — it is now being feared that the wealthy buyers of these prime homes will also be foreign! Horror upon horror… and these will be treated as holiday homes, or investments, being left unused for most of the year. I find much of this anger intriguing. After all, the rich Brits have also been buying up prime property all over the world as holiday homes. So now why should there be this anguish when the compliment is returned…
Of course, there is also (quite correct) sentiment that we should be building more affordable homes, for the poor and underprivileged. But, unless he is a philanthropist, why would a foreign investor be interested? In any case, many of the developers reject the complaint that these new housing deve-lopments will be “zombie homes” where the lights are never switched on.
However, one person who has never had a problem with her properties being critiqued as rather exclusive is the Queen. Somehow none of us seem to really mind that she has all these palaces and guards and horses… and she had one more reason to smile as her Christmas message got the highest ratings among all the TV programmes on Christmas Day. Nearly eight million viewers! More than Melinda Hart! More than Mrs Brown’s Boys! Not bad for someone who is nowhere as glamo-rous as her daughter-in-law.
And now as the elections approach in May next year, political pundits are predicting some surprises. Could there be an upset by Labour next year, or could the Conservatives coast to another victory? The latter just might be the case because of the genie that has been released from the bottle by the Scottish referendum. Now suddenly it is the Scottish National Party which had staunchly fought for independence that is in the lead. Scotland used to be a Labour stronghold, but all the latest polls show that Ed Miliband, the leader of the Labour Party, has a very tough fight on his hands since the SNP is likely to snatch away most of their safe seats in Scotland. This will make their ambitious plans to form the next government highly doubtful.
As we approach the New Year, my resolution is to avoid making any resolutions, especially about what not to eat or drink. Even though the UK is now considered to be a country with the second largest number of obese people in Europe can that curb our desire to pop the bubbly and grab a mince pie? Cheers to a great New Year!
Kishwar Desai is an award-winning author
