Sunday 28 February 2021

Spring is on the way

As in most other places in the UK, spring visits Yorkshire in March. After winter, days get longer, and although snow sometimes falls as late as early spring. Yorkshire is getting warmer and signs of the season are popping up everywhere.

Yorkshirefolk are gradually getting their legs out, it is not because Boris Johnson has announced the government's roadmap to cautiously ease lockdown restrictions, but due to the sunny and flower blooms.

Tomorrow is the first day of March, Spring is on the way! 









與英國大多數其他地方一樣,春天在三月時到約克郡。 冬季過後,日子會變長,儘管雪有時會晚點在早春下, Yorkshire越來越暖了,到處都有春天到的跡象。

約克郡人正在逐漸出門,這不是因為Boris Johnson宣布了政府謹慎放寬封鎖限制的路計畫,而是由於陽光明媚和鮮花盛開。

明天是三月的第一天,春天來了!

Saturday 20 February 2021

Housing discrimination in the UK

The best intentions pave the way to Hell: housing problems in the UK

Why are most tenancy related fees banned by British government which dated back on 1 June 2019? These various fees were normally asked to pay for references, administration credit and immigration checks, renewing your tenancy when your fixed term contract ends. 

The good intention of policy change aims to protect the disadvantageous group—people without real estate in this wealthy society—from being deprived of their basic human right to have a decent place to live and provide an affordable approach for them in search of housing. 

As a result, the good intention turns into a bad result. As the agent hopes to gain profits from the landlord, they try to attract more than one person to view the house in one day, and then put them in a list for the landlord to consider who is the best candidate instead of first comes first serves. As such, students often get themselves into relatively undesirable places where are not on the lists of middle or working class (people with annual income). It seems that the only effortless choice for students is live in school or private-owned student accommodations. However, these housing rental prices are very likely to be as expensive as that of the properties not targeted for students. 

Potential tenants now have to compete for winning over the landlords’ hearts according to their values, making people like students more disadvantageous; what is worse is, in fact, students are asked to pay 6 months payment in one time before moving in with the same rental price as other groups. 

Ironically, when the money goes to the agent pocket, it actually origins from the tenants but not from the landlord, while the agent often forgets who their cash contributor is and only serves the landlord as the highness master. If the things go wrong, they often try to cover everything or strategically make the landlord as a bad guy to be their excuses to avoid losing their business. 

"The best intentions pave the way to Hell". Another example of the practice of governmental policy change.

Student voices on Facebook:

 






最好的意圖變成通向地獄的道路:英國的住房問題

為什麼英國政府禁止與租賃有關的費用其最早可追溯到201961日?通常要求這些各種費是用來支付參考資料,行政費和移民資格調查,並在您的定期合同終止時續簽您的租約。

政策改變的良好意圖旨在保護弱勢群體這些在這個富裕社會中沒有房地產的人們--免遭剝奪擁有像樣居住地的基本人權,並為他們在尋找住房提供負擔得起的方法。

結果,好意變成壞結果。由於房仲希望從房東那裡獲得利潤,他們試圖在一天之內吸引一個以上的人來看房屋,然後將其列入房東的選單上,以讓其考慮誰是最佳候選人,而不是先到先服務 。因此,學生經常租到相對不好的地方,這些地方不在中產階級或工人階級(有年收入的人)的名單上。對於學生來說,唯一輕鬆的選擇似乎是住在學校或私人擁有的學生宿舍中。但是,這些房屋的租金價格很可能與非學生公寓的價格一樣昂貴。

現在,潛在的租戶必須根據自己的價值來贏得地主的心,使像學生這樣的人更加不利。更糟糕的是,實際上,學生被要求在入住前一次性支付6個月的房租費用,然後才能以與其他團體以相同的租金入住。

諷刺的是,當錢流到經紀人的口袋裡時,它實際上是從房客而不是房東那裡獲得的,而經紀人卻常常忘記了他們的金主是誰,而僅服侍房東陛下主人。如果事情出了問題,他們通常會試圖掩蓋一切,或者策略地使房東成為壞人,以此作為避免失去生意的藉口。

“最好的意圖成了通向地獄的道路”。政府政策改變實踐下的另一個例子

  

 

Wednesday 10 February 2021

2021 Snowfall in York and across the UK

People in the UK have been experiencing heavy blizzards of snow in York, and across much of the UK since this Sunday.


York is not really buried under serious snowfall as drizzling and sunshine often come next to the snowfall; however, the snows is relatively more than the previous year. Friends living in Edinburgh even showed ice dropping yesterday on their Facebook.



The forecasters are now predicting freezing Siberian winds blowing in from Russia to the UK as a weather phenomenon similar to the Beast from the East of three years ago.



The weather in Britain is really changeable so that the ‘weather-talk’ has developed into a way of socialising with others. According to 2015 BBC survey, ‘many of the day-to-day conversations British people initiate about the weather, however, are more mundane. Comments like “cold, isn’t it?” don’t even particularly demand a full response; a grunt of agreement will suffice’.

This interesting finding is in line with the results investigated by the British social anthropologist Kate Fox.


2021 雪降約克及大部分英國地區 

自本星期日以來,英國的人們一直在約克以及整個英國大部分地區遭受暴風雪襲擊。

約克並沒有真正被大雪掩埋,因為小雨和陽光經常緊跟在降雪後。但是,下雪的確比上一年多。住在愛丁堡的朋友們昨天甚至在他們的Facebook上秀出了冰雹。

天氣預報員現在預測,此一天氣現象與三年前來自東方的野獸相似,是從西伯利亞的狂風從俄羅斯吹向英國。

英國的天氣確實是多變的,因此“天氣對話”已發展成為一種與他人進行社交的方式。根據2015年英國廣播公司(BBC)的調查,‘英國人與天氣有關的許多日常對話更加日常。諸如“冷,不是嗎?”之類的評論,甚至沒有特別需要去回應;只要達成共識就可以了。 

這和英國社會人類學家凱特·福克斯(Kate Fox)的調查結果相同