The declaration of war on the private rented sector by George Osborne, which continues to this day, has led to thousands of good landlords selling up. Tens of thousands of houses, previously available for people who will never be able to buy a house for various reasons, means there are fewer rented properties available. The growing shortage is resulting in rising rents. The result is growing waiting lists for council or social housing. As the government tries to drive private landlords out of the market, local authorities are begging the same landlords to increase the supply of rented accommodation. Further legislation is in the pipeline which is going to accelerate the sell off. Punitive taxation of rental income is reducing the supply of the very housing that local authorities are in desperate need of. I supply decent housing to the overseas doctors and nurses and scientists which the NHS is in desperate need of. So when Boris starts re-staffing the NHS, he'll find that his next problem is that these people have nowhere to live. I'm selling up too. Government policy that set out to improve the supply of housing for first time buyers has worked to a degree, but the losers are the people who will always need to rent. It's not really joined up thinking.

Says the man who managed to negotiate nothing in two and a half years despite only having that one single thing to do. DD is all p*ss and wind.

i applied a few years ago; I attended numerous courts as requested to get some experience on what the job entailed. I studied hard on sentencing rules etc. I was prepared to give up a couple of days per month from running my own business. I arrived at the formal interview full of enthusiasm. I have a lot to offer. I was raised in a deprived industrial area just after the end of the War. I know what it is to live on the edge of society. I got myself educated to degree level and have run a successful business employing around 20 people for the last 30 years. Before that I ran a large business in the motor industry employing 400 people. . However I speak with a local accent. The interview was probably one of the most humiliating experiences of my life. I was patted on the head by the well spoken panel, patronised about my background and education, and sent on my way with the message that I wouldn't really fit in. I am now near retirement, my partner is a Judge who is also about to retire, we both have plenty of time and ability to become magistrates, but I won't be giving anyone another chance to tell me I'm not really middle class enough to make the grade. We'll spend more time in Majorca instead.

Ireland went down the path of taxing private landlords out of the market about 8 years ago. The result was an exodus of landlords, a shortage of rented accommodation and massive rent rises for the remaining tenants. They are now reversing the process. I have renovated four properties in the past two years at a cost of well over £150,000 and brought them back into the rented sector. No company or the council wanted to take these on so they were left empty. My reward is to be taxed on income - not profit - income. Tell me another business that is taxed on turnover regardless of costs. I got into BTL because successive governments, especially Gordon Brown, trashed my pension plans. It was heart breaking to realise that a Conservative government views me as a pariah and wants to tax me out of providing good quality accommodation. My rents are fair and I let to decent young families. These people can not yet get a mortgage because, courtesy of Mr Brown again, you have to prove yourself innocent of money laundering to get even the most basic of first time buyers mortgages. The affordability tests for new borrowers are draconian. Like many of my fellow landlords, I will be exiting the market in the next two years. Not one of my properties is affordable for a first time buyer. The section 24 tax on BTL properties, instigated by Osborne, is going to decimate the private rented sector. In the last two years I have seen a dozen empty or near derelict houses I could have brought back life. But now I have to pay an extra 3% stamp duty, and when I rent them, there is simply no profit left. I don't want anyone's sympathy. I'm OK. But I could be doing a lot more to help with the housing crisis if this government wasn't hell-bent on taxing me and thousands of other BTL landords out of existence.

Agreed. In football parlance she's just a gob on a stick.

The Times' and particularly Rachel Sylvester's relentless condemnation of anything the PM does or doesn't do is beyond the scope of normal political comment. Add Bunter Boulton into the debate in the Sunday Times and you come to the conclusion that the Times and Ms Sylvester in particular long to see Mrs May fail and the government crumble and a Corbyn led government come to power. Sylvester had now forecast the PM's imminent demise on about eight occasions.

Drivel. I have no problem with spending more money overseas if it is needed and we know where it is spent. The blanket amount is the equivalent of local councils having to spend their budgets every March in case they get cut the following year. Far from being opportunistic it's a vote winner across the country

As Clem Atlee once wrote

"I can assure you there is widespread resentment in the Party at your activities and a period of silence on your part would be welcome."

it would also have helped keep me out of being a BTL landlord if Gordon Brown had not plundered my pension fund and the Bank of England had not destroyed annuity values with QE. I was plodding along happily looking forward to retirement until the politicians got involved in my pension plans. I could of course have done nothing and relied on the state to give me benefits when I retire.

I have a close friend who is an Immigration Appeals Judge. I can tell you that he agonises over every decision he makes particularly those involving deportation. But his decision is always 100% based on the law, not on "technicalities". If you don't like the "technicalities" Mr Simpson, get yourself elected and get the law changed.