Another greedy green
Looks like yet another Green Party councillor’s PUBLIC pronouncements on housing don’t quite match his PRIVATE arrangements.
An irate ACORN tenants union member calls to tell us that the Green Party Councillor for Southville, Bristol Pound bigwig and er, ACORN tenants union member Stephen “Daddy” Clarke, has EVICTED a tenant from one of his numerous local buy-to-let investments after the tenant told him that his rent increase of 28 per cent was unaffordable!
The evicted tenant had been sharing with Daddy Clarke’s daughter, Katie “Snowflake” Finnegan-Clarke, a self-styled ‘SOCIAL JUSTICE CONSULTANT‘ who’s main contribution to progressive causes is ‘being around when the media arrive’ we’re told. Snowflake originally advertised daddy’s house as “LOW RENT in line with local housing allowance so people on a low income can afford to live here.”
At £292 per month plus £60 towards bills, the idea seemed to be about building a stable and secure home for people on low incomes. However towards the end of the tenant’s six month contract they received an email from Ms Finnegan-Clarke advising them of CHANGES to the rent.
Snowflake explained that daddy wanted to INCREASE the rent so each room was rented at the same price as THE REST of his properties in Bedminster and Totterdown. This would be £382 every four weeks. Snowflake claimed she had been trying to negotiate with daddy but “without a huge amount of luck”. So the rent would be increasing to £375 a month (excluding bills) from 27 June. “In-line with comparable properties in Easton,” she claimed.
When asked why the rent was being increased, Snowflake explained that daddy, who bought the property on a buy-to-let mortgage, was affected by changes in tax law to TOP RATE taxpaying landlords. This meant the poor dear could no longer put his mortgage repayments against his business expenses and Daddy didn’t want to ‘LOSE MONEY‘ … On a property which had only gone up £100,000 since he purchased it five years ago!
The tenant complained that the rent rise was not something they could AFFORD and Ms Finnegan-Clarke told them to negotiate directly with Daddy Clarke. However, the following Monday an email arrived from Snowflake.
“As I labored to make clear in the room advert, in our initial skype interview and during our face-to-face interview, the lodgers agreement was only supposed to last six months in order to give us (and now me) the flexibility required and was reflected in the LOW RENT.
“The HOUSE DYNAMICS haven’t been working for me, and you do not seem happy in the house either, so I would like to formally end the extended lodgers agreement. Please accept this email as WRITTEN NOTICE of the end of your Lodger Agreement at Hinton Road, Bristol.”
And with that Clarke and his social justice warrior daughter – who does lots of ‘work’ to raise awareness about issues of gender and race – evicted the tenant because the “house dynamics” were wrong.
1. Might Daddy have been enjoying exceedingly low interest rates on his own mortgages since the crash in 2007 / 08
2. Might Daddy have been taking advantage of this situation to expand his portfolio of properties?
3. Might Daddy be in reality a capitalist Tory / New Labour NEO-LIBERAL masquerading in friendly, green clothing and sensible loafers to allow him to sneak around below the radar, whilst filling his pockets with lovely loot?
Or a SHAMpagne Socialist?
Daddy sent her to Colston Girls School, so obviously just slumming it in Easton for a couple of years, natch ….
As they first said in Brighton – Tories on bikes
Snowflake needs daddy to buy her a new dummy because she has spat the last one out and lost it. I have the up most respect for people who struggle with mental health problems on a daily bases I feel sure if she keeps taking her medication she will soon be able to establish reality from a psychotic episode
Bitchiness and ill informed sources seem to be the order of the day here. Your incredibly personal and vitriolic attack smacks of envy more than seeking justice or truth for the person you deem to have been wronged. You are no better than the Daily Mail.
No better than the most successful propaganda sheet in the country? Praise indeed …
Liberals gonna liberal, amirite?
The thing that’s most interesting is that ACORN has landlords in its tenants union. Er, what? I suppose if you’re wanting to get your movement job as a paid organiser you need a bit of cash behind your organisation, and tenants just don’t have enough cash (for some reason…).
Still, I’m sure ACORN will stick by their principles and organise some eviction resistance for this tenant, they wouldn’t let a wealthy landlord off the hook just because they’re a donor, would they?
I remember when the Bristolian was the smity of the high and mighty, now its openly:
-misogynistic (I’m sure you folks know the term snowflake and it’s history)
-ablest (hating on folks for having mental heath issues)
-awful security for the other tenants printing there address
Then theres the obvious factual inaccuracy that have be come part of the course
The Bristolian – like Viz, Snickers, the Stones, LSD, Liverpool FC, Eastenders, Lynch movies and Ibiza – is “not as good as it used to be”. Can you identify the “obvious factual inaccuracy” please?
guess you’ll censor that comment, so i put in this comment to highlight how sad i am at how you’ve changed
I’ve heard a very different version of events.
Did the Bristolian get both sides of this story and take any steps to verify whose version is accurate, before publishing? Or did you simply take one person’s version as gospel?
Of course it is sickening for someone who owns multiple properties to pose as progressive, let alone be a member of a tenants union… but that doesn’t excuse spreading lies about their children via bad journalism, if that is what has happened here.
We stand by our story. Threats of legal action and police have come to nothing. We will continue to give the powerless a voice at the expense of the powerful.
You didn’t answer my question. I’ll ask again:
Did the Bristolian get both sides of this story and take ANY steps to verify whose version is accurate, before publishing?
Either you did or you didn’t. Saying ‘we stand by the story’ just avoids the question.
https://youtu.be/DKImPAjhDR8
The Bristolian- your losing your comrades the further you balk into the back of your cave.
Your protest is right but your tactics are well off. Spread a bit more love cos we need to fight together with solidarity if we are ever going to stop white supremacist capitalists rising.
The aim of the paper is to smite the high and mighty and you are attacking your own and small fish. So much of what you do is really good and progressive and smart at holding people with our public purse to account.
It’s funny watching the activists squeal when the issue of who owns what is brought up. Property ownership scandals around ‘progressive’ Green Councillors like Gus Hoyt and Steve Clarke are seen as out of order, but it would be OK if they were Tory scum, right? Read my lips, its about wealth, class and power whichever political party they are in.