Hey, it's middle-of-the-road-management-consultant-or-sales-rep-vectra-driving-music. But isn't it symptomatic of the emotional obsession with owning bricks and mortar?

The Thatcherist expectation of owning is now enshrined in popular culture. The sad thing is that people believe that houses bought with mortgages are "truly theirs".

Whatever happened to a bit of Chumbawumba tub thumping? Or Faithless "no-strategy-combats-negative-equity" (I want my family back)?

Our media really is brainwashing the general public ... it's so insidious ...

Says the one who is brainwashed into thinking dido is middle-of the-blahblahblah-pop. Its interesting how many times Ive heard that from people who dont really understand her roots, background, ethos, and tbh have missed tha point - as you demonstrate in your lack of understand of the song you quote from. The record is actually filled with some interesting themes and is clearly a very personal album, the title track inparticular reflecting on the dilemmas of where life is heading, something most of us can relate to im sure. That you cant see what she's really getting at is interesting in itself, I often suggest to people that if they cant see the depth then maybe they need to look harder, sometimes the hidden meanings are the most rewarding once found. Didos success is in being able to appeak on a commercial level too - but dont make the tired mistake of thinking the two cant mix.

I find musical snobbery quite interesting, probably because im related to an Oxford educated musical snob so I see it regularly, theres this idea that if something is popular then it cant be good because the general public cant possibly know good music - its like a feeling of superiority over the rest of us, and of course over popular artists. Fortunately for those of us not weighed down by such preconceptions Dido is far from manufactured.

Oh, and there are many practical reasons for wanting to buy a house, again, how awful for you to carry that large chip on your shoulder round your whole life, fyi Thatcher hasnt been PM for quite some time now... geesh!

I know - I feel the same - every time I hear this blasted Dido track I have to start ranting about Thatcherism and HPI.....

Maybe we have been brainwashed by Thatcherism (or Didoism) into wanting to be home owners.
But at the end of the day we are just mortgage owners.

I don't think that people genuinely understand simple mathematics (let alone economics)
case in point:

a friend of mine (an aspiring Tory) recently bought a flat.

He said that renting was like throwing money into well. So he decided to tie a milstone round his next and jump in instead.

His new posh pad with private parking, secure entry and one lift per 5 flats cost ~£187k.
The rent on the same apartment is £600/month.
His mortgage (90%) is at around 4.5% (variable for 2 years) it would cost him £635/month interest only.
He's opted for an 18 year repayment - repayments something like £1100/month.

Ironically he has cashed in his stocks and shares ISAs that he has kept since March 2003 - and had more than doubled the value of -

He justifies what he is doing by saying that "property prices are always going to rise" and that "it is in a good area" and "I'm self-deluded)
He's not stupid either but has let his emotions (the need to own) outweigh his rationale.
The smart people have been moving out of property and into other asset classes and my brother will be left (like so many others) with a life long mortgage to a property that is not worth what he paid for it.

Lets hope so. Without a shift, most of us will never have a chance to own our homes.

Clangnuts

Isn't she basically just admitting to being a kleptomaniac?

This thread reminds me of a derek and clive sketch where peter cook is so influenced by the tv he does something rather bad.

too bad to be repeated here (for fear of the PC crowd not understanding it) - but if anyone out there has listened to it they know what i mean!

Peter Cook - Legend

have to agree,Dido is actually quite hardcore!!!
her and her siblings have obviously experimented with mind-expanding drugs and realised there is more to life than getting the latest turbo-injection razr phone.

come off those nasty things missus and get with the programme!!!....debt is good!

Only about a week as didn't she change her name to Tony Blair?