And we still don’t know how many homes Sir Simon has

Sir Simon Jenkins

Nick Boles, the minister for planning, has spent more years running Conservative think tanks than he has in Parliament, which may explain why he still has a way of arguing that is less bland than the average minister’s. It was on show on Newsnight last night, when he took on Sir Simon Jenkins, journalist and chairman of the National Trust, over the question of house building. “I have two homes,” he confessed. “Simon, I know, has at least two homes because I have been to two of them. Those of us who have two homes or more should be very careful about telling people they should go and live on the top floor of a block of flats.”

For once, Sir Simon seemed to be lost for an answer, so the minister relentlessly returned to the attack. As the discussion was ending, he demanded: “Once again, how many homes do you own? How many homes do you own?”

Again there was no reply, though off camera, a voice was heard to exclaim: “Bloody hell!”

You would think that Nick Boles would be more respectful of people who run the National Trust, by the way, considering that from 1975 to 1983, its director general was his father, Sir Jack Boles.

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• http://twitter.com/Highfieldoval Thomas Johnson

  Well done Boles, showed up Jenkins for what he is: a grade 1 hypocrite. Someone do the research please, how many houses does this arch nimby own and where?

• Pacificweather

  Let’s build more homes because some people have two? A sound argument. The Queen has four, let’s build even more. The Duke of Westminster has hundreds so let’s build 10 million more.

  Are there any economists out there who can tell me how many houses would have to be built for the prices to fall to the level where the worker on average wage could afford one. Do we think Nick Boles is planning to subsidise the purchase of land and the construction of such a number of houses for average wage earners or do we think he wants his mates to build posh houses on our remaining woodlands?

  As immigration is driving down wages and increasing property prices the problem is not going to get better any time soon. Luckily Eastern Europeans would feel homesick if they did not have our dilapidated housing to remind them of home or I would not be able to get my rental properties repaired on the cheap.