I'm kind of thinking, squatting is just like staying somewhere, isn't it?. It can't be against the law to just stay somewhere. People have been staying somewhere for ever, in fact as long as there have been people living on the earth. There can't suddenly be a law against something that people have done lawfully for ever. Laws are developed over centuries by debate and good practice in courts and meetings and places. This law against squatting thing is more a kind act than a law.

In fact calling an act a law makes a mockery of the law doesn't it? After all no one is murdering or even stealing anything, just finding a place to stay.

take the example oh holland ..was paradise for squatters for so long now we squat building evicted straight way , we do demo beaten up and arrested ..270 people arrested 2 weeks ago .... i think this will change your mind......... best way squatting like in italy bundge people if cops arrive stones molotvs and of course good barricades and speccially the citizens of the city have good communication and good feelings with the squatters ..like this we can win

Its nothing new to criminalise something that people have been doing since the beginning of time. People have been smoking weed since pre history but thats still illegal, People have been travelling from country to country making a living since the beginning of time - but now that can be a criminal offence to.

I don't honestly know what they think they will accomplish by making it illegal though, I doubt local councils need another ten thousand homeless people on the waiting list (although those are figures from before the CJA so it may be a few less now.) I can only assume that it all comes from a profound misunderstanding of squatting (I always just assumed that the law makers and tyrants of this country understood why people squatted but that they just didn't care) and that they believe that if squatting is criminalised then those who squat will have no choice but to get a job and start paying rent/get on the property ladder. This could never possibly work though, one of the reasons that squatting should not just be an option for the homeless and destitute is that there are simply not enough rental properties to go around because property speculators and corporate developers have bought up all the properties where a realistic chance of finding work exists. This will force people to go further afield to find housing but end up in areas where all the jobs are already taken. It also seems to come from the assumption that all squatted properties could be let or sold to people who could live in them - again this is not the case, apart from several horror stories that crop up three or four times a year about people returning from the shops and finding that their house is now a crack den, at which time the Police woefully mismanage the eviction process and end up giving us all a bad name - most properties that are under occupation have been left empty for years on end and are generally in quite a state when they are first opened (I've had squats before where we have not only had to redo all the leccy and plumbing but also put down large sections of flooring and make flights of stairs.)

Squattastic really needs to take this fight up and run with it though, I used to support the idea of squatting being criminalised because I wanted your typical political/student squatter to make a choice, I was fed up of getting to court/eviction day and finding that most of my housemates had lost all motivation to fight in court and on eviction and I thought that if they went into a occupation accepting that they were already criminals then it would produce a more militant mindset when eviction came. It was an idea shared by several within the collective but upon more open debate we all realised how wrong we had been. When the CJA introduced the IPO they thought that they could get it through because at the time we were weak, and they managed it despite mass protests against the whole bill. This time around we need a much larger show of strength coming from the squatting community and its supporters alone, we need to show them that we are not weak and that this bill would not stop us even if it does pass. There are buildings that have stood empty in London for years that are large enough that they could house every squatter in the country and with those numbers we could hardly be evicted. Its time to show that we will not allow the landowners in Government to make us homeless out of principle alone, like the Hunt Sabs, Squatters and Anti facists of the early 90's, only difference is that this time we gotta win.

The anti Squat law needs to be weighed against peoples general willingness to sell the family home rather than pass it through the generations and peoples willingness to compete for bigger and bigger debts. It should be noted that in a pure free market, unoccupied housing stock would mean that prices would drop until all houses were occupied. I'd suggest that the current government drive is a symptom of underlying social problems not a cause.

the only thing that can drive the housing market now is the buy to let market

all social housing rent has just been ok'd to go up to 80% market rate

everybody claiming housing benefit on top of wages is what they want, more control, bureaucratic and financial torture. Shortly there will be a rise in interest rates that will force many repossessions for the buytoileters to suck up into their portfolios.

say hello to your Tory landlords and slavemasters.

surely any ban would only serve to encourage more people to do such crimes, who knows maybe even ex coppers