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I was just going to post the above video about David Blunkett (well this baby might not be mine but that one is) as I thought it might raise a smile from some of you but as usual I thought I would check to see if there was any recent news about the subject.

Well there was not much about David but there was quite a bit about the fact his former official residence, a £4 million property in Belgravia that as not been lived in for 3 years since he resigned(twice) over the fact that he was using the place as a love nest and some dodgy business dealings as been occupied by squatters. 

This set me off looking to see just how many other government and private owned homes there were standing empty whilst homeless people sleep in carboard boxes in what was once our capitol city.

The lack of occupants in 3,000 high-quality buildings is a source of concern for Westminster City Council, which often struggles to discover the identity of the owners kept hidden by a maze of offshore companies.

Some of the owners are so rich that they have simply forgotten about the properties, while others can afford to do nothing with them until the day when they might decide to occupy them or sell them on.

For example, two seven-storey properties, each worth £10 million (€11.08 million), on Park Lane overlooking Hyde Park have been left vacant.

Now I digress here for a second.  Because that bit about "owners are so rich that they have simply forgotten about the properties", reminded me of a walk I once took along the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal and what a beautiful place it is. 

Well I came across a place with a lot off offshoots from the main canal with dozens of canal and river boats moored.  Some of them were seriously expensive but it was clear from their coverings and growth on the hulls that it had been a long time since any had either been maintained or even taken out on the canal proper.

Whilst admiring the boats and thinking how sad that they were not being used, a canal worker approached me to chat in this remote place and I asked him about the boats and he said similar to the above.  He told me that wealthy people would buy the best canal or river boat that money could buy, visit it once or twice, get bored and never return.  They would quite literally forget they even owned a boat.

And then thinking about those luxurious, furnished homes standing empty for years, I thought of the charity set up to help former soldiers who are sleeping rough - Soldiers off The Street. I bet they could really cram some ex troopers, riflemen, tankers and bombardiers into those houses.  Come to think of it so could a caring government - if we had one that is.