Classic British snark "Building Downwards"

Loft extensions are for ordinary citizens. When the property market gets tough, the wealthy dig down to create the ultimate den, says Clive James in his weekly column.

London is not the whole of Britain, and sometimes the rest of Britain has reasons to be grateful, because there are things that happen to London that shouldn't have happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.

Elsewhere in the country, if you have any money left after recent developments in the world financial market, you might have some hope of building your house higher if you want to, or even adding a bit on to it. In London that's harder, but it's still possible to build downwards. You can put some extra floors under your house instead of on top.


In the past week I was startled to find out not only that this could be done, but that there were people still wealthy enough to do it. They don't want to sell their houses because the property market is so depressed that there is nobody to buy their houses. But they do want to improve their houses, as a sure-fire investment against the day when the international financial market recovers the buoyancy which the rest of us once found such a source of inspiration that we believed the previous Chancellor of the Exchequer when he said London was where it was all happening.

Then he was promoted to the position of Prime Minister and it all happened. But just how big a disaster has it been, when so many of the wealthy still have enough cash to improve their houses?

more:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8029038.stm

They could hold master classes.

Of course Cheney had his bunker built as well.

I love this:
What can we be sure of except that nothing we read about or even hear about is certain? Except for one thing, and to this belief I cling, and so should you.

If anyone is rich enough to build himself a bunker under London, he's got enough money to pay his taxes.

He writes for a British audience and indeed does so well.