MP Mike Foster is taking an increasingly aggressive stance in the great debate over Britain's housing needs and Worcestershire's alleged obligations with regard to this matter. He's had numerous pops at Worcester's Tory-controlled city council and has also ranted on about nimbys' who, it appears, have committed the apparently unpardonable sin of not believing every utterance by New Labour spin meisters.

I imagine that the new hard-man image has come about because of some missive from central office insisting that the backwoods MPs need to soup up their act if the Labour vote is not going to go into freefall come the next election.

However, for those of us who can see through the theatricals, such amusing diversions merely distract from the real reasons why there is a housing shortage in Worcester - and believe me, it's got nothing to do with selfish existing homeowners trying to stop others from getting a roof over their heads. The real reason why we have a housing crisis in Worcester is because of the explosion in buy-to-rent. Worcester is filling up with students and landlords have not been slow to spot the potential.

Hundreds of homes in Worcester have been snapped up and the more that become transient accommodation mean all the fewer will be available to buy. Mike Foster, by the way, is a supporter of this.

Add to this rising prices and static wage levels and it's not hard to see why we have problems - and if you take into consideration the fact that Gordon Brown's incompetence is rapidly eroding national confidence, then even a person with only a GCSE in common sense will be able to see why it's all unravelling.

And isn't it time we had a grown-up conversation about mass migration and the effect it's having on Britain? You don't have to be Einstein to realise that the millions who are coming here will need accommodation - but there again, perhaps if you're a politician you do.