I found out over the weekend that the Brentford house (1st home) of Alan Keen MP has been taken over by Squatters. Whilst I have been appalled that Alan Keen has a second property in Central London funded by taxpayers and I have been very critical of that, I do wish to put on record that I have no time whatsoever for this kind of squatting. I took a look at one of the Squatting websites. I doubt very much that the people squatting in the property owned by Mr Keen are soldiers who have been forced into this.
What stood out for me is the following:
“The number one squatting rule, though, is to enter only empty and unused properties.”
Empty for a number of months it may have been, but it is still a property owned by people and none of us as individuals have the right to take it over like this. The squatters may have been horrified by some of the expense claims but the best mechanism for dealing with this is traditional exposure e.g. letters to press, campaigning – and in defeating such incumbents at elections.
Bowen's blog 
July 3, 2009 at 12:05 pm
On a legal point, any citizen does actually have a right to squat unoccupied properties, so long as there is no breaking and entering. I think what you mean to say is ‘I disagree with this right’.
July 3, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Thank you for your posting.
I was making an ethical argument and not a legal one.
July 7, 2009 at 12:17 pm
ethics against the poor?
actually, leaving property vacant is ethically wrong, in a country where over half a million people are homeless for want of social housing, and where the housing market is ruled by speculation rather than the concern to house people decently.
first, allow housing cooperatives and improve social housing, before you dare talk about ethics for owners of private property who have enough to squander it so stupidly.
by the way, there is a law according to which the council can seize empty properties to make social housing, exactly in line with what I have argued.