Very sorry to hear of the serious threat in the USA.
 
Here in the UK parliament voted last night to sell off en bloc to the
private sector the whole of the UK military housing and accommodation
estate.  There has been enormous opposition to this, not least from
within the military itself, but the policy has been forced through on
doctrinaire (privatisation policy) grounds.  There has been little debate
about the historic properties within military residential accommodation,
but there are certainly many thousands.  Further, when there is no
immediate use for a property or site the purchaser (likely to be
international - probably foreign - banking and proprty consortia) will be
able to sell off the property on the open market.  (Even before the final
privatisation many major sites - especially ex-USAF bases in eastern
England leased in most cases for over 50 years from the Royal Air Force -
are being sold off for development as new villages and even small towns,
with only the most minimal conservation protection.)
 
Patrick J. Boylan
 
City University, Frobisher Crescent, Barbican, London EC2Y 8HB, UK;
phone: +44-171-477.8750, fax:+44-171-477.8887; e-mail: [log in to unmask]
World Wide Web site: http://www.city.ac.uk/artspol/index.html