ON THE internet, there is an adage called Godwin’s Law which states that any conversation about anything will inevitably tend towards a comparison involving Nazis. A similar law might exist for conversations in London—these, it seems, tend inevitably towards house prices. If the conversation involves somebody under the age of 40, it will then turn to landlords and the inequities of renting. The entire country, it seems, has become obsessed with housing. The statistics suggest why. Not only are house prices soaring: unlike during previous booms, they are soaring even as home ownership collapses. Home ownership in Britain peaked in 2003 and has been in decline ever since—the level is now down to 65%. That apparently modest figure conceals a more dramatic generational shift. In 2001, over 60% of people aged 24 to 35 owned their own home. By last year, that figure had fallen to 39%. The proportion who rent privately has climbed from less than a fifth to almost half. Over the same period, the proportion of couples with children renting has increased more than threefold.

And renting in Britain is not fun. Since 1989, almost all new tenancies have been “assured shorthold tenancies”. These tend to last just six months or a year. After that period, landlords can kick out tenants with just two months' notice without giving a reason, or else raise rents. Letting agents, who arrange most such tenancies, charge all sorts of outrageous fees for renewing contracts. Foxton’s, a particularly dislikeable estate agency, charges tenants £420 ($710) to start a tenancy, or £210 to change a name on a contract.

All this is a preface to explain why Ed Miliband’s speech today is interesting. The Labour leader today has promised that under his government, a new law will ensure that by default, new tenancies will be three years in length. Letting agents will be banned from charging extra fees. During those three years, rent increases will be limited, presumably to inflation or something near it.

Some of this depends on the detail: presumably there will be some means for landlords to dissolve a tenancy early—if a house has to be sold, for example, or if a tenant is particularly difficult. There will still need to be some short-term contracts, for student lets, for instance. But mostly these proposals seem fairly modest. Rents will be set initially at market levels, and rent increases will not be banned, but rather limited, and only then for the three years for which tenancies will last. That is actually very much in line with how most landlords already work—most wait until a tenant leaves before pushing rents up. The rental market is extremely amateurish and a lot of its faults are simply the result of people doing what they've always done. It might take legislation to bump them into changing their ways.

The response from CCHQ is so hilariously over the top it reads like a parody. Not only is this “Venezuelan-style rent control” apparently, they have also included a quote from a former Vietnamese finance minister lamenting the effect of rent controls in Hanoi. Mr Miliband’s proposals fall short of the guarantees tenants have in almost any European country—which is a good thing.

So will it win Labour any votes? Perhaps. In the past, private renters were mostly quite young and quite poor—hardly target voters. But now, they are a fifth of the population. Young families with children, in particular, are exactly who politicians are usually desperate to win over—and they suffer most from the existing rental market. A six-month tenancy is fine if you are a 24-year-old graduate—your negotiating power is pretty strong when it comes to renewal. If you are a 35-year-old with a child in school and a job, you can't so plausibly threaten to get up and move easily if your landlord proposes to raise your rents. Plenty, surely, would benefit enormously from Mr Miliband’s proposals.

The trouble is, for all that prices are so spectacularly high, what those families still aspire to is home ownership. And on that, the Conservatives have a compelling, if misguided, offer: Help to Buy, its subsidised mortgage scheme, is designed with exactly these people in mind. Never mind that its main effect is boosting the profit margins of big construction firms, it offers the chance of home-ownership to plenty of people who would otherwise struggle to find a deposit. Housing might turn out then to be quite the fight.