Quintin Jardine's blog

Dunno about you, but I have a real aversion to the ‘Quickquid’ type ads that are becoming more and more prevalent on our commercial telly. I accept that a short-term loan facility that’s easier to arrange than a conventional bank overdraft can be attractive to folk who are cash-strapped, or whose employers are casual about wage deadlines. (Hearts footballers come to mind.) However my dislike of the burgeoning Consumer Finance Industry comes from my perverse insistence on reading the small print. When I do, I discover that these payday loans carry interest that can run up to an APR of 4000%. On top of that most of them seem to carry an arrangement fee. In other words if you borrow say £500 to tide you over till payday, you don’t actually get £500, but that amount less the company’s charge . . . which, you can bet, will be additional to the accruing interest. There are dozens of these operators around, throwing money at people who are either under too much pressure to consider the implications, or are simply soft touches for the brash TV commercials, populated by flash geezers and smiling women with dead eyes.

The Citizens’ Advice Bureau has its eye on the situation, and has asked the government to tighten regulation of a business that’s now turning over £2bn annually, according to estimates. The Consumer Minister’s response is that such a step could push people towards illegal moneylenders. This is the same minister whose government is presiding over a situation that has allowed the Santander bank, and no doubt others, to impose overdraft charges that can, according to a report I read at the weekend, run to the equivalent of an APR of 800,000%! Tell you what, Dave and Nick, how about raising the tax threshold by 50%, so that lower earners can hang on to enough of their salaries to see them through the month, in the face of uncontrolled rip-offs like escalating energy bills and transport costs. Seems to me that Westminster is the friend of rapacious banks, utility and petrol companies, and by association the enemy of the people it exists to serve.

In my eyes, the Consumer Finance Industry is yet another symptom of a diseased society, alongside inner city riots, irresponsible strikes, and rampant political correctness that all too often overrides common sense. As a United Kingdom, we’re suffering from the weak government that a coalition inevitably brings, with the further complication of an even weaker Official Opposition, under a leader who is the biggest gift to the Tory Party since Michael Foot. Is it any wonder that more and more Scots are crying out for independence, as I am?