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This Christmas like many others is going to be a nightmare on your finances; many will fall into a state of panic of how they are going to pay for presents let alone paying the bills.

The worst scenario is when someone down to their last pennies expresses their hardship to a neighbour, who turns out to be their saviour so they think; as I read about a certain case in the Daily Express.

The couple who had a young family had been made redundant from their job and had obviously been used to a reasonable standard of living. But after losing their jobs they had lost their credibility with the bank and were finding life hard. Christmas came and the children wanted a new computer and after their neighbour heard he offered a lap top for £350 and arranged a loan for them.

Circumstances changed for the worst as they paid for food and the loan wasn’t met and more interest mounted working out on a potential 2,500%. Their neighbour’s behaviour turned ugly and intimidating, to the extent that they borrowers had to call the police.

The children although young, must have been old enough to use the computer and I feel that they should be old enough to know the circumstances and although one must emphasize in some way maybe it is the situation to tell them that they cannot have that computer even if it meant telling them the truth about dad coming down the chimney isn’t real as a last resort.

This was always going to be a problem one day, when people would live to a standard that they couldn’t keep up and one has to admit that many have created this for themselves, especially in the Western World encouraged by the Banks, Businessmen, Governments and ourselves.

Yes, I admit that I have been lucky in with a comfortable but not lavish life-style, but now I am semi- retired; I have to budget to what I can afford and have to admit I am pulling in the strings this year.

Many years ago when I got my first mortgage and did get into a few anxious moments. However the Bank then didn’t let me go over my budget for our house. They didn’t let us take our over-time or bonus into account, aware that could be taken away any time. However they still didn’t go through the cost of rates and household bills; we had to do the research ourselves.

If you are down to your last pennies, think twice about borrowing money from any other than a bank or a relative you can trust. There are new waves of loan sharks which are taking the reputation from the Credit Card Companies. Those are ones with an unbelievable offer and/or dressed up in a clever marketing ploy. Should you be tempted, no matter if they say the offer only stands for a limited period; take a step back and say you will think about it? If they try and pressurise you in some way; do not touch them. Get it and the company checked out by a financial adviser from a Citizen’s Advice Bureau or read the small print.

There is a company that is to release an advertisement on TV and Radio according to the paper and if you check it out you will find that you will forever be paying the loan off thus paying for the loan many times over.

 My advice is do not touch it, if you have many presents to buy this Christmas; give what you can afford as the old beggars poem would go with a slight modification;

“Christmas is Coming, Politicians and bankers are getting Fat.

Please put a Penny in the Old Man’s hat

If you haven’t a Penny a halfpenny will do

If you haven’t a halfpenny God Bless You.”

You can always make something or buy something cheap. Don’t forget Christmas is a season of good will and understanding; it’s a shame many have forgotten that it is the thought that counts.

This morning I bought the Daily Express to see the headlines “Five million people in Britain have never worked under Labour, Two million have never worked in their lives.” which have been common knowledge for some time it sent my accusing finger wagging in many directions to the powers of Westminster, Wall Street, The many companies that have been and gone and present to the social security offices.

When you look back to the end of the World War 2 and the National Service there was an air about the population where people didn’t want to fight any more and wanted fair wages to increase their standard of living.

The motor and engineering industries thrived with a revolution of workers wanting fair pay and Union Socialist wanting more. This sparked the introduction of immigrants to do the jobs, British workers didn’t want to do and for less money.

Many companies later went to the wall, either because management refused to curb their own fat wallets as well as socialist unions fighting for better conditions for the workforce. In many cases it was taken too far with some sections wanting money for doing so little and getting away with it with union threats of striking.

Later other industries felt the crunch with Margaret Thatcher crushing the Unions of the nationalised and public sectors in a very unfair way for the workers who did their fair share of work. There was little warning before mines were to close, and any time for the redundant workers to retrain for other industries.

We saw businesses invested in by foreign businesses and jobs disappearing abroad. New engineering practises for mass production were attempted but with not enough adequate machinery and techniques. Incentives were introduced by some companies as cost of living and inflation reached high levels and it wasn’t until she got the introduction of the dreaded “Poll” Community tax horribly wrong that the Tories ousted her.

Besides John Major’s brief reign as Prime Minister the Tories stopped listening to the public and it was a matter of time and a few generations that Labour with fresh new faces got into power with a clever publicity campaign that didn’t have any sense, but it was lively enough to lift the gloom from the young unemployed and those who had been since Thatcher with a song “Things are going to get better.” Also the Ex public schoolboy Tony Blair’s motto of “Education, Education, Education,” misled many by not stating how or who was going to fund his Party’s plan.

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What also was forgotten was what the future students were going to do for a job once qualified with many companies that were to go to the wall.

There was another element of spin that the Government encouraged was the increase in immigration and eventually letting many British workers go without working. If they had made people work for their benefits they wouldn’t have this problem now.

Many sat at home after being made redundant and bred like flies with no intention of getting another job. This was a dangerous trend and a disaster waiting to happen and will get worse until we get a leader who has the bottle to sort it out and it will take some time.

As a father is supposed to be a leader of the house, but now more women wear the trousers as well, they are supposed to set the example. If at least one of them work or take it in turns while the other cares for the children. Then the children will be guided to work themselves when they are old enough. You only have to see the evolution of life as an animal will follow its parents and learn to hunt. Fine examples of man are bygone years when boys used to follow their fathers down to the mine pits and their children after them.

After the war we had national service which was later dissolved. This could be introduced to those unemployed to help keep one’s dignity. There could be perks for these people taking part with the opportunity of retraining and studying for other careers. This would encourage their children to work.

At present you have the likes of Peter Mandleson encouraging people from abroad to take jobs that our people will not do, or for less money but if the Government encouraged the engineering sector to manufacture new products for export and used British workers, it would be more beneficial to this country as a whole.

However this appears to have backfired on the Governments of past and present, with certain immigrants signing on the dole and living off the benefits as well as others by starting work then getting the sack. Many of these have very low standards of living and do not care what accomodation they get, with some sleeping twenty to a room. As a result they bring down the living standards and environmental issues are also affected.

As for those who will not and refuse to work or have a disability, I suggest you see what you can do. If someone can return from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with limbs missing and/or other disabilities and find work of some kind, I am sure you can with the help of the DHSS. I understand that there are many who can’t for obvious reasons but there is a difference from those whom don’t want to. I am sure that there are ways that the Government can bring legislation to enforce a community service scheme.

I semi retired some time ago when I suffered an injury at work and took a gamble. I found I could afford to work part time after a long lay-off from work. It drove me nuts not being able to do anything after nearly thirty years of working at the same place. I had only two weeks previous in total off on sick leave; any other time I would use my holiday as we didn’t get sick- pay. I have been unemployed many years previous to that for about three months and then I took anything that was going. How anyone can sit around and claim off the state and do nothing is beyond me? For those who are looking, I hope you find something and wish you the best of luck and don’t give up.

In the Daily Express today (13th August 2009) they wrote about one in five people under 25 years of age out of work and a total running at 2.4 million unemployed. This is a false reading for a start, because this government is encouraging many to get into debt with student loans and go to University. Many of these courses would not guarantee employment after graduation because there would not be enough vacancies to go around.

The government are also talking about increasing the age of retirement because of the pension’s shortfall. That may suit more who want to work on but that would mean cutting vacancies for those younger workers; so that doesn’t work out anyway, especially if the younger generation have families and live off the state, will work out cheaper to bring the pension age down not up.

But we shouldn’t be talking about people not working or having a career. We should be manufacturing again as leaders in engineering and construction. We should be inventing and exporting as much if not more than importing. We appear to be promoting more for leisure for those who do not want to work than those who do.

Peter Mandleson wants the Banks to lend more money to businesses, but you can’t just give out money if there is no guarantee they will get it back. That is why the Country is as good as bankrupt now; taxpayers are running out because many have lost their jobs.

He is encouraging more immigrants into this country with the excuse to do jobs that he says our people do not want to. Well he is daft, many of them want to come to claim the state benefits with their families close behind and environmentally we haven’t enough room for them anyway. He is obviously encouraging them to live twenty to a room and for well under the minimum wage.

There are jobs many do not want to do, but if they want money they should work for it even if it is cleaning toilets, harvesting crops, cleaning streets. You make them work or they get no benefits.

I had to give up my job after an industrial accident, and as I lost confidence and couldn’t get another job where I wanted, (Some of which was due to my age but I couldn’t prove it) I went cleaning, even some personal care for a short time, but it brought me a wage and gave me time to sort myself out with a new career. No I didn’t like what I was doing but it gave me pride to work and not shirk.

I know many cannot do this and some are disabled to a point that they cannot work, they have my empathy. As I watch soldiers and other service men and women return home disabled if not in wooden boxes, those are people to be proud of, it is just a shame that they are not getting adequate protection from the government, but that is another story “History repeating itself”.

The only way we will get out of this mess is to kick out this Government and elect another even if it is a coalition with only honest MP’s whose hearts are for this country’s benefit and not for their pockets, who will pledge on oath to make manufacturing the key objective to make this country great, then we might get somewhere. Unfortunately I think it is too late and it won’t happen at least until next year when I would put some money on Gordon Brown resigning on health grounds and someone like Mandleson giving us empty promises and passing the buck on the events of the last fifteen years.