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Jeremy:

Regarding the score of 8 out of 10...Pretty good, even for the Business and Economics Editor....

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i think that in a recession or a economic downturn, that many people are making hard choices on their daily cost of living ....

~Dennis Junior~

I admire any attempt to help those losing their jobs at the moment.

But it is never as straightforward getting help as the government would have us believe.

The excellent Channel 4 programme Dispatches on Monday blew a hole right through this governments attempts to tell us they were doing everything to help.

The Job Centre plus is in chaos and does not have the qualified people they need. People without any money at all are having to wait weeks for their claims to be sorted out.

The whole system is in chaos and likely to get much worse.

When it comes to getting help with your morgage interest payments the system is working against you and although it says you can seek help when savings are below £6000 by the time it is sorted out if you can get it those savings will have been depleted to nil and decisions are not backdated.

Anyone who has remortgaged to buy cars holidays etc need not bother applying.

They can find all sorts of reasons why you can't get it and their decision is final.

For the newly unemployed it is a minefield out there and they will find little of the help available they have been promised.

Any programme that opens this up I would welcome because it is only by showing real stories of how people are struggling with this that may shame this government into doing what they said they would do.

Bought a kilo of gold in early november @ £15,400 / kg.

Value as of 15H00 today = £21,850 / kg .

That's just over 40% return.

... so I'm quite pleased the world's in financial turmoil. Will buy more gold asap!

#2

I agree with your very fair assessment of a Government in chaos. The DWP have shed thousands of jobs and closed offices just at a time when unemployment is set to rise to record levels. What remains are premises that are simply not equipped to cope with the numbers anticipated and staff with no expertise in or training for the jobs they are expected to perform. The system of centralised processing relying on telephone communication is simply a sham way to deal with desperate people.

The reality for most is not how to cope with what they have, it is how to get something in the first place. And the problem is the "knock-on". How are local authorities going to cope with a huge increase in housing benefit and Council Tax claims? Where are the training packages for the unemployed going to come from?

A deepening recession is precisely what the Welfare State attempted to deal with and yet it has been cut to shreds by a succession of governments interested only in expedience - live for today. How on earth do you change mindsets back to common sense in the midst of the kind of shambles we now find ourselves in?

Not one single person in Westminster seems to have any idea about how we got here or how we are going to get out of being here. And the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ worry about getting money advice on a website. For pity sakes ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳, people are desperate. You need to get out more - how about getting into a few job centres?

I am worried that there is a lack of imagination in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ (from news to consumer affairs). You're not giving enough coverage to the medium term implications of actions taken by Government today. Although there are uncertainties about how our economic future will evolve it is undeniable that large deficits created by injecting funds into banking, motor or other sectors will have to be paid for in the future. Although some programmes do make the simple observation about this - they tend to leave it there. Its a huge omission: viewers are left only vaguely aware of trouble down the road yet a good reporter will enliven the medium term implications of Government actions. It is possible to do. It is important to do.

The number crunching is quite simple – tax income will need to rise (let us hear how much per household) and those new Government shareholdings will need to be divested (how optimistic are Government and opposition profit assumptions – if any).

Indeed there is a very strong case for the Government to make these embarrassing and difficult projections clear right now because the creditors and credit agencies who scrutinise UK PLC are looking very hard at the medium term – including whether the Government has any plans and any consent for them. Any impression of gaps between actions now and balancing medium term plans leaves sterling under intense pressure - interest rates will balloon, and Governments will find it very hard to issue debt except at very expensive rates. My guess is that IMF intervention (assuming it has funds) is not far down the road.

I think these issues are incredibly important and newsworthy - yes they need medium term analysis and you need to be on the case.

Pin down opposition and Government figures : ask how this will be paid for? Find out precisely what plans and critically what assumptions are being made? Fill in the gaps - governments cannot enter in support programmes like these without costing them – and the population is entitled to know (and it expects you guys to find out).

I might be too selfish to say this but in my own opinion the best way that I can help this country is by simply buying our products and make a good investments. This will make the money to revolve, and I believe that it has a great impact on the economy.

Betty