Shylock misses out...

Today I want to have a bit of a rant about companies offer quick loans.

A few days ago I heard of a twenty year old, unemployed man who had been given a completely unsecured loan by one of these companies that advertise on the TV.

This young man has no job, does not sign on and has no other income. Yet, on the strength of a debit card and a pound in his bank account, he was loaned £250 for a month. He has no apparent concept of responsibility and is reputedly borrowing money from all his friends. It would seem that one of these friends directed him to the easy and instant money available from this loan company.

The loan was for a month (he clearly had no idea of how he would repay the loan) and fell due a few weeks ago. The company are now chasing him for the money and his family are going to have to bail him out.

You may feel this problem is the sole fault of the young man (as I did initially), but perhaps we should ask ourselves how he obtained this loan in the first place.

This company states it is a responsible lender, but how responsible can you be if you lend money to someone with no way of paying it back? The interest so far is close to 70% and growing. I suspect this is the only aspect of the loan that interests many of these companies...

We need to look at the many loan companies currently preying on the poor, needy and the frankly stupid people who use these businesses. This country has massive debt problems and shocking poverty. How can it be right to licence the companies to drive people into debts they cannot afford? After hearing of this story I googled the company name and found story after story from people regretting ever taking a loan from them.

I know the banks have tightened lending, but permitting these  companies to operate in the way they do is not the solution. Sometimes banks refuse a loan because you really cannot afford the extra debt. 

These companies merely provide the opportunity to get further in trouble before the crash.

Shylock would be amazed at the business opportunities these companies would offer him in the 21st century.

I wish I could remember what I wanted to tell you...

When I first start writing a new piece of work I am full of enthusiasm and cannot wait to commit the words to paper (or hard drive these days!). Unfortunately, that enthusiasm falls quickly away to be replaced by apathy. I struggle to make the effort to write – I often begin to consider the next piece instead – and frequently end up with a half written piece that I return to now and again without ever developing.

Recently, the same thing has happened to this blog. Where once I wrote daily, I now write once or twice a week.

The difference is more to do with the content. I'm never sure what to write about when I sit down at the computer. Sometimes inspiration strikes and the words fly from my fingers. Other times I mentally wander around looking for the germ of an idea. As the blog is entirely voluntary, I just leave it if nothing comes to mind. It's a good job I don't have a paid daily column, isn't it?

It's not even the fact I can't always think of anything to say. I often write whole chapters/blog posts in my mind as I go about my day. The problem seems to be reforming them when I have the opportunity to write.

I wonder if I just have a bad memory or whether it's more to do with a quality filter. Perhaps my 'brilliant' concepts are evaluated by the mental review committee and found to be lacking in quality. The decision is made to delete the file rather than clutter up my mind with rubbish.

It would be nice to imagine this is the case rather than an inability to remember my own thoughts...