VIEWPOINT
Nanny knows best Most of us hate the idea of a nanny state, but it’s time to get to grips with payday lenders
and introduce stricter controls on betting to protect the most vulnerable members of society WORDS CRAIG JOHNSON
teeth and clean behind your ears. With government playing a bigger and
N
bigger role in people’s lives, it’s easy to under- stand why some are becoming frustrated, with the fl ood of facts and fi gures triggering a back- lash against the so-called ‘nanny state’. But what happens when those facts and
fi gures include interest on loans being charged at 5,853 per cent? Or when the NHS estimates that there are 450,000 people with gambling problems in Great Britain? When you read statistics like those then perhaps we are in need of nanny’s strong guiding hand after all. The state of the payday loan system in the
UK is an absolute disgrace – 200 companies have lent more than £2.8 billion to some of the poorest members of society, who will struggle to ever pay back their borrowing. More than a third of loans are paid back late or never at all. It all stinks of the worst liberal laissez faire atti- tudes of the Victorian era. Switch on your television during the day and
it’s hard to get away from adverts encouraging you to take out a loan. There’s no escape if you go outside either – payday lenders are sponsor-
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WWW.SCOTTISHFIELD.CO.UK
‘If we restrict adverts for alcohol and cigarettes then why on earth do we promote debt and gambling on daytime TV?’
o one likes being told what to do. Eat fi ve fruit and vegetables a day. Get 150 minutes of exercise a week. Brush your
ing football teams and even darts matches. Equally as concerning are the other set of
adverts that fi ll up our daytime TV screens – for online bingo, poker websites and other forms of gambling. Technology has created new betting opportunities – ‘in-game’ betting allows players to place wagers during football matches and other sporting events, giving them odds on which player will score next. What’s most concerning about these adverts
is that they normalise payday loans and online betting for our children. A generation is growing up thinking it’s ok to take out high-interest loans and to spend your evening in front of a computer screen with your debit card to hand. If we restrict adverts for alcohol and ciga-
rettes then why on earth do we promote debt and gambling on daytime TV? Citizens Advice Bureaux north of the border
are dealing with 100 people each week who are in crisis through their debts to payday lenders, with their health, their relationships and their work all being destroyed by their borrowing. Let’s hope the situation isn’t made worse
by Chancellor George Osborne’s decision last month to end the link between pension pots and annuities, allowing savers to access their cash. Figures from Australia show 19 per cent of
IMAGE: GANGSTER/
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