People need jobs with decent pay but they are few and far between. Moreover, many folks that are in employment have experienced a prolonged freeze in pay, or if they have received a rise this may well have been below the recorded rate of price inflation and certainly well below their personal cost of living. I am not sure that the elites grasp fully the implications of this.

We're in a depression, in my view.

The political and media classes now talk endlessly about ‘getting the economy moving’ and ‘kick-starting the economy’; and Andrew Stephenson MP for Pendle writes enthusiastically about ‘investing in growth’.

All of this sounds plausible but is not addressing the fundamental problem: the heavily indebted personal sector.

This debt must be repaid or defaulted, either directly or indirectly through inflation. The current policy is using a combination of all three approaches, and this is proving to be an exceedingly long and painful process.Novel solutions now need to be found.

Although I am no fan of the National Lottery or Premium Bonds I am surprised that policy makers have not considered altering the prize structure of these so that there are a much, much larger number of mid-range prizes around £25,000.

Leaders of banks, if genuinely sorry for the part they have played in leading us into financial ruination, could forgo their bonuses for a few years and the money could be used to create many thousands of prizes of £25,000.

For many people a win or cash injection of this magnitude would either solve or assist markedly in helping them in ‘getting straight’.

We will not be able to generate any sort of meaningful recovery until the level of personal debt is reduced and this is something that the elites simply will not address.

Kevin, Colne (via website).