I found the comments made by our Prime Minister today rather condescending and I don’t even have a debt problem so how must the millions of consumers with debt issues feel?

To tell those who are struggling to pay their way and using credit cards to pay their mortgage, the weekly shop and other goods as they try and make ends meet to ‘pay off your credit card debts and together we will build a better future’ comes across as both patronising and arrogant and is a statement from someone who is not in touch with reality.

I am also bitterly disappointed about the way all political parties leak a story several hours before an important speech or  new policy announcement in order ‘to gauge’ reaction and then tweak it so that it becomes more acceptable. This practice  is becoming all too common -why has DC not got the balls to speak openly and with passion about the  normal hard working individuals who put him in office and not just about  those that have had a privileged upbringing.

David Cameron is aware of my views - we had a one to one chat a couple of years ago at the House of Commons when I managed to put across the problems UK consumers were having at that time, which have since got a whole lot worse.

During this coalition’s time in office I am astonished at the lack of support there is for consumers with unmanageable debt.  We have rising energy cost, fuel prices, wage freezes and redundancies to name just a few of the pressures they face, so when it becomes all too much and bankruptcy is the only way forward what does this coalition do? They up the cost to go bankrupt from £525 in March 2010 to £700 per person from April this year. Read more.

Let’s be quite clear on this - people do not set out to get into debt from the age of 18 and not repay, there are systems in place to deal with this should it happen. Most consumers have unmanageable debt through one or more triggers in their life. These could be not budgeting and being unaware of outgoings, not accounting for increases in interest and inflation rates and covering additional costs by taking on more credit, and finally, experiencing a relationship breakdown, the death of a partner or loss of employment.

Over the past 15 years successive governments have encouraged consumers to take on debt as this drives the economy. Throughout this time we had easily available credit and slick marketing, from which we developed a culture of ‘must have now’.

This means that more and more people are lying to their spouses and loved ones, turning to alcohol, gambling or even crime in an attempt to solve their problems.  Many I see or talk to are suffering from depression and contemplating committing suicide.  Even more shocking was a conversation I had a few weeks ago with a chap high up in the Pharmaceutical industry. He informed me that at around April of this year the sales of pills for depression had overtaken those for pain killers!

If the PM and his associates really want to know about the real world with its financially challenged consumers, then invite me for Tea at number 10. I‘m not a politician, just an ordinary caring, sympathetic and non-judgemental bloke trying to do an honest day’s work, who gets a tad passionate about it!

We all need to remember that the last debtor’s prison shut in 1869, society needs to move on and so do our politicians.