To think these people are utter scum, and i am sick to the back teeth with them all

[CustardoPaidforIDSsYFronts]

Private Equity manager Adrian Beecroft has donated over half a million pounds to the Tories since 2005.

Beecroft is the head of the private equity group that administers Wonga. The typical interest rate on a Wonga loan is an incredible 5,853% APR!

the Tory party are resisting regulation of Payday lending sector. Does this resistance have anything to do with the fact that one of their biggest donors runs one of the biggest legal loan shark operations in the country?

I have to add custard that your posting style turns me off a bit.

Better to come with a couple of points and debate them than bombard with countless facts.

I hope this isn't a new trend, to post long party-political diatribes.
MN Towers, please be aware that it will turn people off.

now flatpackhamster, that was not very nice!

How do you pay back 214 gecko? Most Payday loan companies charge a flat fee e.g Quick Quid would charge you £25 per hundred quid, due on your next payday. So if you borrowed £200 on 10th Jan, you would be paying back £250 on 31st January.
Can you just do it for a week?
Quick quid is the only one I ever used (once) as they do £50, and we needed food. I paid back £62 two weeks later.
Most PD loan companies won't lend under £100.

sorry it turned you off gecko - my posts were linked to donations and the benefits in return

happy to debate a singular issue

Anyone who thinks the Tories aren't bringing the country down is a wanker and a stupid one at that.

Yes, cuts needed to be made. Labour left a fucking mess as well.

But how about taxing those with the fucking money, i.e. the Tories and their pals, rather than cutting the rest of us to the fucking bone?

What is wrong with being a socialist??

If you use a payday loan company as they are meant to be used, the charges are not excessive. Before they were available, people had to go to illegal loan sharks.
These companies were running during the last Labour government, so I don't see how you can use them as a stick to beat the Tories. (But I expect you will carry on)

How are they meant to be used? I've never used one, so it's a serious question.

Why not have a go at the unions who donate millions to the Labour Party? In return the last labour government created millions of meaningless public sector non-jobs, paid for by the real economy, and filled by union members.

There's a market for payday loans, if you scrap the regulated sector and put companies like Wonga out of business the need will be filled by loan-sharks. This will help nobody

not at all, if you read the thread in full sallyingforth, i have made my views about all parties quite clear

to reiterate - they are all mostly self serving shits.

before they were available? they have been around for ages -provident loans or 'the provvy' as most people refer to them have been around since the late 1800's

Why do you believe that donations are linked to getting money - more often about political influence - see the unions who take from every member, many on minimum wage to give to the Labour party without permission.
union leaders reasonable pay and behaviour
Of the 6 MP's prosecuted over the expenses scandal, all were Labour.
Tax cuts to companies can easily increase the tax take from them as it becomes more beneficial to make a profit in the UK - see the Laffer curve.
Why should NHS hospitals be run by the government? - GP's, dentists, opticians are all private concerns, as are pharmacies, drug companies, bed suppliers etc

Mrs rabbits - will happily have a go at the unions and the MILLIONS?? of meaningless public sector jobs - have you got a link to the non jobs that the conservatives have efficiently got rid of?

Carol - nonsense. The union levy is voluntary - union members can and do opt out of donating to the union's political fund. Unlike shareholders who do not have the power to veto company bosses buying themselves knighthoods with donations to political parties - most often, the Tories.

well this is mine - unison it quite clearly states what you give - and that you can choose not to

it is a choice to join a union remember, and many on minimum wage do so becuase they are experiencing problems at work - so they can get access to reduce cost legal advice and advocates.

Wonga/Provident/etc are loan sharks, just legalised ones. They prey on the poor, the vulnerable and the desperate. That's their target market. That's what makes them so shockingly horrible. Credit Unions (wonderful, fantastic groups of local people) will tell you all about how awful these companies are.

It's great for people who know the risks and can borrow a small amount, comfortable in the knowledge that they can pay it back next week or whenever, to go 'meh, they serve a purpose'. For people tangled up in debt, the harsh reality is often that they will spend months (and maybe years) paying off what should have been a short-term loan to help in a crisis.

But this thread will demonstrate (as so many others have before it) that some people have a) a lack of empathy for people in shit situations, often not of their own making and b) a lack of knowledge of what it's like to actually be in one of those shit situations.

I wish no one needed payday loans and an important question would be "why do they need them?", but I don't think that blaming the companies that offer them solves anything. I can't help thinking that the anger towards these places is probably a convenient distraction.

Do they lie about their terms? If not then it's a choice. Not a great choice if you are poor, but they didn't make people poor.

When I was small my mother used to get Provident loans and no one blamed them. Much later I found I had to buy some large stuff from Littlewoods and I didn't blame them for that. I was just glad I could spread out the payments.

Oh and as for the Tories. Yes I am sure they are making decisions to line their own pockets and I despise them for that, but I don't see much difference between political parties these days.

I'm voting Labour. It is the only way to get rid of them.

Any former Labour voter who isn't voting just because Russell Brand said he doesn't; or thinks not voting is clever; or part of the Revolution; or thinks there is little difference between the parties; or thinks Labour are responsible for the national debt/all the problems in the world; or any other propaganda we are constantly bombarded with are unfortunately just being manipulated. Wake up.

There are only two choices. Everyone needs to pick one.

I'm not blaming the loan companies, I'm saying they are unscrupulous wankers whose target market is poor/vulnerable/desperate people. Do you now think that's morally disgusting? To target those people? People who may have no other option than to take out loans at exorbitant interest rates because their fridge/washing machine/cooker has broken down?

People often don't have a choice. There is no social fund anymore, which was there to help people in desperate need. There were no 1000% APR in the social fund.

That's what makes it so despicable. That by removing the social fund, the Tories have removed choice.

this is true bubblebrain

I don't have a lot of time for russel brand

I think Russell Brand made some valid points, but I think he's wrong when he says that there will be a revolution in this country. There won't because we are too apathetic as a nation and too divided (as threads like this always show) to come together and demand change.

I agree with Gecko, at one end of the spectrum there is a place for payday loans used properly and at the other there are some irresponsible folk who will misuse any financial product and expect the rest of us to enable their irresponsibility with a lot of in-betweens.

Agree I also have no clue who to vote for next time

My goodness - how life has changed. In previous generations OP and fellow travellers would be on soapboxes at Hyde Parker corner.

Now they are frothing all over the internet instead.

Still, nothing like a good bit of frothing.

CustardoPaidforIDSsYFronts

now flatpackhamster, that was not very nice!

Indeed. It was SO, SO awful that MN deleted it.

But apparently endless posts calling people scum is perfectly fine, so long as those people are right-wing.