We’re all sinking up debt creek without a paddle
THE drama of the Canoe Man Thief and his fake death made for great TV entertainment.
In real life, crooked prison officer John Darwin and his wife Anne were both jailed for six years for fraud.
He flitted to a new life in the Philippines while she now lives quietly in a Yorkshire village.
End of story? Not for me. The play raised a big issue that rarely gets proper media exposure.
I mean debt. Walter Mitty kayaker Darwin “disappeared” because he had huge, unmanageable debts and the bailiffs were banging on his door.
In the film, the Anne Darwin character yearns for “a simple life, a happy family that pays its bills”.
Some hope, these days.
Britain is sinking under a mountain of personal debt. Credit card borrowing soared by £1.5billion in February to £59.5bn, the highest since records began in 1993. With interest rates at a punishing 18%, the average adult owes more than £1,100 on a credit card and the number of households struggling with debt has risen by a third.
It’s frightening. Step Change, the advice charity, received almost six million calls last year, from debtburdened people experiencing depression, stress, domestic violence and even suicidal tendencies.
North-East England, where Canoe Man took place, has the highest regional proportion of those asking for help, because the debt crisis is worst where people are the least well-off.
Canoe Man got into trouble through his own greed and folly. Today’s Generation Debt is dragged down by government policies like Universal Credit letdown, benefit freezes and soaring inflation.
Chancellor “Richy” Sunak should be drawing up an emergency Budget, but he’s too busy paying fines.
The average adult owes £1,100 on a credit card with debt up a third