WHEN I was a 15-year-old apprentice plumber I was on a job at a property from which the family had been evicted.

As well as some building work, we had to clear the perishables from the house.

I found it upsetting because their framed photographs were on the sideboard and the family looked like nice people.

All their possessions had been left behind, the young boy’s stamp album lay on the unmade bed, shoes, clothes, food in the larder, a joint of roast meat green with mould, rancid milk and stale bread.

I was deeply affected by the experience, disgusted at the waste and fully understand how Charles Dickens felt about debt.

When the Government talked of austerity and the need to tighten our belts and not spend our way out of recession, I agreed.

After all, this was familiar to me – I was brought up with the mantra “can’t afford means can’t have” unless you save or take on extra work.

Now I hear Holland is rejecting more austerity, France and Spain likewise. Our politicians strut their stuff and hand over billions to the International Monetary Fund to prop up the euro.

This is essential. Although we are not in the euro, our customers are. Our success depends upon their success.

The debt I have striven to steer clear of is being brought to my doorstep by the imprudence of others, the value of my savings diminish, costs all around are rising and the list of what I cannot afford grows ever longer.

I am too poor to prosper but too wealthy to qualify for the begging bowl. Can we spend our way out of this crisis or is that what got us into trouble in the first place? I am sure, we are not all in it together, and the current Government cannot solve the problem.

Gerard Wild, Richmond.