Money Troubles
”MILLIONS drown in a sea of debt,’ announces the Express. ‘Asylum seekers’ summer fun with YOUR £1m,’ says the Mail.
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| Young asylum seekers train for their first Channel crossing |
Which all adds up to money leaving YOUR pockets and going into theirs. The Express ponders those ‘caught in the debt trap’, the ones who will be ruined should taxes or interest rates rise.
People like Clarissa Jones, 25, who has £13,000 of debt ‘and blames the high cost of modern living on the woes’, and Elizabeth Martin, 24, who works at her parents’ bakery.
Debt might be an ugly word but its face is white, fresh and full of feminine vigour. And not a little unlike Mari Hill’s, 32, and Sarah Dutson’s, 26, who both appear in the Mirror’s feature on the Kylie generation.
According to the Mirror’s economist, teenagers of the late 1980s, the so-called ‘Kylie generation’ have ‘matured into financially independent adults’. To illustrate, see Sarah’s £60,000 second home, and Mari’s designs to take a bank loan and replace her bathroom – her indoor bathroom, no less.
The haves and the have nots look pretty similar, sound much alike and have nice pouting mouths. Nothing like those asylum seekers.
Mail readers don’t get to see pictures of Ali, Osman and Svetlana because they’re at the beach having too much fun to pop into the paper’s offices.
And, boy, does it sound like fun. Having stepped from the ‘Ride of Death’, a lorry-style adventure, asylum seekers are now learning how to abseil, set up camps and swim.
Home Office Minister Beverley Hughes says the aim is to help asylum seekers ‘use their time constructively’. And what could be better than improving their swimming technique, learning how to scale cliff faces and live off the land?
If apprehended, those living in Kent can cut the local police down to size with a karate chop learned at class. ‘You’ll never take me alive, copper!’ as the repatriated may soon be saying in Bosnia, Afghanistan, Sydney…’
Posted: 24th, July 2002 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
