Enough Is Enough

'Enough is Enough' was the slogan used by the UK Independence Party (UKIP) - in the recent Eastleigh by-election.

A clever choice of words and very effective by all accounts.

Because although the slogan offers no solutions and is quite pointless as far as the country's problems are concerned - the thing about 'Enough is Enough' is that can mean all things to all people.

Especially those who are disaffected and generally fed up at the mess that politicians, policy makers and the captains of industry have made of  the UK economy.

So it seems that the underlying sentiment of 'Enough is Enough' became something of a repository - a bolt-hole for Eastleigh's protest vote - though not quite enough for UKIP to win the seat from the Lib Dems, of course.

One group of voters for whom enough is enough - I'm sure - are those without a mortgage since the people they live, and perhaps work, alongside - are doing really well, relatively speaking, out of the UK's low interest rate policy.

For the past four years interest rates have been held at artificially low rates - of 0.5% - which means that those paying off a mortgage have experienced a great windfall - and drop in their cost of living.

£20 billion and counting - according to the Financial Services Authority (FSA) - yet other people such as those who rent - or folks on a fixed income - are losing out hand over fist and to the tune of thousands of pounds a year.

All of which means that we are definitely not 'all in this together' - though it's not quite as easy or straightforward as saying it's all the fault of the nasty bankers.

Because the reality is that people in reasonably well paid jobs - if they have a mortgage - are doing just fine thank you very much - at least compared to their fellow citizens who don't have a mortgage.  

In fact, the cost of living for people paying a mortgage will have fallen significantly - by how much on average is anyone's guess - but perhaps by several thousand pounds a year.

Yet this factor is never taken into account when politicians and policy makers set out their favourite remedies for how to fix the UK economy - all of which means that the public debate is  badly informed.

Take the latest pay negotiations in the public sector - where the trade unions are threatening to call a strike ballot which is predictable - but union members are not all the same, of course.

Union members with large mortgages have received a giant windfall - compared to union members who rent their homes - so exactly how does that important piece of information get taken into account?

Seems to me that things would be a whole lot fairer - and honest - if these particular issues were put on the table.

Because one of the great dividing lines in society today - is the way in which only one part of the population has benefited - from artificially low interests rates.