"then they should be taught to accept the fact that the annual new car,the 36" -screen TV,the new 3-piece suite,the foreign holidays etc, will have to be put "on hold" for a few years."

Time you (and the likes of Jeremey Hunt)lived in the real world instead of making stupid reactionary statements. Take a look at how people live on sink estates where they find it hard to scrape together enough to feed their kids. Hey, maybe we should send them up chimneys or down the mines (oh, sorry, Thatcher closed all of those)or make them beg in the streets. What kind of a heartless bastard are you?