I agree with Ake. Growing up a poor kid (council house, single Mum on benefits) in a highly affluent Tory area, I learned not to aspire after the consumerism and materialism of my peers. Instead I learned to despise the empty shallowness that such lifestyles represent, and I still do. I read Marx at sixteen during my A levels, and still believe he had the right of it.

My home is filled with hand me downs and second hand finds. The only valuable items I own, were saved for. My Mac took me a year. My camera took me two years!

I don't believe in credit unless it's needed to pay the rent, and if credit is needed to pay the rent then there's something wrong - probably with the high rents imposed by property owners that the working poor can't afford.

I loathe the materialism Thatcher issued in and Blair consolidated. I'm very much tempted to get away from Daily Mail England and move to Scotland before the Scots gain independence and it become harder for us sassenachs to gain entry!