I am fortunate enough to have a good salary. This Christmas/New Year I am visiting my sons and their families who live near London. As a result I am staying in a Premier Inn at a cost of £274.

As is a habit of mine I frequently convert expenditure into minimum hours equivalent. So that would a pretty solid week's work at minimum hours before tax. Which, for a just-about-managing, is simply unaffordable. That has costs in terms of family cohension and mutual support, not just financial and that is equally important in my way of thinking. But because it has no monitary value there are those who dont let it cross their minds.