When I knew the game was up

It was in 2006 that i knew the labour government was in trouble, when they lost an element of Labour values.

The issue was Farepak, a company that supplied Christmas hampers and vouchers for shopping in retail chains, this company had gone into administration with around 120,000 customers left without compensation.

These people whom were the responsible working class and the Labour government would not intervene to protect their savings, unlike the Icelandic banking crisis later.

These hamper companies depended on local people selling and collecting regular contributions to fund Christmas for their families.

The typical customer was low paid workers, generally women, doing the right thing saving for a good Christmas, not using credit cards or borrowing, but being prudent, a few pounds a week with the average customer losing £400.

It is five years since Farepak collapsed, but that nightmare of Christmas past is still being felt by many low income families. Savers are likely to recover just 5p in the pound, while the final bill for the administrators and their legal advisers has already exceeded £8m.

The total cost of debt owed to Farepak individual customers was in the region of £38 million, peanuts when considered to the amounts paid to save the banking system.

Today we have learned that 200 people have died since Farepak went bust and they never received compensation.

The Labour government should of intervened on behalf of low paid customers, instead it did not, they allowed corporates to get the best pickings of Farepak and forgot the pain of ordinary people, clearly legally Labour ministers did the right thing, but morally they were completely wrong, it seems to typify the prevailing mood that the little person is less valued than corporate giants.

One of the founding principles of my political identity is that people have to take responsibility, work hard and look after family and be active in their community.

The 10p tax rate was a further example of attacking low paid single people, both Farepak and the 10p tax cut were systematic of a loss of focus on the hard working low paid, if we look at those whom abandoned Labour in 2010 it was the social economic groups C & D.

For Labour's message to be authentic, they could well learn the lessons of Farepark, but I guess Labours spokespeople have forgotten about those low paid people who still await compensation, it's too late for the 200 whom have died.