Consumer Minister Pretends To Care About People.

Calls for so-called "payday loans" to be regulated were dismissed yesterday by the Consumer Minister Ed Davey. The loans, which can carry interest rates as high as 4,000%, would, until a few years ago, have been illegal under the "Usuary Act" but have been permitted since the finance industry was deregulated. We asked the Minister why he has so far done absolutely nothing to rein in what amounts to legalised usuary; "We are very worried that, if we do regulate this, people will be driven to illegal loan sharks who, of course, are much worse than legal loan sharks. Illegal loan sharks resort to some very unsavoury methods to collect money while legal loan sharks only resort to some very unsavoury methods to collect money. It's also true, though I wouldn't want you to lay too much emphasis on this, that we can't tax illegal loan sharks." We asked why he didn't want us to lay too much emphasis on the tax issue. "We wouldn't want the public to think that we've happy to see them being fleeced by unscrupulous finance companies simply so we can get our hands on a slice of the action. That's exactly what we are doing, but I wouldn't want people to think it." A spokesman for a leading finance house, known to his collegues as "knuckles" told us; "We don't fink that we should regulated. We provide a useful service to the community and provide much needed employment - especially among those recently released from pokey. An' we dun't use no unsavery, unsourvery - what he said - methods. We dun't go to people's door to freten 'em - we do it by phone."