Urged to buy goods that we can live without and can’t in any case afford…

• IF you are down on your uppers, like so many of our fellow humans are at the moment, I am sure that like me you would be happy to be able to be spared all those well-meaning people on telly offering handy tips on how we can save money and mitigate our new poverty-stricken state.

However, I’d be even happier to be able to avoid the endless garbage spewed out by the multi-billion-pound advertising industry urging us to buy goods that we can live without and can’t in any case afford.

But then our fragile economy depends on us doing exactly that if we are to achieve the growth required to afford a caring society. Can this really be described as freedom?

BJ WILLIAMS, NW5