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Farepak

I shall just make a little progress. At least 150,000 people are affected by what has happened at Farepak, and many Members, some of whom wished to attend today but could not do so, have written to me in support of the debate. They include my hon. Friends the Members for Eccles (Ian Stewart), for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr. Brown), for Paisley and Renfrewshire, North (Jim Sheridan) and for Birmingham, Hall Green (Steve McCabe). I am pleased to see so many hon. Members present who are ready to speak for their constituents. In all our constituencies, families were robbed of their Christmas when the hamper firm Farepak collapsed on Friday 13 October. I remember as a child at Christmas competing for attention with 45 cousins—the other grandchildren of my grandparents. My poor grandparents had to find a present for each of us every year, and amazingly, there were always 45 to 50 presents under their tree. It was some achievement, and companies such as Farepak knew it. Farepak capitalised on the fear that, without some kind of savings system, Christmas would be a failure, and it is galling to look back on its promotional material now. The brochure featured a mum and her family around the Christmas tree, and it said:"““This year give your family the best Christmas ever””." To those hon. Members who have asked me why people invested in a voucher company and not in a bank, the message on the brochure is a simple but powerful answer. They were trying to avoid debt, and many had no other place to turn to for a savings scheme that paid out at Christmas.