Impoverished middle classes turn to pawn – and Jesus

Yummy Mummies are pawning their Chelsea tractors to pay the school fees

Want to know just how hard up the ex-affluent middle classes are these days? Look no further than Sloane Square. The parent company of one-time Chelsea housewife favourite the General Trading Company (GTC) has just gone into administration. This is the store that held the wedding list for both of Prince Charles's weddings. Then look to the big banks where, says the FT, Goldman's bankers are being forced to pay for repairs to their BlackBerries if the damage is deemed to be their fault. Merrill Lynch bankers have, presumably to their horror, been asked to cut back on private jet trips.

Then to Liverpool where, says Zoe Brennan in the Daily Mail, the credit-crunched population is "never too posh to pawn". Here, "professional yummy mummies" turn up daily to swap "beautiful pear-shaped" diamond engagement rings, Cartier watches, Range Rovers and the odd "erotic carving" for quick cash lump sums. Why? To pay the school fees, "the deposit on the villa, the flights to the Caribbean" or even to make the odd mortgage payment. It is, says Hayward Milton of pawn broker Miltons, "beautifully simple" and "gets people out of a hole". Until they need to redeem their property, that is. You have to wonder what makes people who haven't got the five grand they need for school fees now think they'll have it next month given the state of the economy. And if they don't, they won't be seeing their diamond rings again: pawned items generally get auctioned off after six months.

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