Will someone please explain to me why folks complain about the high cost of housing, yet at the same time complain when there isn't a significant rise in prices each month? Should there actually be a drop, god forbid, then we have folks wringing their hands and crying about negative equity.

Listen peeps, you can't have it both ways. It is high time people realised that having a roof over ones head is the aim of the game, not how much that roof, walls, etc might be worth, today, tomorrow, or next time somebody in the world sneezes.

Roz, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

I am in the so called top 10% of earners in this country. Sure doesn't feel like it!

The quality of life in this country is way down the list to that of other developed countries and what I think it all stems from is the amount of people claiming benefits and taking advantage of the system.

I work 80 hours a week so that some irresponsible, uneducated teenager can have 4 kids that they won't look after (adding to the problem) just to claim housing benefits. Something is wrong with the system and it needs to be sorted out now!!!! The poor get poorer because they (as above) are multipling at a rate that the country can't afford; the rich get richer because they get to take advantage in the increased consumption; and the middle classes, well we just get to work harder than ever before without seeing any increase in living standards and paying for the increased level in benefit.

It's too late for us. It must start with educating the next generation!

Michael, London, UK

Labour have bought the votes of millions of northern supporters via Northern Rock ,spreading the money around the non working population ,the' Neats',the millions on "Incapacity Benefit'
and similar non workers.The benefits these people are drawing guarantee the Labour vote for the forseeable future.
We are a non industrial country these days,compared with Germany ,the worlds biggest exporter at 1,6 Trillion Euros per annum.I have no idea where the UK stands but it's pretty low down the list.
We are heading down the road to ruin with Gordon Brown leading the way singing the "RED FLAG|
Even at 81 I am considering emigrating to get away from the whinging,binge drinking ignorant segment of the population that is ruining this Country.

ed corbett, bridgend, wales UK

Yes prices go up. I have not got a mortgage, nor had a holiday since I was 18 in 1999. So? The life you have goes up and down. So take control. There's no need to get upset. Grow your own veg, make your own food, do your own stuff.

I would love to be well off enough to buy frozen mashed potatoes, to holiday in foreign climes and buy the finest wines. But I can't. So I get round it, make do and venture forth.
I'm sure that even if the UK is in economic meltdown, moaning about being worse off is a lot better than having no prospects at all.

I feed my family of five on next to nothing. £80 can get you a good 4 weeks worth of food in certain Supermarkets. It may not be branded goods but its food, and good food too. A few spices and herbs a meal doth make.

The bills go up, the council tax goes up and my wages stay the same. If you want it to change, make a change. It may be difficult, it may be hard, but if you think there are better ways then do them and stop moaning.

james maycock, bromley, Kent

Wife about to take a pay cut because of removal of tax free amount. Daughter going to Uni later in year - additional costs because the income thresholds for financial assistance have not been increased realistically , so increased costs again to try and help her through a college course. Some of her friends at school receive EMA but she doesn't because our joint income is higher than the so called "realistic threshold" . They also receive a reward for handing homework in on time - she doesn't but still makes sure that hers is completed as requested. No alcohol in our house as we can't afford it - neither of us smoke and we work longer hours just to make ends meet. This country once made me proud - now it serves to show how the political ambitions of morons can destroy the lifestyles of thousands, and how the lives of those who serve in areas of conflict are considered worthless by the very actions of those who sent them there! This country wasn't broken - so why try to fix it??

Pete, Newcastle, the not so united UK

part of the problem is that people whine too much!!
none of us is better off, and yet compared to families in continents like africa, we over here are living like kings and queens!!
get a grip people, and next time you get a tax cut, compare your £1 to the £5,000 or so african shillings

laureen, leeds,

I'm going to do what all sensible people of my age (22) should do, and emigrate. This country has nothing to offer me anymore. I cant get on the housing market and start my own life, even though I have been through the most tested school system in Europe, have been to university and have stayed clear of crime and all the other pitfuls of life...and for what? To live in a bedroom in my parents house like a 15 year old!

This country has nothing left to offer me, or anyone of my age!

Goodbye everyone, enjoy your CCTV state, not smoking, not drinking too much, using public transport, having the unahppiest children in Europe, having no pension (thanks baby boomers), floods and the complete errosion of your rights as an individual!

I'll send you a postcard from sunny California, America might have its problems but at least i'll be able to live like an adult!

dan, Reading, England,

I cant believe people would still consider voting Labour. I'm considering how to start a revolution and these morons want more of the same!
ARE YOU MAD!!!

Phill, The Wirral, England

Its funny that the British Pound is ranked the strongest in the world, the US Dollar is ranked below the Canadian dollar (or will be soon), and Brits are having a tough time of it. I've always suspected that having a strong bill does nothing for the realities of the middle class and lower class, but instead just makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. Over here, gas prices are too high for the benefits I get. I can't own a home either. However, I'm not a green thumb, so growing my own vegies really isn't an option. I once cultivated a weed and pulled out the carrots in my confusion as to what was what. LOL I am in insult to my British heritage because of my backwardness in the garden. LOL

Kyt, Ramsey, USA / Minnesota

What was the vote for UKIP and the BNP?

Kate, Newcastle, England

Nu-Labour has suceeded in widening the gap between the rich and poor,more than any Tory Government.
No wonder our children are binge-drinking-I think I would in their situation, no jobs, rampant inflation (yes really) and out-of -reach housing-not bad for a bunch of ex-communists!

steve, coventry, uk

One conclusion: emigrate! Watch what happens to this country as all the highly skilled workers start moving away and all they have is an unskilled immigrant workforce. Where will Brown be with his pledge of allegiance to the British Flag then?

Emily, Cambridge,

Unbelievable... the country has gone down the toilet in the last ten years thanks in no small part to Gordon Brown and yet people still want to vote for him! The word on the street is that those who can get out are doing so!

Andrew Brown, derby, UK

I own my own home, don't have a mortgage and have suffered five redundancies in the past 20 years. I drive about 6000 miles a year. I can't ge a job at my experience level and my actual salary has dropped from around 20k twenty years ago to 18k today. Take inflation into account and I'm earning half of what I earnt 20 years ago. Some things go down in price, technology being one of them, thats why the 'National Shopping Basket' includes camcorders and HDTV. All the essentials go up. My local store just put up a bar of chocolate from 82p to £1.05, thats over 25% increase. With infaltion like that is it any wonder people are disgruntled and don't trust the false statistice the Government use to justify thier policies? I have trouble managing on my 18k (before tax), lord knows how those on lower income get by. Pretty soon we'll be the third world country of Europe, then the jobs'll come back because we'll work for peanuts just to survive.

Ron, Milton Keynes, Bucks

1,502 adults aged over 18 by telephone between March 7 and 9....and not an election in sight....so? who cares? its absolutely not relevant.

zugerman, zurich, Switzerland

So The price of wheat is partly to blame for rising food costs?

Why are farmers still getting paid to leave half of their fields empty then!?

Ask yourselves what do socialists hate? The top two have to be people amasing funds for a comfortable retirement, and home ownership. Brown has already delfated one of them 'ills' and guess where the pin is going next?!!?

POP!

Gav Cowlam, Hessle, East Yorkshire

You have no idea just how much damage Broon has done to the UK economy and the future commitments will bring the house down. Broon has hit the top on his credit card. I despair at Cameron, with the Tories fiddling whilst the UK is on its knees. Labour have issued a smoke and chaff screen to dampen discussion on the real problems - "Britishness", et al.

Michael, Bridgwater,,

The view that people would select David Cameron as the politician they would prefer to have a drink with has been hit by his boorish behaviour at PMQ's. He now regularly comes across as the arrogant know-it-all ex-Public Schoolboy who rants and raves in the saloon bar surrounded by his braying sycophants. He now guarantees that most drinkers would be driven to a quieter and less confrontational Pub.

bill edmunds, Basingstoke, england

Part of the problem lies in the fact that the European Union has turned itself mainly into a service sector industry. Hence, engineering, technology, gas, oil etc have all been carted off to other continents. On top of which the most expensive foods seem to be protein based foods being crucial (building blocks of how we function as individuals) to anyone's diet. It all comes down to Thatcherism who took her concepts from the USA. It seems Thatcher was only interested in making her name while others suffered. Look at the disparities and the imbalances within that scope and where we are all now!!

Marie-Claire Oliver, Bath, United Kingdom

Wait until the budget tax rises kick in, including those announced by Brown last year (2p on fuel, doubling the 10% starting rate of income tax, raising the upper NI limit ahead of inflation), and this year's council tax bills arrive, and watch Labour's ratings plummet. Brown can't blame all of his bad economic decisions over his 10 years at the Treasury on someone else.

Nick, London,

Brown has virtually single handedly bankrukpted UK,( EU) PLC. and handed most of Government to the EU. We really do not need Westminster any longer and all their scams. His policy of ruining education has been successful (proof: the Populus Survey)

No wonder he did not want an election on anything. I wonder what the Council elections will show? Most will probably not vote anyway. I am awaiting a law that runs National Elections on the basis of Populus surveys where the questions often direct the answers! You get what you pay for!

M. Cawdery, Portadown, UK (if it now exists)

The Tory party are not convincing the electorate that they are a viable opposition and the reason for this is, quite simply, that they are not.

There only unretractable financial proposal to date are their IHT proposalss which, however they are dressed, give massive tax cuts of up to £560,000 to millionaires.

With all the other causes that they could have choosen as their flagship policy they make the rich and powerful their top priority.

Is it any wonder that they are not connecting with the electorate at large ?

David Dee, Canterbury,

Ha ha Brown and his sixth formers....

Mind you Dancing Dave in his comfy Cotswold cottage won't be any match for the proletariat....

Austin Tassletine, South West, UK

The fact that the lack of an EU referendum has not changed peoples voting intentions is not a surprise - people care about this very little when compared to issues like crime and the standard of public services.

Chris Gudgin, Nottingham,

Ian from Bristol .... Prudence died years ago... thats why Gordon no longer taks about her.

Joe, Kiev, Ukraine

I'm staggered at this result, must be a function of Labour's education policies, with people too thick to appreciate the damage that Labour has wrought on this country.

martin, Nr Reading, UK

Get real guys - the current cost of living explosion has resulted directly from the world resource crisis, and is affecting the whole world.
Bread prices up? Maybe that could just have something to do with world wheat prices up 47% in the last 12 months?
Likewise virtually all other current food production is critically dependent on monstrous energy inputs; and energy costs are also rocketing. This is:
1. partly because the world is running low on most mineral (including energy) resources; because we remain obsessed with growth, including of population, rather than seeking more sustainable economic systems;
2. and partly because, at the same time, increasing strength of demand from emerging economies like those of India and China is bidding up world prices; this largely because greedy capitalists have exported a huge proportion of our jobs. It's called globalisation, and came from inane Reaganomics and Thatcherite privatisations, not from their wet New Labourite copycats.

David, Bristol, UK

If 34% of people would STILL vote Labour despite rapidly rising prices and taxes, unacceptable levels of crime, Labour incompetence, and the constant waste of public money, it's no wonder the EU referendum issue has not had much impact on voting intentions!!

Alan, Singapore,

While Labour continues to tear the country apart Cameron talks about how many women he would want in his cabinet. That is why the tories can not make the gains they should be.

anthony hegarty, Seoul, South Korea

Imagine if the United Kingdom were devolved into England, Scotland, Wales with Northern Island returned to Eire. Labour would never form the England government. Now stir proportional representation into the mix and the Liberals would play a far greater role. So on that basis, Labour is not the legitimate government of England. Incredible to me that Labour's popularity rating is 34% rather than single digit. After the way Labour has quite literally destroyed the UK in general and England in particular, even their current level of support is totally beyond belief.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

What rising prices? Hasn't Gordon explained to you that inflation is only 2%? You've obviously not been listening.

mnairb, Hove,

Hmm, now whatever happened to Prudence?

Ian, Bristol,

Stephen Scott's comment is very valid, there is however one small difference between the current mortgage situation and that of the 80's, and that is people then hadn't borrowed 5-6 times joint salaries! Then 15% was affordable, but with the current level of borrowing, repayments will just be too high.

Tony, Northampton,

Happy clappy labour have got it wrong again, this is just like in the 70's increasing debt caused by high public spending (waste). Darling will increase the tax burden on the middle classes to pay for the poor thus making us all poorer. Darling will increase the national debt by borrowing from the world bank.

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

Sorry Graham but what planet do you reside on? The credit crunch has nothing whatsoever to do with the article. I have no debt, save every month but I have noticed the rapid rise in living costs over the last 18 months.

Will, Huntingdon,

This is a blessing in disguise, it's teaching consumer hungry Britain to stop buying into materialism and focusing on the bare essentials... and of course, social interaction. You can't put a tax on that.

Howard, Manchester,

Yeah right.

Michael Shaw, Languidic, France

1502 people by phone over two days, get a grip .

Michael Shaw, Languidic, France

“Voters still prefer Labour to the Tories as the Government”…........ I find that really hard to believe, as everyone I have spoken to absolutely hate Labour and Lib Dems. I think you need to read all the comments on the internet re these two Parties. You would be in for a surprise!!

Anthony, Swansea, UK

It's now becoming rather frightening. Diesel at 119.9 per litre equates to almost £5.50 per gallon, food costs are going throught the roof (bread at £1.65 per loaf) Council tax up (AGAIN!!!) at 5%, Stock Market Down, House Prices Down, State Pensiions at2%, Pound down 15% against the euro so foreign holidays will be dearer, Income tax up because of Brown taking away the 10% rate last year. This is all very similar to the Harold Wilson Governement when higher rate ta x was 98p in the pound. Just watch out for this weeks budget but have your bags packed ready because this Country has had it and has been destroyed by this rotten Government over the last 11 years. It's almost the Europeam equivalent of Zimbabwe. Ditctatorship Government and hyper inflation. Get Brown and all his sixth formers out now before they destroy us completely.

Derek, Bristol,

Oh no, are the chickens coming home to roost? Can't live on credit forever....

Graham , Littlehampton, West Sussex