Liz Jones: Villain or Voice for people in debt?
Liz Jones from the Daily Mail recently wrote about her huge debt problems, despite reportedly being one of the newspaper’s highest paid columnists and previously writing about her lavish lifestyle.
Does she deserve the criticism she received from the public, or should she be applauded for speaking up about debt and raising awareness that it really can affect anyone?
Daily Mail columnist Liz Jones has been talked about recently after writing about her debt problems in a recent column and in turn receiving letters and emails of support including offers of cash from people who are arguably worse off than she is. One 77-year old widow living off a state pension offered Liz £50 she had won on premium bonds, whilst two other pensioners offered Liz money “towards food and petrol”.
This caused outrage amongst tweeters, commenters on the Daily Mail website and even other journalists, such as Tim Lusher from The Guardian Online who further added fuel to the fire by publishing “The Liz Jones Guide to Prudence” listing some of her extravagant expenses including a £26,000 bat sanctuary and a £3000 fridge.
We’re not here to judge her though, quite the opposite in fact: as a company who help people with debt problems, we understand that anybody can find themselves in debt, even someone who is reportedly one of the Daily Mail’s highest paid columnists. A lot of her narratives on living with debt echo the sentiments of any other person suffering from debt problems, from being hounded by debt collectors constantly, to the fear of being looked down upon by other people, and the continuous worry about where the next meal is going to come from, but to name a few.
Felt sorry for L.Jones last week. But not sure how I feel about someone earning £££ taking money from pensioners. http://tinyurl.com/35wmcvv
Jojo Moyes
jojomoyes
I do always try to be sympathetic when people are in debt but Liz Jones can’t seriously be living on this planet? http://bit.ly/ce1rx0
Louisa Hastings
totalchunk
Dear Daily Mail. Please pay me many ££s to write a column in which I ask poor people for money to support my glitzy lifestyle. #lizjones
Matt Suddain
suddain
This is pretty vile, even by Liz Jones’ standards http://bit.ly/dsomlB Taking money off pensioners to fund her six-figure salary lifestyle
Chris Applegate
qwghlm
Liz Jones is unbelievable. Only a couple of weeks ago spent £200 on a blow-dry. Now pensioners are sending her money. http://bit.ly/bO3tEm
Anne Billson
AnneBillson
We want to know your thoughts on this – Does she deserve the criticism she is receiving, or should she be applauded for speaking up about debt and raising awareness that it really can affect anyone?
Ok Ok Liz has been profligate to say the least! she is the first to admit that now that her awful situation has finally hit her between the eyes. In no way do I believe she was ever “begging” as such and to be fair she stated at the end of her article that wherever it was possible to do so she would return the money and if it were not possible she would forward it to an equine charity! There is no doubt that she has been alarmingly naive in some of her writings and has well and truly got peoples backs up but listen locals defend yourselves in a civilised way, speak to her let her see that you are not as she has portrayed you , at least give her the opportunity to feel shamefaced instead of adding fuel to the fire. As regards her mountainous debts I strongly suspect that there are a great many other people who altho’ not quite so reckless can’t imagine getting thru’ life without certain luxuries even when they can’t afford them.