Today the Financial Ombudsman released its annual report unveiling a significant rise in the number of complaints about payday lenders. According to Chief Ombudsman, Caroline Wayman, "the most striking story has been the rise in contact we’ve had from people having trouble with credit. We’ve seen around three times last year’s volumes of complaints about payday loans". But aren’t things supposed to have improved a lot recently? The regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) made Wonga write off many loans in...

An IT firm in Watford sent staff an email warning "Labour voters would be made redundant first" on polling day, GMB has revealed. An email seemingly sent by John Brooker, Managing Director of Watford based Storm Technologies Ltd, has come to light which was sent to his staff on Thursday 8 June, General Election Day. The email, sent to everyone in the company, started with the hope staff had exercised their right to elect a chosen candidate or party before...

By Amy Sharpe The Lion and Fox Salon in Clerkenwell is the perfect spot for an after-work hair spruce. Open until 8pm, its relaxed atmosphere made getting my hair done an evening out ras opposed to a chore to squeeze in during a lunch break. Especially as, in my three-hour appointment, I was offered wine, beer, hot drinks and biscuits countless times. Always a plus. During a consultation with stylist Olivia, I explained I was sick of my long hair...

When Jeremy Corbyn was first elected as Labour leader in 2015 those old enough were quick to ring the alarm bells. "This is Michael Foot all over again" they prophesied, warning how his left-leaning leadership and strongly socialist tone was about to throw the party into political wilderness. Less than two years later results from the General Election show he has increased Labour's vote share by more than any leader since Clement Attlee in '45. A remarkable turnaround, but how was it achieved?...

By Amy Sharpe In April I completed a feat I never believed I would: I ran a marathon. Yep, I tackled the 26.2 mile beast in Manchester and lived to tell the tale (though my chafing scars mean my armpits will never look the same again). Now I will spare you the clichés about ‘The Wall’/ best experience of life/atmosphere from crowds etc. And I’m not going to whinge on about how you can be as ‘fit and fulfilled’ as...

Like most people I went to a bog standard Comprehensive school; the teachers did their best with the range of children from a variety of backgrounds, and limited budgets. So news that private schools will receive more than £500m in tax rebates over the next five years, will anger many people who couldn’t afford to attend, or send their children, to fee paying schools. A tiny percentage of the UK are able to access these elite schools and the social...

  As it emerged that Prime Minister Theresa May was keeping Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary in her post-election cabinet reshuffle his name was unfortunately mispronounced TWICE in one day by TV reporters. The unpopular Health Secretary who has presided over cuts and closures in around 40% of mental health trusts was subjected to the same "Freudian slip" twice, as on live TV the letter ‘C’ was added to his surname, once on the BBC:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDbSfa7jI8A   and again live on...

Hubert O'Hearn with Bianca da Silva We were somewhere around Belfast on the edge of the Mourne Mountains when the rains began to take hold. I remember saying something like "We'll still be on time ; absolutely you should drive..." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge, bowler-hatted DUP drummers, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an...

“Life is a sexually transmitted disease and the mortality rate is 100%” said R D Laing. He also said “Madness need not be all breakdown. It may also be a breakthrough.” Alice Birch seems to explore these not quite perfect opposite attitudes to mental ill health in her new play Anatomy of a Suicide. During two hours of relentless dialogue and repetitions of life cycles we see three generations of women lurch back and forth between a kind of sanity...