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  David is absolutely right about personal responsibility of course. But, we also have to remember the cause of the housing and debt bubble, it was the simple fact that interest rates were held down too low for too long because any consideration of the level of debt was excluded from the inflation brief given to the Bank of England in 1997 by Gordon Brown. This encouraged borrowing and discouraged saving (brown also discouraged saving with a significant reduction in the levels of tax-free savings allowed).
  
  Yes, this does not excuse people from borrowing irresponsibly or lenders from poor lending practices either.
  
  As for Tom #27. I agree about the change in accounting practices, it was wrong and may have been a contributing factor to the overall problem but it was only a contributing factor.
  
  None of this also excuses the British (and,to be fair other governments) from being irresponsible borrowers either. It is not only private individuals who are to blame. Increasing the government's deficit spending while the economy was growing instead of allowing growth to close the deficit gap and 'balance the books' was a major and very basic error and is the reason for having to have pubic spending cuts now.

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