Moneybox with Paul Lewis.

God, I hate that programme. I’ve just accidentally caught a bit of it on Radio 4 and it’s brought me out in hives. It’s such a petty, parsimonious little programme about things like avoiding tax on your savings, the pros and cons of switching energy suppliers and the folly of not having a pension. Its listeners are the sort of people who say “A penny saved is a penny earned” and I despise them all. I’m more a spender than a saver because ultimately, money has no other purpose. Meanness is such a horrible trait because it’s never confined to just money. Mean people are mean with their time, with their love and with practically anything else they might be expected to give. Here’s a famously frugal pensioner who, I’m sure, tunes in every week. The lyrics of this song he wrote fifty years ago are particularly mean. We should have known then.