A couple of weeks ago we reported on the pitiful failure that is Government's Mortgage Rescue Scheme... five months in, one person helped. Now, the Times reports that the Bates family - trotted around by the Department for Communities and Local Government in a PR exercise designed to attract attention away from the crumbling economy - has had its own application rejected.

After being told that he and his four children were eligible, Mr Bates agreed to interviews to promote the scheme, singing its praises and saying how grateful he was to benefit from it. “I've been taken for a melon and made the Government and the councils look great,” Mr Bates said.

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