Leading article: What a brick...

All you thwarted first-time buyers out there, be comforted by the fact that there is someone who feels your pain. Though you may find yourself unable to get even so much as a fingernail on the bottom rung of the housing ladder, there is at least one public figure who recognises the sheer injustice of the situation and is not afraid to articulate it.

His name is Guy Ritchie.The British director has used an interview promoting his new film to point out how expensive housing in London has become: "House prices don't go down, they just go up. And the natives of England are sort of being left behind, because the big money came in and if it wanted something, it bought it and it made a bigger fortune by doing so. And as anyone who has tried to buy a house in central London knows... it's almost impossible to do so unless you've got 10 million quid."

It seems safe to assume that this interview took place before the southward direction of the property market became apparent, but Mr Ritchie's point about the (un)affordability of housing still stands.

Hold on though. Is this not the same Mr Ritchie who is married to the fabulously wealthy American singer, Madonna? And have the two of them not bought up six properties in central London over the past decade?

It is the very same. But so what? The contents of the Ritchie/ Madonna property portfolio is beside the point. What matters more than anything is that Mr Ritchie, and, one presumes, his wife, stand in solidarity with the beleaguered natives of Britain. We salute their compassion.