The company which owns the infamous mine in Chile where 33 men were trapped underground for more than two months has agreed to sell its assets to avoid bankruptcy.

Creditors gave the San Esteban Mining Company 15 months to repay its debts.

Thirty-three of the company’s miners were rescued last month from a mine in northern Chile after a tunnel collapse on August 5 left them trapped for 69 days.

Chile’s Radio Cooperativa reports some of the money will be used as severance pay for the 300 miners of the San Jose mine who lost their jobs after the collapse. In addition, the Chilean government is trying to recoup the money that it spent on the rescue operation. That is thought to have cost between $10m and $20m (£12.5m).

The rest of the money will be used to pay off the company’s other debts, which are estimated at around $10m.

Six weeks on from the dramatic rescue of the Chilean miners, the San Jose mine has remained shut. Following the rescue, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera had vowed the San Jose mine would never open again.

It’s been a day to forget for the ConDem government after David Cameron’s enterprise adviser Lord Young resigned after his outlandish claim that the British public “had never had it so good”.

The Tory peer said many people had benefited from low interest rates during the “so-called recession”. The Prime Minister refuted the claims, brandishing them “unacceptable”.

Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has welcomed the resignation, describing Lord Young’s comments as “disgraceful” and that his appointment as an adviser reflected badly on the Prime Minister.

Lord Young, an ex-cabinet minister, decided to step down following intense media scrutiny after he made remarks about the impact of the recession and future spending cuts.

Public comments on Sky News included: ”Lord Young is right in a way; after all, millions of council staff have not known that a recession had taken place.” On the flipside, one said: “A hefty public rebuke followed by his sacking is appropriate – not for saying it, as he believes it to be, but for being stupid and arrogant in the face of the disappointment of the majority in this nation.”

Shadow business secretary John Denham said Lord Young was completely “out of touch” with the day-to-day problems facing families and businesses, stressing his comments were “deeply insensitive”.

He told the BBC the affair “raises real questions about David Cameron’s judgement” in appointing someone with Lord Young’s views.

Before his resignation had been announced, David Cameron said his adviser would be doing “a bit less speaking” in the future.

“Obviously he is extremely embarrassed,” Mr Cameron said of the remarks during a visit to Cornwall. “He was very quick to retract completely what he said. It was unacceptable.”

Lord Young caused this controversy by telling a newspaper that the government’s spending cuts, totalling more than £80bn over four years, would just take state spending levels back to what they were in 2007 – a time, he said, when people were “not short of money”.

“Now, I don’t remember in ’07 being short of money or the government being short of money,” he said.

“So, you know, I have a feeling and a hope that when this goes through, people will wonder what all the fuss was about.

“Of course, there will be people who complain, but these are people who think they have a right for the state to support them.”

It seems that financial talk always seems to emphasise the doom and gloom, and so it’s nice to have a bit of positive news for once.

Recent figures show that the number of people declared bankrupt in England and Wales due to their debts has fallen by 25% during the third quarter of the year – the lowest it has fallen in the last five years. The stats have derived from the latest official publication from the Insolvency Service.

A total of 13,907 people in England and Wales went bankrupt during the three months to the end of September - the lowest figure since the final three-month period of 2005, and 24.2% lower than the figure from the same period in 2009.

Within the total, the fall in bankruptcies was partially offset by a rise in the number of consumers taking out debt relief orders (DROs), an alternative to bankruptcy for people with debts of less than £15,000, assets of less than £300 and less than £50 surplus income a month.

The number of people opting for a DRO has increased significantly each quarter since they were introduced in 2009, with a record 7,068 consumers taking one out during the third quarter – a 12% increase on the previous three months.

But there was a 4% drop in the number of people taking out individual voluntary arrangements, under which interest on debt is frozen in exchange for a set amount being repaid each month, with 12,960 people opting for one of the agreements during the quarter.

A spokesperson commented: “The figures may well point towards an improved economy, but they may also suggest that those struggling with their debts are becoming more aware of their options when it comes to addressing them.”

Hindsight is a wonderful thing – and so it’s nice for former Cabinet secretary Lord Turnbull to come out with such an outlandish statement after the horse has bolted…

Lord Turnbull

According to an interview with a broadsheet newspaper, Lord Turnbull has said that the UK was never going to fall into a financial crisis like the one that brought Greece to its knees. The statement challenges George Osborne’s assertion that the spending review was needed so Britain could “step back from the brink”.

“I always thought that we were capable of producing a financial settlement that wouldn’t take us into Irish and Greek problems,” Lord Turnbull said.

“A very large part of our debt was domestically held. If people are going to sell gilts they’ve got to buy something else. Who are these great shining examples of people who are issuing rock solid debt you want to buy?”

Did he ever think the UK was on the brink of bankruptcy? “No, I didn’t,” came his reply. Nice of him to reassure us now.

The quotes come in the wake of the spending review where Chancellor George Osborne claimed spending cuts would bring Britain back from “the brink of bankruptcy”.