Save Our Savers Newsletter – November 10th 2011

HELP US GET OUR MESSAGE ACROSS TO THE BANK OF ENGLAND

The Bank of England has kept interest rates at a record low for almost three years. This has not only reduced savers’ interest by £24 billion compared to two years ago, but has resulted in CPI inflation rising to 5.2%, over double its 2% target. It is not just savers and pensioners who are suffering now but a huge section of the population.

The failure of the Bank of England to manage its inflation target credibly has prompted Dr Andrew Sentance to criticise the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) openly. He believes that Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has too much power. The Treasury Select committee is now proposing big changes to the powers of the Governor and the set up of the MPC.

The MPC’s decisions, which include pumping another £75 billion of QE into the economy and thus boosting inflation and savaging pension funds, are not just damaging people’s lives, but playing havoc with the economy. Our currency is being debased and we are paying the price.

A HIT IN THE NEWS – KEEPING OUR PROFILE UP

Our last demonstration was a great success, generating a lot of press coverage, as well as being featured on Sky news, ITV, Channel 4 and the BBC. Later Simon Rose was invited onto BBC News to argue the case for a rise in interest rates.

We are under no illusion that any single act will change the policy of the Bank of England but we need to keep our message out there in the public eye.

Savers must come out and show the depth of their anger at the unfairness of the current pro-borrowing, pro-inflation MPC stance. In the past couple of months, the media has finally come to appreciate that not everybody is helped by an environment of low interest rates and rising inflation. We need to keep pressing this home.

Undermining the efforts of people who have strived and made sacrifices to improve their own lives through saving is no way to rebuild the economy.

Save Our Savers will therefore be holding another protest outside The Bank on Thursday, 8th December, to coincide with the midday MPC announcement of the latest base rate.

A DEMO WITH CAROLS

We know that much of the publicity we received last month was a result of our “sacrificing” Bertie the savings pig. It isn’t often the media are presented with a good visual image to represent the MPC rate announcement. If we are to stand a chance of commanding as much media interest again we must continue to be original.

This time, wrapped up against the cold, we shall be protesting about the Bank of England’s scandalous indifference to the nation’s savers through the medium of song. We will adapt the words of famous carols and seasonal songs to express how savers are feeling at the end of this appalling year.

It does not matter what your voice is like. EVERYONE can sing carols and the more people who attend, the better we will sound. We have started work on revising lyrics to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Away in a Manger and many others.

However, we welcome help from any budding lyric-writers who would like to vent their frustration with Mervyn King and the Bank of England. We will start the ball rolling with a website post that includes a few suggested lyrics. Can you improve them or come up with some of your own?

IT IS IMPORTANT TO ATTEND IF YOU CAN.

In October, savers came from far and wide. So please try to be there on December 8th. A demonstration only demonstrates indifference and apathy if people do not make the effort to attend.

If you are working, but based in London, come for a short while just before the noon announcement. It is easy to get to the Bank of England, based conveniently as it is on the Central, Northern, District and Circle Lines. There are even free, and rather splendid, public lavatories there.

Bring mulled wine in flasks. Bring banners. Bring friends and neighbours. We will provide more information about the arrangements in due course. However, if you think you might be able to come please let us know by replying to this e-mail and we will make sure you are kept up to date with arrangements.

Once we have got our message across publicly on the day, we shall turn the event into a social gathering for Save Our Savers. We will adjourn to a local hostelry to get warm and to give everyone the chance to meet other savers. It can be a comfort to know others are in the same boat – even if, thanks to Sir Mervyn and his merry men, the boat is sinking!

PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS

We now have a corporate sponsorship scheme, and we would like to thank Rate Setter the peer to peer lending site for their support.

RateSetter.com gives UK savers access to good, reliable returns by matching you directly with creditworthy borrowers. All savers are protected by RateSetter’s unique Provision Fund and all the rates are set by you, the savers.

Working together we can ensure UK savers are no longer ignored.

Jason Riddle

Co-Founder – Save Our Savers