Report by Ian Chan, member of Positive Money Hackney 

Tuesday 26th of May was the day we finally got to hand in our petition to 10 Downing Street.

 

At around 4pm a crowd of us gathered around the gates of Downing Street. Richard had travelled hundreds of miles to join us, whilst others were on an ‘extended’ lunch break from work. At 4pm, in what felt like a flash mob manoeuvre, we donned bright purple Positive Money t-shirts all at the same time to the unsuspecting crowd, causing quite a stir amongst the tourists and passers by.

“We need to talk about money” our signs said, and many passersby duly obliged, no doubt curious at the intentions of this motley band of purple people.

At 4.30pm the gates opened and, after taking our names, six of us were allowed in through the main gates along with a very nice lady called Natalie Bennett.

 

As we stepped in through the gates, I felt like we were the chosen ones on a special mission to save the world from evil forces, I even had to sacrifice my ruck-sack of essentials ( I usually take it everywhere!) to get past the airport-style security.

Onto Downing Street itself and the street seemed strangely quiet, like a stage set. The bunch of us made nervous jokes with the jolly policeman who escorted us to the front door of number 10, whilst we tried to soak in the surroundings.

At the front of No.10 the scene was set for the handover of the 2 large boxes we carried with us. But not before taking dozens of photos on the steps, with Natalie doing a wonderful job to get us in good spirits for each shot.   A couple of sharp taps on the door by the policeman (was it a coded message?), the door promptly opened, and the petitions were safely received by a gentleman waiting inside. As smooth as you like!

After all our efforts ( I got a hair cut especially) I was a bit disappointed that Dave himself didn’t come to answer the door  – this time round! It won’t be the last time we come knocking and next time it won’t be so easy to ignore us: momentum is building. More and more people are realising what a game changer money creation is. We now need a big push to call for a money commission to be set up in Parliament so we can have a proper debate about the financial system we need.  

Our next stop was Parliament Square where,  after stopping the traffic to get there, we took some photos in front of Big Ben and even moved some passersby to join us, such was our enthusiasm!