“QE for people” demo at the Bank of England (Video)

On Thursday 3rd November 2016 Positive Money supporters gathered at the Bank of England and sent a clear message to the people who decide the UK’s monetary policy, as they made their way into their monthly meeting:

We spoke and they listened!

We said it’s not ok that the Bank of England is spending £10bn of new money buying bonds in large tax-dodging corporations. Then the next day the Bank announced it will start buying bonds in social housing as well. It isn’t spending enough money on this, but it’s a step in the right direction and we know the Bank is starting to listen to us. Our people power is working!

Together we got our message into the media! The Guardian Live Blog was posting pictures and reporting on our actions throughout the morning, whilst CNBC news interviewed Positive Money’s executive director Fran live:

Photographers from the Telegraph, Reuters and the Press Association were also there. And Wall Street Italia wrote a detailed article about the event.

We got interactive!

We invited passers-by to tell Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of England, and Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, how they would spend £70bn of newly-created money. No surprises that in our interactive game, a house-building programme got a lot more votes than spending on financial markets.

We got our message out and grew support for our campaign

We talked to people who work in the Bank of England and commercial banks nearby, as well as ordinary members of the public. We gathered more signatures on the petition and handed out our flyers, working together to get our message out that monetary policy needs to change.

And we got our message out across the UK too! Positive Money local groups in ten places around the country put in heroic efforts to brave the cold and run street stalls this weekend – here you can read more and see the photos.

If you haven’t yet, please sign the petition calling for the Chancellor to give the Bank of England the means to target the money at people, not financial markets.