Update on the Money Commission amendment

Over the past week, Positive Money supporters have been calling on their MPs to support the setting up of a Money Commission via an amendment to the Bank of England Bill. We had hoped that the amendment would be discussed in the House of Commons today. Unfortunately, we’ve just learned that the sponsoring MP is unable to attend the debate to propose the amendment.

But it’s not all bad news. Nearly 3000 of you contacted your MP to ask them to support the setting up of a commission. Thank you to those of you who took the time to write. You told MPs that monetary policy is contributing to some of society’s biggest problems like inequality and the housing crisis, and that a commission is needed to investigate how we can reform monetary policy so that it does a better job of supporting the real economy.

Several MPs responded positively to our campaign.

Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavillion wrote:

“I agree that more should be done to consider the wider social and economic impacts of the Bank of England’s monetary policy decisions – as well as the environmental ones – and a Commission would be beneficial in this respect.”

Douglas Carswell, MP for Clacton explained his support for a commission on his blog:

“We need monetary policy that promotes long-term economic prosperity for all.”

And Tommy Sheppard, MP for Edinburgh East said that his colleague is pushing for the Treasury Select Committee to conduct an inquiry:

“…my SNP colleague George Kerevan MP has written to the Chair of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, urging him and the Committee to conduct an inquiry into [the effect of monetary policy on inequality and the economy].”

Unfortunately, there won’t be another opportunity to amend the Bank of England Bill, but we’ll continue to influence the Government to set up a commission. After a short, and intense week-long campaign, we managed to persuade a handful of MPs to back the amendment this time. But it is clear this morning that if we’re to make a commission happen, we need the support of many more.

In order to make an impact, we need to show more MPs that there’s real public concern about the problems with the money system. And for that, we need your help.

In May we want to deliver our petition for a Money Commission to the Treasury. The petition currently has 7,192 signatures. But to have an impact, we need more people to sign. Our goal is to reach 10,000 in the next few weeks.

Can you help by sharing it on Facebook and Twitter with your friends?