Positive Money supporters head to Downing Street with 12,000 signatures for monetary reform

Today, Tuesday 26th May 2015, campaigners and politicians will deliver a 12,000-strong petition urging the Prime Minister to change the way in which money is created, so that it serves the public interest.
 
A group including Green Party leader Natalie Bennett will deliver the petition at 4.30pm this afternoon. The petition calls for new money to be “used to fund vital public services or provide finance to businesses, creating jobs where they’re needed, instead of being used to push up house prices or speculate on the financial markets”.
 
This call for “Sovereign Money creation” has been echoed by leading economists including Lord Adair Turner and Martin Wolf of the Financial Times.

Positive Money is a research and campaigning organisation that seeks to highlight dysfunction in the money system and the need for reform. A Dods Monitoring poll conducted last year showed that only 1 in 10 MPs have an accurate understanding of how money is created. Positive Money claims that without an understanding of how the monetary system works, policy makers and politicians are unable to guard against another financial crisis.  
 
A cross-party group of MPs have been invited to join supporters in handing over the petition. At a backbench debate on money creation and society last year, MPs from both sides of the House called for a money commission to consider alternatives to our current fractional reserve banking system.
 
During the debate, Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith said,

“I want to put on the record my support for the establishment of a meaningful monetary commission or some equivalent in which we can examine the pros and cons of shifting from a fractional reserve banking system.”
 

Speaking ahead of the petition hand-in, Positive Money Director Fran Boait said,

“This petition reflects the growing consensus that our monetary system is broken. Household debt is well over its pre-crash peak, growth is being driven by consumer borrowing, and businesses are starved of credit and customers. The Prime Minister should look urgently at alternatives to avoid the mistakes of the past, and he could start tomorrow by supporting the establishment of a money commission.”