2 December 2011

Quiz your MP, and other news

As the financial system starts to crumble in Europe, we’ve had another busy month spreading the word about the flaws in our debt-based monetary system.

As the financial system starts to crumble in Europe, we’ve had another busy month spreading the word about the flaws in our debt-based monetary system. A big welcome to the 690 people who joined us this month.

1) What’s been happening in November

2) Find out what your MP knows about money!

3) Meetups in Wales, Oxford, Belfast and Glasgow

4) Latest from the Blog

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1) What’s been happening in November

Ben Dyson was in Scotland on Tuesday 1st and Wednesday 2nd November. This is a report of his work over those 2 days.

On 15th Nov our article “Money has been privatized by stealth” was published on the Guardian’s Comment is Free section and it sparked some intense discussion, attracting lots of comments. It seems we touched a nerve at the FT blog though, where Izabella Kaminska had a few things to say, and this is our response to her.

On Saturday 26th Nov Ben Dyson gave a talk at Tent City University at Occupy London. Many of the issues that the Occupiers are protesting about could be dealt with by stopping banks from creating money as debt, but spreading that understanding can be a slow process! Some of volunteers do spread the message via handing out the flyers in the protest camps. If you would like to help, here you can download the flyers.

On 1st Dec we had the 3rd meetup in London, with a Q&A session with Ben Dyson and a more technical presentation by researcher Graham Hodgson explaining the recirculation of interest.

Throughout December we’ll be working on making the Positive Money message clearer and simpler so that it’s accessible to those who haven’t had the chance to study banking or economics. The complexities of the financial system are often used to mask the simple facts: that almost all money is created by banks, as debt, when we borrow from them, and that as a result, the public is forced into permanent indebtedness. More on this later.

2) What Does Your MP Know About Money?

We need a constituent of every MP to send a letter asking your MP whether they actually understand that when banks make loans they are in fact creating new money from nothing. This will really help Positive Money to get some objective evidence on the level of comprehension within the Parliament as well as raise awareness of the problem with MPs.

Ideally we would like to have a local resident receive a response from every MP. This means that we need a person from every constituency in the UK to help us out. Can you help?

What will be required from you?

Download the template that Positive Money will provide
Edit the document with your MP’s name
Based on the response (Yes/No) send a follow up letter – again a template will be provided by Positive Money

If you are interested in helping out please send an e-mail to info@positivemoney.org letting us know your name and either the name of your local MP or constituency.

We will be sending out the templates to those who have expressed support after Christmas to avoid our important question being lost in the Christmas period.