Business as usual

If there are signs of a those mythical ‘green shoots of recovery’ after the recession, you’d need an expensive microscope to see them.  A recent survey revealed 76% of Scots are still worried about money, with 50% believing they will be worse off in 2011.  The banks have been propped up with our money and what promises do we get in return?  Job cuts. And what about the financial institutions who started the ball rolling downhill in the first place?  Those pillars of western society whose reckless behaviour dragged us all into the red?

Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) recently issued a damning indictment of ‘business as usual’ at Scotland’s main banks.  Low income customers are still hammered for overdraft charges (despite the protracted and, ultimately, futile attempt by the Office of Fair Trading to challenge these punitive penalties through the courts). Despite us, the taxpayers, bailing out the banks, nothing has changed.  Despite noises about ‘a new sense of responsibility’, they continue to rob their customers personal accounts (using corporate legislation instead of guns).

The CAS report quoted some harrowing stories.  A client in poor mental health whose £2 overdraft resulted in £180 worth of charges over 2 months.  Someone charged £66 for going 60p overdrawn.  A 77-year old charged £300 in a month for a single bounced transaction. Extrapolate these horror stories across the UK and you can see what these ‘green shoots of recovery’ really mean.  The poor being robbed to help the rich. Business as usual.