Which Political Party Wants 10 Million Votes?
We will end unfair charges on Banking, fuel and flying says Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

Consider yourself forgiven for missing this small article by Jon Swaine (duly acknowledged with grateful thanks) which was half way down page 6 in last Saturday's Daily Telegraph .

The facts, according to the papers and internet news that I read are as follows:

  1. The clearing Banks are constantly charging 10 million British voters unauthorised overdraft fees and bounced cheque penalties of between £15 and £40 a day.
  2. The credit card lenders charge upwards of £12 for every missed payment.
  3. Over the Bank Holiday we have just had it took 6 or 7 days to clear a cheque - a golden opportunity to let millions slip over their limits.
  4. Credit card lenders have jacked interest rates up to over 33% per annum for hundreds of thousands of borrowers.
  5. Our Supreme Court judged last December that the Office of Fair Trading had no right to challenge the Banks over their charges even though they are unrelated to the real costs incurred.
  6. The total value of expenses fiddled by politicians in 2009 was probably a lot less than £1 million.
So - firstly consider points 1 and 6: The Banks are apparently swindling British voters out of around £10 million a day every day of the year. So, putting aside for one moment the moral issue that a minority of politicians fiddled a few thousand on expenses - why has the media made such a massive fuss over expenses while the Banks and Credit Card lenders have been left quietly to get on with ripping us all off?  Smokescreen - or does it just sell newspapers to an easily misled public?

HAVE YOU WORKED IT OUT YET? IF THEY FIDDLED £1 MILLION IT COST EACH OF US 1.6 PENCE.

I have written to David Cameron three times about Bank charges. I have pointed out that as every Briton now has £23,000 of debt to pay back to get the banks out of the mire it would be a good vote winner to do something about the Banks. After all every £5 we pay the Banks in excess charges could be going to the Treasury instead to pay off our National Debt. You might not like the sound of that BUT YOU AND YOUR CHILDREN ARE GOING TO PAY. Cameron's meagre response has been three polite letters from his 'Treasury Department' which I assume is another name for the waste paper bin.

I am not going to bang on about the ludicrous stupidity of all this but I want to make the following points:

While Labour and Conservative are whingeing on about making politics honest, changing the tax system so they can rob Peter to pay Paul, and all the other trash that is coming out of Westminster at the moment, Nick Clegg has actually come out and said something positive about bringing the usurers under control.

Yes, I initially found it surprising that the Lib Dems suddenly look like they could make me believe there was hope but when you put the above article next to the words of wisdom that Vince Cable has been uttering for the last couple of years it suddenly seems like they could amount to a political force energised by the fact that the other two are failing to come up with anything except spin while Nick Clegg talks common sense. What if the 10 million British voters who the Banks are ripping off got behind them on 6th May and transformed them from poor cousins to a meaningful force in government? Overnight they could become a major player.

Let's not forget, when the Tories were kicked out by Blair the schools were literally falling down (well, the one down the road from me was) and the NHS was struggling with A&E patients waiting untreated in corridors on trolleys for up to 18 hours. Dave doesn't really have any answers does he? He just wants to get into power using the original Blair techniques of gloss and spin. As for taking your jacket and tie off and rolling your sleeves up - Dave give us a break - it's bollocks.

Labour have blown it. I have voted labour all my life but after so many years in power there is still too much wrong with Britain. You can't blame Brown for the global banking disaster. Or can you? What kind of government lets mad dogs run 'The City' the way it has been since Big Bang? A toothless incompetent one - that's what kind. There are more Oxbridge men in Whitehall that there are in the Square Mile - there is no excuse!!

Brown isn't going to do anything about the remorseless seemingly endless great British Banking rip-off.

Dyed in the wool Old Etonian, borne by her establishment, washed by her rivers Cameron certainly isn't.

Nick Clegg says he is. Wow!

A man who is prepared to take the Banks in hand - something that really matters to 10 million of us - is worth ten thousand men who can only prattle on about restoring faith in politics by regulating politicians' expenses better. I mean, trivia or what? Do it but shut up about it. The only way they can restore faith in politicians now will be to actually do something that really matters to us - the voters. Like stopping rip off Banking for a start.

Isn't that the sort of thing we expect them do to when we vote for them? Take matters in hand? Right wrongs?

Both Labour and Conservative are saying the same thing: "We will advise the Banks to make their charges clearer". Well - I am entirely clear on their charges and when and how they will exercise them - I don't need any explanation and I doubt that the other 9,999,999 of you do either - because in fact they already send letters out telling you what they are going to do - although it appears that many poltiticiams are unaware of that. What we need is for them to stop stealing our money.

To my knowledge no law has been passed that authorises the Banks to 'fine' their customers. So Brown and Cameron need to either commit to stopping them from stealing from us or alternatively put a Bill through Parliament authorising them to steal from us. Because right now they are stealing money from peoples' accounts just because they can. That is a criminal act in my book and if Brown and Cameron condone it they should put it in writing.

So, as for Nick Clegg - as the Americans would say: "It's a no-brainer isn't it"?

I'm not going to tell you to Vote Lib Dem because it's your call, but voting for Labour or Conservative won't get us out of this abominable situation. Having read the article at the top of this page I know what I'm going to do. It seems like the best sporting chance that Britain has got of changing for the better.

Could this actually be the moment of CHANGE they have been talking about? A GENUINE SHIFT IN THE BALANCE OF POWER for the first time in 60 years.

Now you pay. Vote to pay less and vote for real change at last.

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