Unlevel Playing Fields

Philosopher, lawyer and political theorist Marcus Tullius Cicero once said, “When government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent, it is a userer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honourable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself” and using austerity measures to redress the fraudulence of the banks and the greed of the corporate elite does precisely the same.

Those who would have us believe “we are all in this together” insisted,

• Bank bailouts would protect shareholders, help home owners and preserve jobs
• Bankers would use tax payers support to bolster the economy
• Official enquiries would hold those responsible to account
• Government guidelines and financial regulation would protect the vulnerable

However, during almost five years of economic crisis,

• Bailouts continue to save the bankers and not their customers or the economy
• Taxpayer investment provided funds for mis-selling reinbursement and rewards for failure
• FSA investigations held no-one to account bar a few insignificant fines
• Job losses and austerity measures reduced the incomes of the vulnerable and left them stripped of their homes

Before the crisis of 2008 those daring to suggest deregulated, reckless lending would come home to roost were labelled incompetents and lunatics. Four years later, as a direct result of bailout related austerity measures, cut backs dictate my eighty six year old mother cannot receive an attendance allowance unless she has been unable to manage her personal care for more than six months and her GP tells me he is unable to admit her to hospital unless he can secure funding for her treatment with ultra sound evidence for which the waiting list is six to eight weeks. Struggling to address her medical emergency along with her future care while unsuccessfully pressing HBOS to investigate my long overdue complaint, it beggars belief to find our banksters, who to date have remained largely unchallenged, are once again deliberating over how best to pocket obscene rewards for their gargantuan failures while the vulnerable and the innocent pay the price for years to come.

For the vast majority David Cameron’s “aspiration nation” is far from a shiny new goal for our economic future but instead a harsh and painful consequence of our bankers wicked past. After decades of unregulated pillaging, banks have bequeathed us a legacy of cut backs and cover ups and because of this, a few much loved but often fanciful aspirations are all a great many of us now have left. Marcus Tullius Cicero also said, “If the truth were self evident, eloquence would be unnecessary” and despite what some would have us believe, the playing field in this financial crisis is definitely not level however eloquently it is portrayed.

Great Expectations

When American novelist Nicholas Sparks said, “I’ve often over-estimated what I could accomplish in a day [but] under-estimated what I could accomplish in a year” he portrayed my own expectations in the role of a one woman debt fighting machine precisely and it did not occur to I would still engaged in a battle for the facts behind my families financial demise four whole years later.

Despite a background in financial services and one hundred and thirty six years of industry experience amongst my immediate relatives, I was unable to comprehend the logic of the way HBOS chose to deal with the suffering and hardship of my family during the banking crisis of 2008. This only made me all the more determined to embark on a quest for as much information about HBOS as I could possibly lay my hands on.

At first I believed I was alone in my distress; my research soon revealed nothing could have been further from the truth. While I had been consumed by the shock of our financial demise and the effect it was having on my children, the media had been awash with the devastation bankster's criminal avarice had reaped on the global economy. Initially hoping government promised rescue packages, interest rate cuts and lenders forbearance combined with a substantial offer of rental income to service our mortgage would begin to ease our difficulties, it soon became clear HBOS had no intention of behaving with compassion or forbearance and were instead intent on recapitalising their coffers with the forced sale and repossession of many people’s residences including our own.

Once my home was no longer mine, I was convinced HBOS would, like 80% of the other banks my husband owed, write off the £217,000 shortfall created by their fire sale when I and the CAB reminded them of our dire financial circumstances. Sadly, instead relentless pursuit at the hands of their debt collectors was the route HBOS chose so, with nothing further to lose and much to the delight of the CAB, my solicitor, several good friends and some very sympathetic bankers, I decided to go public by posting my story on the Internet.

A complete newcomer to blogging little more than a year ago and now the proud recipient of 10,000 page views, I originally embarked on my social media journey to expose HBOS’ brutish behaviour. However, during my subsequent voyage of economic discovery, I realised my suffering as a result of HBOS avarice was far from an isolated incident. Endemic of a light tough regulatory banking system which rewards greed, criminality and failure with untold wealth, the list of those on the receiving end of the bankster’s big stick was all but never ending.

Disillusioned with the reluctance of the FSA, FOS and the government to get to grips with widespread banking fraud I have, over the last year, documented every irrational and often sexist remark I have encountered from Lloyds, HBOS and their regulators during my campaign for a financial future. In the process I have learned the following.

·        Resolving the banking crisis will require radical surgery and quiet determination

·        Britain ignores this wave of financial crime at its peril

And we must all,

·        Emancipate ourselves from slavery

Now, almost eighteen months since I first started writing about banking skulduggery, I am nothing short of delighted to hear the New Wilberforce Alliance has been launched to instigate change. Brain child of whistle blower Paul Moore, former head of HBOS risk management, this organisation promises to campaign for radical reform in our banking sector and a return to corporate values which embrace ecologically sound motives as well as moral ones. I wish every success to the honourable endeavours of the New Wilberforce Alliance and hope, with the help of its growing number of supporters, the volume is raised on the public’s repeated demands for a brighter and ethical future.

It is said, “When the world whispers, give up, when hope whispers, try one more time” and because I remain hopeful of a better future, not only for my family but for generations to come, Paul Moore has my whole hearted support.

No Change of Circumstance

US president, Ronald Reagan once said, “Governments view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. And if it stops moving subsidise it” however if this is indeed the economic philosophy of the UK government too there is clearly a great deal of latitude in its interpretation as, to date, “if it keeps moving regulate it” has yet to register on the banking reform To Do list while “if it stops moving subsidise it” has only been applicable if it further strengthens the position (and the power) of the banksters.

For the vast majority of us, economic crisis has meant a 3% decline in wages (in real terms) but, despite being the villains in the mix, the banking elite have enjoyed a very different outcome. Instead of wage cuts and austerity measures they have enjoyed both tax breaks and subsidies along with a very respectable 37% increase in their remuneration packages while “ New Few”  have basked in an even more astounding 49% increase on 2010 earnings amounting to more than 900 times that of an average wage packet. 

David Cameron may wish us to believe we are all “in this together” but good sense dictates we are most definitely not and where Obama’s “settlement” to rescue homeowners with underwater mortgages has admittedly fallen foul of state governors discretionary powers to use these funds to prop up their deficits, our UK government has paid lip service to justice for the victims of banking fraud and instead sold on shortfall debt arising from RBS repossessions to replenish the coffers depleted by bank bailouts while repeatedly turning a blind eye to the crimes of the banking elite.

As the gap widens between the rich and the poor and irresponsible banking continues to go both unpunished and unregulated, it is only the Icelandic government who appear to have addressed the distress of the individual.  Debt forgiveness of residential mortgages over 110% of their 2008 valuations has not only played a huge part in rescuing their economy but it has saved a large proportion of their householders too. However, in the UK oligarchs continue to rule our politicians, reports of banking fraud continue to fall on deaf ears and as a result those of us with Bank of Scotland created mortgage shortfalls can only look forward to endless years of persecution born out of widespread regulatory lethargy and banking avarice.

British writer, novelist, columnist, Conservative Party politician and 3rd Baronet, Sir William Robert Ferdinand Mount says, “Britain will begin to heal its divisions only when oligarchs and their opposite, the poor, are reconnected to the rest of the society, so that the first are no longer seen as uncontrollable and the second as irredeemable”. Unfortunately, for the less than affluent individual this is unlikely to become a government directive because, if my own HBOS experience is anything to go by, the government along with our errant bankers have one fundamental viewpoint in common.

They believe, because they are all in it together, the individuals who makes up the 99% simply do not count.

Cabbages and Things

                                               
I, like Woodrow Wilson, the 28th President of the United States of America, have always been amongst those who believe that the greatest freedom of speech [is]the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking". Finding myself silenced by laryngitis for the last few days has provided me with an ideal opportunity to test this theory.

So far I have heard;

·        the US Justice Department has struggled to find adequate evidence to press criminal charges against senior executives of major lenders despite a multitude of mortgage documents bearing evidence of recently forged signatures and illegal alterations being made available to them. They remain convinced their hands are tied regardless of the U.S. Treasury’s confirmation that it is conducting a civil investigation into 4,500 illegal foreclosures while attorneys representing service members estimate banks have foreclosed on up to 30,000 military personnel in potential violation of the law.

·        Shane O’Riordain (Group Communications Director of the Lloyds banking group) saying on Radio 4, “It’s entirely right for companies, both our company and others, to pay bonuses when performance targets have been met” only a few hours before HBOS whistle blower Paul Moore explained, also on Radio 4, the flip side to this “reward for growth at any cost culture” was a publicly awarded cabbage for those who failed or, in his case, a lunacy label for warning of the economic risks.

·        Big banks continue to believe they are not only fair and fit for purpose, but essential for our continued welfare. They insist people should stop complaining and calling for regulatory measures to safeguard our economic future but instead, knuckle down to suffer whatever deprivation is necessary and leave them (in some cases the very same people who caused the economic crisis in the first place) to get on with fixing the economic crisis.

And on the home front:

·        Lloyds TSB’s collections department insist, in spite of the CAB’s written confirmation to the contrary, their file notes are evidence that my mature, part-time and voluntary CAB representative rang their Lloyds TSB collections department at 6.42 a.m. on the morning of 11 August 2010 to offer to make a payment arrangement on my behalf.

·        the Ombudsman’s adjudicator has explained, yet again that, in spite of originally initiating this particular ombudsman’s compliant on the basis that neither I, nor the CAB, had ever entered into a payment arrangement with Lloyds TSB, it is not her role to uphold my complaint by insisting, (as per my repeated requests) Lloyds communicate directly with me, just because they might have made a mistake about my entering apayment arrangement.

And

·        Faced with figures from Lloyds own housing growth tables for 2006-2008 which support  my case for the over-valuation of my property, I have been told my £217,000 mortgage shortfall is too “remote” to provide a causal link to support a loss for which I can sue.

It is said each of us are given a little spark of madness at birth and because of this it is important not to lose it. If my own week is anything to go by, there is absolutely no danger of this as I am clearly surrounded by either fools or madmen 

And,

In honour of International women’s day, our fair share of mad women too.

Rot and Romans

Roman senator and historian Cornelius Tacitus once said, "A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of a few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all" and while I continue to smart from the lack of impartiality, unbridled prejudice and misplaced assumptions of the Financial Ombudsman’s Service towards my HBOS complaint, I cannot help but wonder how much more acquiescence I, along with the “ Occupy” protesters worldwide, am expected to endure at the hands of financial regulatory impotence.

Hearing that St Paul’s Cathedral’s backers are dominated by banking interests worth more than £450 billion, 60% of its financial supporters are linked to finance and a large proportion of the trustees have a direct interest in investment banking, it is little wonder the church, like the politicians whose campaign funding relies on the favours of the corporate elite, are dithering as to which side of the fence they wish to sit on in this high profile battle for an ethical economy. It is also unsurprising to find the Corporation of the City of London’s weapon of choice for the dissolution of the Occupy St Paul’s protesters is health and safety. It is however, nothing short of infuriating to witness the ease with which a mere handful of people are able to put the wheels in motion to guard against a perceived danger via health and safety legislation when it is compared with the softly softly approach that has so far been adopted by regulators and governments alike in the face of an actual, and ongoing, global financial crisis. It is nothing short of ludicrous in the light of widespread public outcry for an urgent solution to halt the banking and corporate elites continued looting of the worlds economy.

After reading both HBOS whistle blower Paul Moore’s article, along with that of former banker John Fullerton, both of which vehemently support the need for a return to an economy where “finance is its servant and not its master”, it is clear that a winter of discontent is not only on the cards for the Occupy movement but it is also on the lips and in the hearts of a collective that is not on the steps of St Paul’s and neither is it outside the New York stock exchange. This cry “for the greed and self interest of the minority to be put aside in favour of an economy that promotes a more equitably shared prosperity and respects the physical limits of our planet” seems to be on the lips of an ever increasing number of individuals.

I, for one, sincerely hope my reply to the Financial Ombudsman’s adjudicator in which I request she adhere to FSO's words of intent as stated in their own mission statement will play its part in facilitating a regulatory change. Regulatory change that not only prevents the sweeping of the 99%’s interests under the carpet in favour of keeping the rich and powerful sweet but instead takes those responsible to task and passes judgement on them in a real and consequential manner.

Tacitus also said, “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws”. So I wish to declare that I, housewife and mother of five, grandmother of six, Chairman of the Friends of my children's school and debt fighter extraordinaire, with the help of my trusty friend and confidant Chris (mother of one) plan to make sure these numerous laws are used to serve and protect me from the corrupt. For this reason my fourteen page letter to the Financial Ombudsman’s Service took Chris and I three whole days to write. I can't imagine the FOS are going to have much fun reading it but I live in hope that, at the very least, it starts the meaningful dialogue for which I have waited so long.