Differences of Opinion

Graduate of the U.S. naval Academy, motivational speaker and author Denis Waitley once said, “Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker. Failure is delay, not defeat” and while I cannot dispute my failure to bring anyone to account for falsifying my mortgage application continually provides me with an education, the delays incurred by misinformation, ignorance and regulatory belligerence have repeatedly buried me in despair.

Over the years I have spoken to countless fellow victims, whistleblowers, financial journalists, debt consultants, financial regulators and solicitors as well as a plethora of FB friends and twitter users, all of whom have generously shared their expertise. Each nugget of information they have so generously imparted has been carefully stored in my numerous lever arch files, saved on my computer and crammed into my head. As a result, both my head and my computer are now low on memory and my office cupboards are fit to burst.

Yet still, despite my best efforts, there has been nothing to report which warrants even the loosest interpretation of success.

I have been thwarted at almost every turn by the pomposity and arrogance of those working for the collections and mortgage departments at HBOS. Instead of thoroughly investigating my mortgage mis-selling claim they chose misinformation and an unyielding reluctance to share information (information which they are required by law to provide) to deflect and delay my progress and towards an individual reporting mortgage fraud, the Financial Conduct Authority exhibits disinterest and thinly veiled disdain. The Financial Ombudsman Service was equally ineffectual. Not only did they display repeated instances of bungling incompetence which cost me nigh on two years in delays but they actively condoned HBOS’ obstructive behaviour to withhold information which was pivotal to my success.

Since reporting the fraudulent content of my mortgage application to the police last year, I have been told to seek legal advice and, in an effort to secure this, I have presented my case to six different law firms. While my initial approaches have all generated sufficient interest to prompt a request for further information, to date each firm has come back to me with a variety of inaccurate reasons for not wishing to proceed. Discovering that my unsolicited education in mortgage mis-selling has already furnished me with a level of expertise which now exceeds that of some professionals, has not only leftme despondent but my repeated failures to secure legal representation have cost me even more time in delays.

As a result, I now have only eight short months left to make my case before it is deemed statute barred. 

With no money to fund it and only the Fee Free Advice of my Local CAB to rely upon, I had all but given up hope of finding someone to take my mis-selling case to court. Writing further posts to chart my repeated failures seemed pointless, especially when the sole purpose of starting my Life after Debt blog was to raise awareness of ongoing banking criminality, become better informed and increase fellow banking victim's chances of success. However, after seven long years of in depth investigation (while simultaneously dealing with HBOS’ bullyboys) and writing 184 blog posts about each painful step along the way, it seems my determination might have finally paid off.

Thanks to a fellow victim of HBOS who made contact with me after reading my Soulless and Searching post ,I have today received the Terms of Engagement from a firm of lawyers who not only believe my case has merit but wish to take instruction on a no win no fee basis.  As time is short, they have already sent my documentary evidence to a London barrister who specialises in financial cases and mis-selling and I, along with several other HBOS victims in a similar predicament, await his opinion. 

I am nothing short of delighted.

Denis Waitley also said, “[Failure] is a temporary detour, not a dead end. Failure is something we can avoid only by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing” and those who know me will doubtless agree that saying nothing, doing nothing and being nothing has never been one of my strong points. 

So, on the turn of a sixpence, I find my fingers are firmly crossed once again!

From Ashes to Ashes

Sixteenth century English poet, critic and writer Samuel Johnson once said, “Fraud and falsehood... dread examination. Truth invites it” and yet more than five years on since the near demise of HBOS, the long promised FSA/FCA investigation remains as elusive as the truth and the prosecution of those responsible.

Instead, some would have us believe the future is bright.

• Chief executive of Lloyds bank, Antonio Horta Osorio, says the ,“Hard work of the last two years has paid off”
• Chief executive of the FCA, Andrew Wheatley says, “New mortgage rules will hard wire common sense into mortgage lending”
• And Prime Minister David Cameron says the government is succeeding in “turning Britain around...and from the ashes of a great recession we are building a great revival”

However in stark contrast,

• Bank of England Governor Mark Carney has warned that Britain’s booming housing market represents the “biggest risk” to economic recovery.
• Lloyds PPI compensation bill has topped 8 billion with a further 750m set aside for future claims
• Financial Ombudsman Service figures reveal mortgage complaints are on the increase because more and more householders are unable to meet their commitments
• Analysts tell us PPI provision should no longer be classed as an “exceptional item” by UK banks as compensation claims for miss sold products are here to stay
• And,
• The Prime Minister’s brother, Alexander Cameron QC, along with Judge Anthony Leonard warned that the system of fair trials for some very high profile banking frauds are in jeopardy as a result of legal aid cut backs. They believe, “The public is entitled to expect that alleged victims have their complaints heard and defendants are given the chance to clear their names, not to mention the legitimate expectation that a government, which has talked tough on ensuring the appalling behavior of the financial sector is not repeated, delivers on its promises”.

For those who have paid the price of HBOS’ fraud and falsehood, the truth still falls a long way short of a revival and although Antonio Horta Osorio’s two years of hard work may well have “paid off” for him personally, for the vast majority of banking crisis victims, incomes (in real terms) have dropped, homes have been lost, austerity measures impact on every facet of their lives and legal assistance is even harder to access. Furthermore, while “new” mortgage rules may well reduce the number of miss sold mortgages in the future, they, along with the unsuprisingly similar “old rules”, remain nothing more than regulatory recommendations and, if the past truly is a reasonable indicator for the future, it would be fair to assume it is still just as unlikely there will not be much by way of consequence for those who continue to flout them. 

In truth the “ashes of the great recession” are very much part of  the landscape for the vast majority of us and not only do they fall a long way short of fuelling a revival, but instead they provide a harsh reminder of how little has changed for those who fiddled to secure immense returns while the UK economy burned. Furthermore, if the government and the regulators remain committed to endorsing criminal banking behavior with apathy, it will actively encourage the Antonio Horta Osario's of this world, their "hard working" executive offices and the toothless Financial Ombudsman Service to ignore the victims of the banking crisis too. Little wonder HBOS are unprepared to believe my six year old claim that my mortgage was arranged fraudulently or that my six week old request to supply me with further evidence to aid my case against their broker, even warrants a reply.

Influential English novelist, journalist and critic of social injustice Eric Arthur Blair, whose pen name was George Orwell, once said, “In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act” and I for one believe when it comes to HBOS, a much needed revolutionary act is long overdue.

Fines and Punishment

Psychiatrist, social critic of moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, author and academic, Thomas Szasz, once said, “Punishment is now unfashionable...[instead] we prefer a meaningless collective guilt to meaningful individual responsibility” and little illustrates this more effectively than the regulatory approach to the fraudulent actions of the banks.

Over the past three decades, a fraternity of banksters have systematically condoned, endorsed and turned a blind eye to illegal activities which have made them multi-millionaires but, to date, not one of them has personally paid their dues for crimes which include;

•  Money laundering for drug cartels
•  Money laundering for terrorists
•  Mortgage fraud when initiating loans
•  Repackaging toxic loans and selling them as low risk investments
•  Betting against these investments to make themselves money
•  Engaging in insider trading and market manipulation
•  Misrepresenting their losses and their loan books
•  Miss selling vast numbers of financial products
• Rigging Libor ratings

As a result of their actions, a culture of criminality has permeated the core of what was once a service industry and when the consequences of banking avarice rendered too big to fail institutions insolvent, the UK was faced with the prospect of economic collapse and public anarchy or picking up the pieces with tax payers money.

Told we had no reasonable alternative but elect the latter we,

• Committed to spending up to 1.162 trillion pounds on bailing out the banks,
• Allocated 10 billion pounds to banking reform,

And,

• Were promised those responsible would be taken to task

As a result of investigations into the skulduggery of the banking crisis both the UK and the US regulators have levied the following fines;

      HSBC (2012). Fine: £1.1 billion. Reason: Money laundering

      JP Morgan (2013). Fine: £572 million. Reason: 'London Whale' trading scandal 
      

     UBS (2009). Fine: £485 million. Reason: Tax evasion

     Standard Chartered (2012). Fine: £415 million. Reason: Anti-sanctions

       ING (2012). Fine: £385 million. Reason: Anti-sanctions

       Goldman Sachs (2010). Fine: £359 million. Reason: Misleading investors

        Credit Suisse (2009). Fine: £333 million. Reason: Anti-sanctions

        ABN Amro (2010). Fine: £311 million. Reason: Anti-sanctions

        Barclays (2010). Fine: £280 million. Reason: Libor manipulation

        Lloyds Bank (2009). Fine: £218 million. Reason: Anti-sanctions

But opting for a meaningless collective punishment funded wholly from banking profits and not the pockets of perpetrators has done nothing to arrest the greed which has driven us to a banking crisis and has instead allowed those responsible to;

• Keep their jobs
• Keep their ill gotten gains
• Avoid prosecution
•  Enlist George Osborne to fight the EU bonus caps in court.

And this year,

• Share a bonus pool of nearly £4 billion which amounts to a shade less than all the larger fines of the US and UK banks put together and gives the recipients an estimated 82.2% rise on the bonus pool  of last year.

In complete contrast to the collective luck of the UK’s banksters, over the past five years,

•  3.7 million UK jobs have been lost
•  35,000 to 50,000 people in the UK have lost their homes each and every year
•  Debt fueled suicide has increased and in some areas has risen by as much as 64% 

And,

•  It has become all too evident that there is no incentive for either the Financial Ombudsman Service or Halifax Bank of Scotland (now disguised as Lloyds) to give my five year old mortgage "miss selling" complaint the attention it deserves.

Ancient Greek philosopher, author, teacher and polymath, Aristotle once said, “The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear than reverence, and they refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness” but if the penchant for collective and meaningless punishment continues to leave those responsible for the banking crisis unaccountable for their crimes, then fear and foulness may well be all we, the victims of the banking crisis, can anticipate.

This is quite simply unjust.

Socially Useless Banking Regulation

Ardent socialist, co-founder of the London School of economics, novelist and playwright George Bernard Shaw once said, “Until the men of action clear out the talkers, we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none” and true to form, the talkers would have us believe austerity measures along with the reform of banking regulation have put both the heartache and the economic implications of the banking scandal firmly behind us.

Keen to keep us all abreast of the good news we are told;

•       “Britain is holding its nerve...the British economy is on the mend...[and]... we are going to make sure that everyone benefits from this recovery.” Chancellor George Osborne
•          “People need clarity over interest rates... to remove any uncertainty and to allow them to make economic decisions.” Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney
•        “Britain is seeing the green shoots of recovery...it is healing...and it is out of intensive care,"David Cameron’s spokesman to Reuters (on a daily basis) 
•      "Investors from around the world [are] investing in a British bank [and it] is a sign the British economy is turning a corner", George Osbourne after the sale of 6% of Lloyds bank to overseas investors.

However, for the  99% of us who occupy the real world, the picture remains significantly less rosy;

• The long overdue FSA/FCA investigative report into the collapse of HBOS is to be delayed until next year.
• “Economic recovery has been restricted to those at the top...it is not recovery for most people” Labour spokesman to Reuters 
• “A significant cohort of UK borrowers could experience financial difficulties if interest rates were to rise during a period of subdued income growth,” Financial Stability Report
•  Living standards in the UK are lower than they have been for a decade because inflation is still outstripping wage increases Reuters
•  Barclays and Lloyds have set aside a further 450 million to compensate people they have defrauded and Lloyds have used delaying tactics to encourage complainants to give up on their claims. 

In addition to these far from comforting social truths,  

• The recently published bi-annual Financial Stability Report states, the banks Financial Policy Committee relaxed the regulations for the UK’s big four lenders to allow them to "reduce their capital requirements by 20%"  and in so doing has provided them with a further 70 billion of cunningly disguised bailout.

Meanwhile, trapped between the legacy of widespread and hitherto unpunished banking avarice and the greed of my landlord, my family and I wait, without patience, for;

• HBOS to supply me with information I require to progress my case of complaint to the FOS
• The FOS to respond to my 1 August request that they ask HBOS to supply me with the information I have been awaiting for eight long months
• My landlord's builders to finish their noisy decimation of the Grade 2 listed property I have called home for the past five years

 And,

•  A letter from my landlord’s solicitor to advise me he wishes to increase my rent by a staggering 50% as a result of the installation of an extremely expensive, entirely unsolicited, sustainably fuelled heating system.

In October 2012, Any Haldene, Executive Director of Financial Stability and member of the Financial Policy Committee, made a speech to Occupy Economics to advocate socially useful banking. He said “concrete, practical proposals for change” would be delivered by way of banking reforms which addressed the five “c’s” (culture, capital, compensation, credit and competition) and further stated, “We know too that the costs of crises are felt disproportionately by the worst-off in society whose living standards tend to fall not just relatively but absolutely”. Yet, five arduous years on since my family and I lost our home, our livelihood and our financial futures, the talk continues while, for the 99%, the painful consequences of the crisis remain unchanged.

Stoic philosopher, inspirational master of equanimity and the last of the five good emperors of Rome, Marcus Aurelius, once said, “The guest at the lower end of the middle couch...who is digging in his big mouth with a toothpick is a fraud. He has no teeth” and while I wait, without mercy for the toothless Financial Ombudsman Service, to progress my miss selling complaint against HBOS, I can only conclude both the talkers, the bankers and the regulators are precisely the same.

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.

New Year Bonus

Ancient Roman and Christian theologian, St Augustine (354-430 AD) said , “In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized crime?”  and six hundred years later,  not only does sovereignty continue to prove a lucrative pastime but twenty-first century organised crime is now being run by an elitist and untouchable group of bankers. This absence of justice has been the product of auditors who have endorsed rather than audit, governments who have promoted greed over governance and financial regulators who have condoned criminal behaviour rather than condemned it.

Knowing this only serves to make it nothing less than incendiary to discover 80% taxpayer owned Royal Bank of Scotland plans to pay (despite a 43% decrease in its share values resulting a loss of 11 billion pounds from it's market value and the culling of five thousand RBS jobs) 4.5 million pounds to its executives in contractual bonuses over the coming weeks and, with a waive of the auditory magic wand, the banking deities have been permitted to ride roughshod over fairplay and decency in order to harvest their legitimised, but nevertheless morally obscene, rewards for failure.

Unlike those who have failed us, my own efforts have been rewarded with not so much as a listening ear let alone any understanding. Instead financial hardship for my family continues and yet another response from the Financial Ombudsman’s adjudicator, this time in answer to my complaint against Lloyds, proves those who police and regulate the banksters have little interest in fairplay or justice. Once again, and in the same tone as her FOS colleague who investigated my HBOS complaint, I have been informed there is no merit in taking Lloyds to task over such minor issues as their,

• Fabrication of my consent to make a payment arrangement,
• Refusal to supply documentary evidence of this alleged payment arrangement
• Constant harassment of me for reneging on their fictitious agreement.
• Failure to reply any of my letters with a meaningfully explanation

In addition, my FOS adjudicator feels that it is inappropriate to ask Lloyds to consider my financial circumstances when assessing Lloyds behaviour towards me but instead states she is unable suggest Lloyds write off debt on compassionate grounds. Not only does her statement completely ignore the CAB's request made to Lloyds (on my behalf) to do precisely this but her sentiments are wholly at odds with regulatory guidelines encouraging lenders to show compassion and forgiveness to those who are impoverished and vulnerable. 

David Cameron regularly speaks of responsible capitalism but rewarding the bankers for their failures while ignoring the dire circumstances of their victims is nothing short of elitist capitalism and this falls a very long way short of responsible. In the words of Woodrow Wilson, “the government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses, their employers and their special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy” and if this is indeed the case, the victims of these untouchable banksters will need a New Year’s bonus of resolve and stamina because a fairer future is clearly going involve a fight.

Here's hoping 2012 is the year in which we will finally be heard.

Disproportionate benefits

"Voltaire once said, “The art of the government is to make two thirds of a nation pay all it possibly can for the benefit of the other third” and it is clear from Simon Duke’s Mail On line piece  that Eric Daniels has benefited immensely from an initiative of this kind.

While the government led and tax payer fed bale out for LLoyds Banking Group remains 9.3bn in the red, largely due to the gross misconduct of HBOS's risk mismanagement strategy, ousted Daniels former HBOS CEO has succeeded in adding to last year’s total remuneration package of 2.57 million pounds by securing a further £561,000 over the last nine months for doing absolutely nothing. With a pension fund of 5.03million pounds to look forward and an income of £210,000 per anum set aside for Daniels' retirement, it is clearly very "nice work if you can get it".

In contrast, I , along with many other HBOS victims, have repeatedly been told by Eric Daniels’ Executive office to face up to financial responsibilities and repay shortfalls created as a direct result HBOS's flawed business strategy because legal and contractual rights are all that counts and a duty of care to a customer is irrelevant. Beyond legally enforcable morally obligations, HBOS are at liberty to pursue not only me but many other trusting individuals who have fallen foul of a unique and detrimental interpretation of their fair business practises while HBOS's 
bureaucracy and red tape continue to be this errant banker's customers whipping boy. Discharged HBOS Chief Executive, Eric Daniels on the other hand has not only remained cushioned from the economic recession by the obscene bonuses of the past but until recently he has continued to be financially rewarded for his part in bringing both HBOS and Lloyds bank to near destruction.

Incensed by the unaccountability of the untouchable HBOS Executives who wish to inflict the consequences of their actions on their customers, I have,

·        Fine tuned my Ombudsman’s reply of eight pages in the hope they may support my arguments and bare its teeth on my behalf.

·        Submitted another complaint to the Solicitor’s Regulatory Authority informing them of further misdemeanours on the part of HBOS agents, Merrils Ede Solicitors.

Ever hopeful there is someone of consequence left at HBOS who believes,“True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers and not the enrichment of the leaders” I, along with unprecedented numbers of other FOS complainants now wait for an outcome which favours us for a change and not just the banking fat cats. In reality I can't help thinking.....fat chance.

The Pursuit of Happiness

According to government research, the recipe for human happiness has three ingredients, “meaning, mastery and autonomy” and as I take a moment to evaluate my position and make plans for the coming week, I realise how fortunate I have been to have had the perfect blend of all three attributes throughout the summer months. This period of respite has been largely due to the fact the Financial Ombudsman’s Service has been investigating my case against HBOS throughout July and August leaving me a very welcome period of thumb twiddling on the debt fighting front.  

Now that autumnal high winds have replaced gentle summer breezes and a week of the school term is already under our belts, I am aware the time has come to pick up the proverbial baton once again.  Hoping, in the words of  Rich Dad, Poor Dad author, Robert Kiyosaki, “the size of my success is measured only by the strength of my desire; the size of my dream; and the way in which I handle disappointment along the way”, I have endeavoured to,

·        Restore order to the homely chaos that goes hand in hand with having three children, and frequently several grandchildren, at home over the school holidays.

·        Kick start the Friends of the school’s schedule for the coming year by ensuring I can answer a whole plethora of questions my fellow committee members do not yet know they wish to ask.

·        Encourage a sense of urgency in my teenage son for the completion of his university application form, personal statement and campus visits.

·        Embark on all manner of lodger related cleaning and furniture moving in anticipation of the arrival of a new tenant.

·        Mount an attack, with the help of my invaluable friend Chris, on the pile of debt and Ombudsman related paperwork which has been waiting for some child free time to induce clarity of mind

And

·        Research scholarships and bursaries for September 2012 in an effort to secure my daughter’s education in an independent senior school.

Although each and every task carries a unique demand on my ever expanding need for expertise, the hurdle of my daughter’s ongoing schooling has consumed me with an over whelming sense of trepidation not least because, in the case of  bursary assistance, the all important autonomy is most definitely the province of the bursary provider.  In order to explore the chances of securing funding, not only will I have to suffer the indignity of repeatedly disclosing the gory details of my current financial position and aggravate old wounds which are still struggling to heal, but in addition to laying myself bare, I must then listen attentively to the answers I will receive.  Sadly, experience dictates, not everyone wishes they could help.

Over the past three years I have been told by people working within the independent sector,

·        Embarking on the education of my children in a fee paying school, without having secured funding for its completion may well result in them being irreversibly damaged psychologically should they have to leave and enter the state sector before their education is complete.

·        Allowing my children to mix with the those of superior affluence during their school years could cripple their self-esteem for life.

·        Procuring bursaries for the independent education of my children when my husband is unable to repay his business debts is not a lifestyle choice  that endears bursary support.

·        Accepting an independent school place with financial assistance yet without the means with which to fund extracurricular lessons and extracurricular school trips will leave my children feeling ostracised and second rate citizens throughout their educational years.

·        Keeping my children in their prep school increases the risk of the devastating effects of  bullying if they return to the state sector should I be unsuccessful in securing an ongoing bursary funded place for secondary education.

Needless to say these comments all came from schools declining bursary assistance for my daughter because they made a personal judgement about our indebtedness. Thankfully, however, there are also individuals working within the independent sector who, on hearing my sorry tale, appear to have thought, “There, but for the grace of God go I” and it is from these people I have heard the following words of kindness,

·        Bursary and scholarship places are a fundamental part of the Independent Educational Sector and not only do they facilitate the charitable status of these schools but they provide a valuable opportunity to offer education to a broad socioeconomic group.  Bursaries are designed to aid people in your circumstances and it delights us to be able to help.

·        Your daughter will greatly benefit from what we have to offer and would undoubtedly be a credit to our school.  For these reasons we look forward to having an opportunity to help.

·        We are in the fortunate position of being able to offer charitable funding to assist people suffering financial hardship and are very sorry to hear about your difficulties. We are happy to help and hope your financial position improves very soon.

Hoping, this time, when I embark on my bursary quest the size of my success will be measured only by,

·         the strength of my desire to find independent education for my daughter,

·         the size of my dream and not the size of my purse

and

·        the way in which I have handled disappointment and social prejudice along the way,

I made the decision to approach my daughter’s current prep school Head with my dilemma.

To my great relief, not only has he suggested which school I should consider for her but he has also assured me that his personal introduction, extolling the virtues of my daughter’s caring disposition, integrity and scholarly application in all her endeavours, will make her a very attractive and bursary worthy prospective student. His selfless commitment to support me in this matter has instantly restored the autonomy I lacked in the pursuit of my daughter’s educational happiness while providing me with a welcome opportunity to preserve my dignity from further extremely uncomfortable and degrading assaults.

 For this simple act of kindness and gift of human happiness I am truly grateful.

Ernest Hemingway once said, “ In order to write about life, first you must live it,” while William Wordsworth  insists one should “fill the page with the breathing’s of your heart.”  Ever hopeful that I may have succeeded in achieving both I can only conclude that for me finding a bursary for my daughter and writing my blog have proved to have much in common.  The words of newspaper columnist Walter Wesley “Red” Smith describe the process perfectly.

 “Writing is easy. You simple sit down at your type writer, open a vein and bleed.”

Consequences

When speaking of his concerns for the future in 1900, William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army said, “I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be;

·        Religion without the Holy Ghost,

·        Christianity without Christ,

·        Forgiveness without repentance,

·        Salvation without regeneration,

·        Politics without God,

·        Heaven without hell”

I cannot comment on the whereabouts of Christ or the Holy Ghost but on all other counts it appears the bankers are set to benefit from the absence of the very same moral guidelines Booth feared would be lacking in his modern world more than a century ago. 

While David Cameron prepares us for watered down banking reforms instead of the fire and brimstone promises surrounding his election, not only are the individuals responsible for wrecking our economy sitting pretty, but they are also set to continue to enjoy fruits without labour.  Carefully crafted economic scaremongery has some speaking of the proposed retail bank ring fencing being deferred as late as 2019 so they will also be unlikely to be required to repent or regenerate.  Because of this I can not see how they will ever be made to suffer the consequences of their greed driven actions.

I, on the other hand, am expected to pick up the pieces of my life with a hellish £217,000 shortfall hanging over me, take the consequences of HBOS’s decision to create this unrecoverable debt squarely on the chin and accept the words of Antonio Horta Osorio’s very junior lackey from Mortgage Recoveries when he says, in response to my “All I need is you” letter,

“I would like to place on record that I feel that Halifax is fully entitled to pursue you for your liability and has not done anything wrong in this matter.”

With deny, deny, deny remaining firmly on the tip of every HBOS tongue and omnipotence as its guide, I cannot imagine anyone within Lloyds or HBOS thinking twice when laying the consequences of the financial crisis firmly at the feet of the individual while expecting us and the taxpayer to suffer the fall out for their actions for years to come.

This is hardly surprising when those at the top, having appointed a scapegoat or two, have succeeded in keeping their jobs along with their enormous remuneration packages and in so doing cunningly “ring fenced” themselves and their families , together with their personal financial futures, against an economic crisis they created.  Powerless in the face of their own funding shortfalls, governments and regulatory authorities alike continue to keep the feral elite sweet by paying lip service to the radical changes and reforms required to bring this omnipotent banking culture to task.  Because of this, and no doubt after much posturing on all sides, I can see that, yet again, we will find ourselves advised it is safest to dance to the untouchables tune while the economy burns even if  the impoverished individual has no alternative but to pay the price.

William Booth said, “To get a man soundly saved it is not enough to put on him a new pair of breeches, to give him regular work, or even give him a University education. These things are all outside a man, and if the inside remains unchanged your have wasted your labour. You must in some way or other graft  upon the man’s nature, a new nature which has in it the element of the Divine.” I and my family have put on the new breeches, found regular, albeit menial, work and grafted on a new nature with which to face our changed world. It is clear the banks have no intention of doing the same.                                                        

Lucky Devils

While sat at my computer in our rented home enjoying the comfort of our Aga heated kitchen I was asked by my twelve year daughter if our family is lucky. It would have been wholly inaccurate to reply with anything but,“Yes”. However, I am in no doubt that when it comes to home repossession and our subsequent persecution at the hands of the too big to fail banking giant Lloyds/HBOS, there are a substantial number of individuals whose luck amounts to far in excess of mine.

For example;

· Sir Tom Hunter, the Ayrshire entrepreneur, appears to have had millions written off by HBOS throughout 2008/9 at precisely the same time as I was being told letting my home to a tenant was no solution to an arrears problem of (eight months) amounting to £27,000.

· Sir David Murray is said to have lost only 78% of his 720 million when in 2009 the recession hit his business Murray Holdings but HBOS saw fit to forgive 759 million of his company’s unrecoverable debt. As luck would have it he was still worth an estimated 144 million because of this write off whereas I was forced to our assets at a vastly reduced price and have been left with a bill of £217,000.

·Remo Dipre had his share holding completely wiped out when the housing market took a nosedive in 2008/9 and left his company Gladedale with 78 million in losses.  Lucky Dipre benefited from a Lloyds write off 533 million pounds at the time and, unlike me,  there is no sign of him being hounded for the shortfall.

·David Sutherland, also in the housing development market, was another beneficiary of HBOS debt forgiveness in 2009. While was being taken to court to force me to sell because the housing crash had and wiped out my husbands livelihood, his Scottish based company, Tulloch homes, got out of trouble by way of HBOs granting a debt reduction of 68 million pounds.


During these early days of the banking crisis, HBOS’s Chief Executive Peter Cummings was said to have been writing off debt to the tune of 37 million pounds just days before Lloyd's TSB was persuaded to take the HBOS helm. However, this convert policy for debt forgiveness was exclusively for HBOS's lucky corporate and Irish friends while for me, two and half years down the line, the company line remains completely compassionless.

At the time The Irish Times reported, "People want to pay their debts but simply cannot afford to under the terms that were originally agreed" and as a result HBOS will be working with Irish people in these circumstances and writing off shortfalls for those in trouble in both the buy to let market and the residential sector.

Lucky them!

Sadly there is to be no such luck for me as, according to the Financial Ombudsman Service, Lloyds banking Group and the infamous HBOS, a mortgage shortfall write off will remain impossibly out of reach for me because of our contractual obligations. Furthermore I am  advised I will never to be considered for debt forgiveness regardless of how the shortfall came about or the direness of our financial circumstances.

As this is clearly a very unlucky situation for me, it begs me to ask;

· What kind of mortgages did these lucky individuals have if they were not contractual?

· What extenuating circumstances qualified them (and not me) for HBOS mortgage shortfall write offs?

And,

· How the devil can I qualify for similar favours?

I am told "happiness consists more in the small pleasures of every day life that occur, than in the major events of good fortune" but had I enjoyed the good fortunes of the favoured few debt forgiveness would have rescued me from the life sentence of HBOS persecution that I am currently serving when instead, it is the Devil and not happiness who remains in the everyday fabric of my life's detail.

This is nothing short of hugely unfair...