WHY I CAN NEVER TRUST THE BANKS!

The latest issues regarding certain banks rigging the Libor rate should not come as a shock to most people particularly in view of previous wrong-doing that has shaken our trust in the banking institutions. 

I know from personal experience of the type of things they get up to. At the time of my divorce from my first wife during the 1980s, amidst the turmoil that usually accompanies a marriage breakup there was however just one thing my ex-wife and myself did agree about. 

At that time I had an unsecured overdraft for my business account with Barclays that, as far as I was concerned had never been an issue either for the bank or myself. Suddenly, out of the blue I received a High Court writ from the bank demanding immediate repayment of the overdraft. There had been no previous discussion, no letter from the bank - just this unannounced writ. I telephoned Barclays London office to demand a reason for what I considered to be grossly underhanded tactics and was merely told that they wanted their money back. I won't repeat my reaction but let's just say I was more than a little angry by their attitude and their proposed court action. 

Subsequently my former wife and me were called to a meeting with a business manager at our local Barclays business centre whereupon we were pressured in an attempt to force us to agree to a second charge being placed on our matrimonial home. My ex-wife and I both refused to sign the charge papers that Barclays had already prepared because neither of deemed it necessary and, as it was, the overdraft was not for an overly large sum. However, under duress I agreed to convert this to a loan on a normal monthly repayment basis.

When it came to selling the matrimonial home following our divorce, we were confronted with a second charge on the property in favour of Barclays Bank. We both knew full well that we had never signed the second charge documents that Barclays had produced and advised our respective solicitors accordingly. My solicitor immediately wrote to Barclays with an allegation of fraud. This is exactly what it was because my former wife concurred with me that the signatures that appeared on the Barclays document were certainly not ours but had been copied from other documents by somebody in an attempt to make them look like ours. They weren't even very convincing forgeries!

When Barclays received the communication from my lawyers they responded by telephoning me. I was told by the caller, who refused to give his name, that he was speaking from the bank's head office. I was told in no uncertain terms that if I refused to withdraw the fraud allegation 'I would never work again'. I responded by asking whether I should take this threat as an indication that 'some personal harm would be done to me, or whether they intended somehow to put me out of business?'  The man responded by stating 'That will be for you to find out, if you refuse to withdraw your allegation'. I was left feeling totally stunned and from that day on I have never trusted the banks.

ARE WE CONTINUING DOWN THE ROCKY ROAD TO RUIN?

If the financier George Soros is right with his latest predictions the severe cuts being made by the Coalition will plunge Britain back into recession.  Soros is not often wrong and it was his betting against the pound that led to Britain's exit from the European exchange rate mechanism during the time David Cameron was advising Norman Lamont. 

This is not the kind of news that we want to hear, but it suggests how the financial situation might be continuing to spiral out of control. With Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor you expect him to  vehemently oppose George Osborne's economic policies. Labour has described the cuts as 'hurting not working' but Balls' own track record was counter-productive during the time he was advising  Gordon Brown's during the period that virtually bankrupted the country. But Balls does not agree that Labour's spending policies and promise to end 'boom and bust' created the mess we are in and prefers to blame Britain's deficit problems on the global banking crisis. This may be partly true, but Brown is responsible for failing to control the banks.

But with the Alliance saying one thing and Labour saying the opposite, it is no wonder the economy is in dire straits. It is strange how opposing parties always disagree on economic policies which leads one to doubt whether any of them has a clue about controlling the economy. Political debates mean little more than point scoring and since the MP's expenses scandal and Labour's spending spree  the public has every justification for not trusting them.

After the general election I was possibly misguided and believed the idea of a coalition could work by combining the best brains of both parties; now I'm less sure. Initially Vince Cable was extremely credible. After all, for a time he appeared to talk sense and many thought he had sound ideas that would steer the country back towards stability. That ended when he shot himself in the foot by making ridiculous remarks to undercover journalists about how he was going to declare war on Rupert Murdoch. Since his major faux pas Vince lost much of his popularity and now we hear little from him.  

Osborne remains tunnel-visioned over his policies while the Consumer Price Index (CPI) continues to rise, moving from 3.3% in November to 3.7% in December, and the VAT increase to 20% will make high street trading tougher causing retail sales to fall. Fuel prices have increased by their fastest yearly rate and food costs soared by their highest annual increase since May 2009. The Bank of England got it wrong too and has confirmed it expects the CPI to be higher than they had  estimated throughout 2011. While this is grim enough, the Retail Price Index (RPI) that accounts for housing expenses including mortgage repayments, council tax and insurance also increased by 1% to 4.8% - the highest rate in 8 months. None of this inspires confidence.