Educate Your MP

The Objective: Get them to Understand

Most MPs will not be aware of the fact that money is created by private banks. That isn’t their fault – MPs are expected to be experts on every issue under the sun, and it’s simply not possible to be an expert on everything. Even many professional economists do not fully understand the way in which the banking sector operates, or how banks receive massive subsidies and benefits as a result of the way they do business. In fact, if you’ve watched the 3 minute video A simple solution to the debt crisis then you will already understand more than the majority of MPs and economists currently do.

So our first objective is simple: to get MPs to understand that banks create money. If we can get every MP to watch a 3 minute video (Right click and choose ‘save target as…’ to download: A simple solution to the debt crisis)  and realise that high-street banks have acquired the power to create money and are pocketing a nice profit from doing so, then that will be a huge step forward.

So this is what we would like every MP to do first:

1. Watch the 3-minute video at www.positivemoney.org.uk
2. Read the quotes from the Bank of England, which confirm that high-street banks now create most of the money in the economy.
3. Reply to you to confirm that they are aware of the issue.

If they are particularly interested in the issue then the Positive Money team would be very happy to meet them and discuss in more detail.

How to Deal with Your MP

There are three main ways that you can speak to you MP.

1. Meet them in person (most effective!)
2. Write a letter (quite effective)
3. Send an personalised email (slightly less effective than a posted letter)
4. Send a standardised email or postcard – pretty ineffective, so we don’t do it.

Meet Your MP in Person

As a citizen of the UK you have a right to meet your MP in person. Most MPs hold ‘constituency surgeries’ every Friday (or every other Friday). You arrange an appointment for a particular day and then go to meet your MP.

Meeting your MP in person is the most effective way to get them to take an interest in your issues – they are more likely to remember you, and you have the opportunity to build a relationship in person.

Here’s a step-by-step process for meeting your MP:

1. Identify your MP by typing in your postcode at the TheyWorkForYou website.
2. Google your MPs name with the words ‘constituency office’ to find the phone number for your MP’s constituency office.
3. Give the constituency office a call to request an appointment at the next MP’s surgery. Make sure you get the details for when and where the surgery will be, what time your appointment is, and how long your meeting is (10 minutes is typical).
4. When you have an appointment, send us an email to let us know. We’re happy to call you before the meeting to talk through any questions and concerns that you may have.
5. Prepare a rough outline of your talk using the info further below on this page. You don’t need to prepare too much (as you will only have a short time with them) and you don’t need to be an expert on all the issues. There’s a simple model for the meeting below, which you can follow without needing much extra preparation.

Model Meeting (The Easy Version)

1. Briefly explain your background and explain why you are concerned about the way that banks are allowed to create money by making loans, whilst other people suffer the fall-out of the financial crisis. (For example, are you a nurse working for the NHS? Or maybe you own a local business and object to paying higher taxes to subsidise the banks who caused the crisis).
2. Take your laptop, if possible, and play them the ‘Why Do Banks Create So Much Money’ video at www.positivemoney.org.uk. You can also download the video here (Quicktime format, .mov, playable with iTunes or Quicktime) so that you don’t need to find an internet connection. Most MPs will be talked at all day, so an animation will make a change and is the simplest way of explaining the issue.
3. Explain that you also found this difficult to believe the first time that you heard it, but then you saw the proof. Give them the handout ‘Do Banks Really Created Money (Download)’. This handout includes quotes from the Bank of England and from respected economist such as Martin Wolf of the Financial Times, so even if your MP finds it difficult to believe that banks are able to create money, this will provide the proof.
4. Explain that in 1844 the government made it illegal for high street banks to print £5 and £10 notes, and that ever since then, the Treasury has got the profit on creating paper money (£18.5 billion in the last 10 years alone). Explain that because the law has never been updated to account for electronic money, we’re losing hundreds of billions of government revenue AND paying hundreds of billions in extra tax as a result.
5. Ask if they believe that high-street banks should have the right to create money, and ask them to consider these issues in more detail. If they want to know more, Ben Dyson of Positive Money will be able to go and meet them ([email protected]).

Writing to Your MP

Meeting your MP in person is by far the most effective thing to do, but if you can’t do that, then a letter, written and posted to your MP, can be quite effective.

1. Identify your MP by typing in your postcode at the TheyWorkForYou website
2. Google your MPs name with the words ‘constituency office’ to find the postal address for your MP’s constituency office.
3. Write your letter following the guidelines below and template letter, and then send it to your MP.
4. Please let us know when you receive a response, and if you can, send us a photocopy or scan via email to [email protected].

Email your MP

Follow all the advice given under ‘Writing to Your MP’ above and the templates below, but send it via email rather than letter. You can find your MP’s email address by entering your postcode on this page. A personalised email is almost as good as a posted letter, but for some reason letters can be slightly more effective (the fact that you’ve gone to the effort of writing a letter shows that you’re quite passionate about the issue).

1. Identify your MP by typing in your postcode at the TheyWorkForYou website
2. Google your MPs name with the words ‘constituency office’ to find the email address for your MP’s constituency office.
3. Write your email following the guidelines below and template letter and then send it to your MP.
4. Please let us know when you receive a response, and send a copy to [email protected]

Guidelines for Letters/Emails

Some sample emails are below but the following is a general guide to writing style.

Sample Letter

There is a sample letter here which you are welcome to copy and paste. If you want to make changes to make your letter more personal, follow the guidelines below.

Writing Style

Be polite! Don’t be rude, don’t shout and don’t insult the MP. Many MPs receive angry, ‘shouty’ letters from constituents, but if you start by insulting your MP, he’s unlikely to want to help you.

Don’t be overdramatic: It’s best if you don’t sound angry (even if you really are) – it’s much better to sound calm and rational. Consider these words of advice from an MP who actually does understand the issue:

“The tone must be thoughtful, polite and respectful if it is to get a helpful response. Most MPs will not have thought about this complex issue and that is fundamentally not their fault. If they can be helped to understand the harm done by the present banking system to millions of lives, then they ought to come on board. We get plenty of abuse, and abuse around a complex issue [such as banking] will get short shrift.”

Keep it short - more words of advice from an MP:

“Key points should all fit within one page. Any longer is counterproductive. You can include extra content as an enclosure (i.e. Stuff it in the envelope on a separate piece of paper or as an attachment to an email) rather than send a letter that is 3 or 4 pages.”

It can be tempting to write an essay to try and convince your MP, but put yourself in their shoes: most MPs receive a 12 inch deep pile of letters every day, not to mention a few hundred emails. They don’t have time to read everything in detail, and an essay is more likely to get skim-read, while a short, precise letter is more likely to be read and responded to.

Don’t tell them you’ll never vote for them again: if you already said you’ll never vote for them, then why would they want to spend time and energy listening to you?

Don’t rant about their party’s policies, track records, David Cameron, Ed Miliband or anybody else – that’s just counter-productive. Just stick to the point.

Finish with a clear request - give them something simple and concrete that they can do in a few minutes. We would recommend asking them to watch the three minute video at www.positivemoney.org.uk and confirm that they are aware of the issue. Alternatively, ask them a simple question, such as whether they believe that we should be cutting public services while banks are being subsidised. As the campaign develops, we’ll have more concrete requests for MPs, but the first step is to get them to be aware of this issue.