Dear Mr Mervyn King,My wife and I have been
noting with concern news reports about
problems with the world’s economy.
Fortunately, we
have modest savings and a frugal
lifestyle and so, thus far, have been
largely unaffected by the global economic
downturn. We are very worried, however,
about the effect on younger people who
are threatened with redundancy, debt and
repossession.
We are not very
knowledgeable about financial matters,
and so do not really understand what has
caused the current recession. We have
gathered from the news, however, that
matters would be improved if people spent
more money, and we understand that you
are printing additional bank notes for
that purpose.
Although Millie and
I are just ordinary pensioners, we would
like to ‘do our bit’ as our
parents did in 1939.
If you would like
to send us some of the extra money you
are printing, we would be very happy to
spend every penny in the High Street for
you.
We have thought
about what we might do with such
purchases, as Millie and I do not want
for much. We are involved with a number
of local charities and plan to dispose of
some items to those causes. Millie has
also tidied our spare bedroom to store
the remaining goods while we decide what
to do with them.
Unfortunately, as
we live in a small pensioners’ flat,
the spare bedroom is not very big, and we
need to use it when our son comes to stay.
We wondered, therefore, when you send the
money, if you could advise on smaller,
high value products, the purchase of
which would most benefit the British
economy.
We thought that one
million pounds might be a useful initial
sum. This probably appears as
insignificant loose change to you
compared to the amount of money that you
are hoping to pump into the economy, or
that has been casually lost by the
banking industry. Millie is worried,
however, about the practicalities of
getting thousands of pounds worth of
goods home from Argos, and so, if
it’s OK with you, we would like to
see how we get on before committing
ourselves to spending more.
We would also like
to reassure you that you can count upon
our total discretion in this matter, and
that we are proposing this scheme not for
our own personal gain, but for England!
Yours sincerely,
Swan and Millicent
Morrison.
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