Over the past few months, loads of exciting things have been happening at Positive Money - from making new friends at Glastonbury Festival, to exposing the shady dealings between politicians and big banks, to our people-powered campaign for a bold government #GreenFinanceStrategy. Check out our summer roundup and best media hits…
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Conversations with the next generation of campaigners at Glasto📣
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In June, thanks to hundreds of supporters who chipped in, we raised enough to hold a stall at Glastonbury Festival. So we headed to Worthy Farm, with 200,000 festival goers for a jam-packed five days of workshops, talks and shows, and chatted to thousands of people about our ideas for a fairer, greener economic system.
We invited everyone we met to sign a petition calling on the government to tackle the root causes of the housing affordability crisis. It was a big success, with over 1000 people signing up 🎉 We’re so excited to welcome a new cohort of supporters and see our movement grow even more powerful. Read our full festival roundup here.
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Challenging the power of big banks in our latest report 🔍
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Also last month, we launched an important new report at a launch event in parliament with MPs and supporters. The Power of Big Finance exposes how big banks and corporations are using their power to influence political decisions in their favour - and drive inequality and climate change. We break down the key findings in a 2 minute video, which has already been watched 35,000 times - check it out (and please share it!) on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube.
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At the launch event, Alison Thewliss, the SNP MP for Glasgow Central, joined our senior economist and report author David Barmes to discuss how we can come together to reclaim our democracy from the banking lobby. You can watch the full event on YouTube here.
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Working together to shape the government’s #GreenFinanceStrategy 🌱
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Last week, we brought together 75 leaders from civil society groups, NGOs and education to call on the government to shift financial flows away from fossil fuels towards renewables in its upcoming Green Finance Strategy. Big banks have poured £275 billion into fossil fuels since 2016. Our joint letter sets out a new vision for the future of green finance that will tackle the cost of living crisis, improve energy security and accelerate the green transition.
Alongside our friends at SumOfUs, we also helped over 1000 members of the public respond to the government’s public survey about this. Here’s hoping we’ve helped push the government to take bold action.
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Local groups empowering their local communities ✊✊✊
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Our local groups have been busy in the past few months getting out and chatting to the public about our vision for a fairer money and banking system.
Positive Money Solent held a celebratory get-together in Southampton Bargate for May Day. They gave out flyers and spoke to passersby about Positive Money, and got a mention in the local newspaper, the Southern Daily Echo - well done Phil and team!
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Their group is also hosting a free film showing on Saturday 30th July. The ‘Financial Film Festival’ will feature two films: 97% Owned and The Spider’s Web: Britain’s Second Empire. Both films reveal the truth behind the UK’s financial system and there’ll be a lively discussion afterwards.
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May
- After the success of our housing report in April, co-author and Positive Money senior economist Danisha Kazi gave an interview in the London Financial on the research.
- The Guardian covered our fight to stop the government watering down rules for UK banks in upcoming legislation.
- After the Bank of England found that UK banks could lose up to £350 billion if climate action is delayed, Reuters, Yahoo News, Financial Reporter and Investment Week reported our call for outright bans on lending to new fossil fuel projects.
June
- Read about our latest research on the unparalleled power of the finance sector over political decisions in the Guardian, City AM, Politico, the Herald and Financial News.
- Positive Money’s thoughts on the futility of raising interest rates as a tool to tackle inflation were in the i Newspaper, and our reaction to the government’s nonsensical announcement on NFTs was covered by Novara Media.
July
- Our joint calls for the government to shift finance away from fossil fuels were in Business Green and Law360 this month (sadly both articles are behind a paywall).
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Positive Money is a growing movement to reimagine money, banks and our economy for the wellbeing of people, communities and our planet. We couldn’t do the work we do without your support.
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Thank you for all you do. Wishing you a peaceful summer break,
Nicole, Rachel, Chloe and the whole Positive Money team
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Positive Money relies on donations from generous individuals like you to carry out our research, education work and campaign for a fairer money and banking system.
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