Letter: Bankers' antics in Pratchett's fantasy world are a reality to us
Reading Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld novel 'Going Postal', I came across a section that I thought your readers would wish MPs to take into account in their attitude towards bankers, rather than trying to duck out of any unpleasant confrontation.
"When banks fail, it is seldom bankers who starve. (They) have defrauded and swindled without discrimination. (They) have ruined businesses and destroyed jobs. (Their) actions have taken money from those who had little enough to begin with. In a myriad small ways (they) have hastened the deaths of many. (They) do not know them. (They) did not see them bleed. But (they) snatched bread from their mouths and tore clothes from their backs, for sport, for the joy of the game."
And every day we hear of yet another way the banks have dreamed up to squeeze ever more money out of their customers, aka victims. These include interest rates for agreed overdrafts, which between 1/07/12 and 31/08/12 cost me £0.55, now changed to fixed a monthly charge which between 1/08/13 and 30/09/13 have cost me £6 for just over twice the previous overdraft amount.
Still, how can we expect to stand in the way of the bankers' Christmas bonuses by expecting our elected representatives to effectively regulate their greed? On evidence to date, there's little hope of our MPs taking any action, let alone being effective.
Malcolm MacIntyre-Read, Much Wenlock
