OFT London protest rally 1st December

[BankFodder]

Written over another thread.

 

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Posted:- 19th Deecember 2006

 

Well the protest rally went ahead. Turnout was slightly disappointing and I suppose that there was up to about 80 people. Considering that we have a registered user base of approaching 100,000 -- and the other groups involved in the region of about 15,000 it was probably rather poor.

Still it was quite a lot of fun. Everybody was very good-natured and it was great to meet people and to put some faces to the names.

After gathering for about 45 minutes we decided that we would approach the OFT and see if we could get anyone to come and speak to us. We told the police in advance that we were going to go up to the door because we didn't want anybody to start thinking that we were invading the building.

As we approach the building these security men on duty close the door and locked it. They spoke to was briefly through the glass and made it clear that we were not welcome and that there was nobody there to speak to us.

I have to say that these security men at the OFT look extremely heavy and burly. They seem to act quite aggressively and it seemed to me that they looked quite out of character for what is an ordinary government building. I had a real sense that maybe they had been brought in for the day precisely because of our protest meeting. If this is true then they have seriously misjudged The Consumer Action Group. It seems that they still do not realise that we are a moderate group, that we occupy the moral high ground -- in particular with respect to our dealings with the Office of Fair Trading and that our approach is merely to inform people of their rights and to encourage them to use available procedures to enforce those rights.

I can only say that it seems that the Office of Fair Trading must be living on a different planet. Also for a public body whose responsibility is to businesses and consumers to refuse to speak to a group such as ours which could be said to represent 100,000 people and has at its core the interests of millions of others seems to be an extraordinary insolence.

If there is another protest rally next year, it is likely that we will have a user base of a quarter of a million people. Will the OFT still refuse to speak to us then?

Eventually we came away from the porch of the building. A policeman came to me and said that he had a message from the OFT press office and that they would be prepared to speak with me alone. I asked the policeman to say to them that if they would be prepared to let us know in advance what it was they would be prepared to discuss then I would be happy to go into the meeting.

The message came back that they were not prepared to give any advance indication of subjects for discussion and that the invitation to speak was now withdrawn.

I still take this as a refusal.

You may like to know that a few weeks ago there had been a contact with the OFT. A meeting had been discussed and they seemed very keen. However we then replied to them asking questions as to what was going to be discussed, would notes be taken and if so would we be allowed to receive a copy of the minutes of the meeting.

The result of this request was that a message was received from them saying that they thought that there was no basis for a meeting

 

 

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On an amusing side note you may be interested to know that the London Square in which the OFT building is situated also contains the London headquarters of KPMG.

Apparently someone came out on the KPMG building and thanked us are helping him to get back his bank charges. He had to go back to the building very quickly because he said that the management had sent an e-mail to all employees warning them that anyone who got involved with our protest rally would face disciplinary action!

Nice to know that we are making an impact

[babsp2000]

Hope it is going well,

I just checked the BBC News site,its the big news in the money section! Lets hope there is some good coverage later!

 

Hope you all had a stirling time xxx

[kippy2]

can you put a lnk up ta:D

[elsinore]

BBC NEWS | Business | Protests grow over overdraft fees

 

Elsinore

[kippy2]

cheers for that....anyone seen it on the box yet?

[elsinore]

No, but here's some good stuff on channel 5

 

Five News: features story

 

Elsinore

[Nurselayer]

I've just come back from the protest. It went fairly well, there was a lot of press there and many people did interviews. The OFT refused to let us in. There were lots of police too but they were low key and generally friendly.

 

And it didn't start to rain until I'd left the others in the Princess Louise. ;-)

 

Good to meet everyone there and put names to faces.

[elsinore]

Thanks for the update Nursie. Sounds like it was a good showing.

 

As soon as Admin goes away the site goes doolally!!

 

Elsinore

[mcuth]

Muwuhahahaha, I'm not under the influence of anything, honest like

 

Cracking day out, but I doubt my head will agree tomorrow!!

 

Cheers (hic)

 

Michael

[elsinore]

O.K. Michael, we'll let you off tonight, but tomorrow you must give us a blow by blow account of the proceedings.

 

There must be many, like me, who would have loved to have been there. So the best we can hope for is some anecdotes.

 

Here's to ya! (Lindemans Cawarra Shiraz Cabernet)

 

Elsinore

[mcuth]

O.K. Michael, we'll let you off tonight, but tomorrow you must give us a blow by blow account of the proceedings.

 

There must be many, like me, who would have loved to have been there. So the best we can hope for is some anecdotes.

 

Here's to ya! (Lindemans Cawarra Shiraz Cabernet)

 

Elsinore

 

Can you not let me off tomorrow too, given that I'm not very sober at all?

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[kippy2]

will somebody give details as to what happpened today!!!! we are dying to know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Joa]

Just got home...fell asleep on the tube like a wino....I was very happy to be there, to put faces to names and nicks, to protest and to get leery and sliiiiiightly drunk later. So all in all, a day well spent:)

[Joa]

kimmy, sorry but absolutely knackered. Will describe my best tomorrow. The first half of the day was dignified, serious and intelectual affair.....the latter part of the day was ....NOT. hehehe.

[meagain]

Rough summary (not entirely serious - make up your own minds):

 

1400: People arrive. Police have a pronounced presence, with a van in the Square itself, and some horses around the corner.

 

1430: Around 50 have turned up, including a bunch of CAGers, a delegation from PC, and three folk from iva.co.uk, who cleverly spotted the bandwagon, and lengthened the list of organisations supporting the rally by 50% (from 2 to 3), thus making it look even more impressive.

 

1445: BF approaches the entrance, announces his presence, is answered by a member of security. All notice that rather conveniently the rotating doors are "out of order". Upon enquiring whether or not someone from the OFT will be attending, the door is locked in his face.

 

1500: The invitation is repeated. Apparently the OFT now does want to send someone down. The door remains locked, rather humorously causing couriers and OFT staff to be denied access to the building.

 

1530: Nobody has emerged from the door. Decision is made to disperse. Someone mentions the word "public" in a sentence, and is immediately greeted by "Pub? What a splendid idea!". The police are thanked for their work, and issued with CAG business cards. Most of party decamps to the Princess Louise to start the party early.

 

1600: Approximately two dozen protestors arrive at the PL, and are told that the upstairs lounge bar will be open from 6pm.

 

1730: Five News airs. Nobody is watching it, due to lack of TV in the pub.

 

1745: Commotion as people start to move upstairs.

 

1755: Queue builds up as the door to the lounge is locked. The Pink and Green Brigade decide to swap shirts. In the absence of any opposition, they resolve to merely swap shirts with each other instead, causing much confusion later in the evening.

 

1757: Signs of unrest as the lounge is still not open.

 

1800: Someone opens the upstairs door. Cries of "about time too!" abound.

 

1900: Many revellers not from the protest arrive. Signs of inebriation apparent in some of the early birds.

 

1930: More random people entirely unconnected with CAG start to turn up. Repositioning now becomes necessary.

 

1939: Germany invade Poland. War is declared.

 

1945: War over, we win 2-0. Hurrah.

 

1945.30: Detonation of atomic bomb above Holborn destroys any remaining poor-taste war references with extreme prejudice.

 

2000: BF sets up a bar tab for CAG members. And there was much rejoicing.

 

2030: Signs of inebriation apparent in a larger number of CAGers. Possible link to bar tab conjectured.

 

2100: Bookie points out that size does matter, and that she prefers a large one. I point out that a small one is generally easier to handle and less intrusive, and often produces pictures that are just as good. The situation continues downhill from here, however, a good time is evidently had by all.

 

Doubtless someone will do a more serious write-up later, while we take the damage report. So far, I see a page on the BBC, though its tense agreement leaves a little to be desired. Written at 1240, a good hour before the protest begins, it states it has already taken place. Five News - complete with video clip (I assume - they're using some crazy-a*s plugin that breaks in my browser). MoneyExpert previews it. Even the LSE has its take on it. Namechecks on MoneyNews.

 

Any word on the total of TV appearances? That is where we can judge our real exposure for now - anything that turns up in the papers tomorrow is a bonus.

[mcuth]

I think I've been well beaten to the summary by Nursie, Joa & meagain. "The first half of the day was dignified, serious and intelectual affair.....the latter part of the day was ....NOT" - yup, think that sort of covers it (meagain - hilarious mate!)

 

First time I've ever been involved in a protest thingy, and I'm definitely up for doing more. It was brilliant to meet everyone and put faces to names of folks that I've been chatting on here with for the last 9 months

 

I'm just amazed that I didn't manage to lose my brolly!

 

Cheers

 

Michael

[Glenn UK]

for my part i enjoyed meeting those that i ahve spoken to and argued with on here since joining, i was disappointed to have to leave early, esepically after hearing about the bar tab!!

 

Glad you got home ok michael, really surpised the brolly did too though.

 

Sorry i didnt get more time to chat to others, its the 1st time ive been on a rall organised by a forum and i can honestly say that it was so good to put faces to the screen names.

 

 

Glenn

[bill-k]

Didn't make it, so it was truly wonderful to read these "de-briefings." Thanks particularly, Meagain.

 

It was good to see that the police had considered it worthy of getting a burger van parked up earlier.

 

I'm going back to click the links you have all posted up, many thanks.

[bram stoker]

Hi all. What a great success yesterday was. It was great to meet more of you. We even had a couple of people turn up to protest just because they'd seen the five news report, and they came along to join in and find out what we are all about. The large police prescence was quite funny. I think they had been told 1000 people were going to be there. Had a nice chat with them. I believe they are all going to reclaim their bank charges too. Bookworm gave them our website address.

 

It is a shame the OFT wouldn't talk to BF. Let's keep the pressure up now though, and continue writing those letters of complaint. Just because the protest has ended, doesn't mean we stop fighting.

[Joa]

Going back to the protest itself; BF has asked to meet someone from OFT. They have initially agreed and we were very pleased with that. BF then asked for a brief agenda for this meeting- a reasonable and justified request in my mind. This was unfortunately disagreable to OFT- hell knows why. And then they decided that no meeting will take place after all. Very nice...not. We were ignored until OFT decided to send a Press Officer to us. We did not like the idea because press people are made of soap; slippery, wil not make any vauable commitments, are there to appease public and spin and spin and spin like dervishes. So we politely declined. After that we just hunged around the square, with various "celebrities" of our cause, like BF, Dave, Bookie doing interviews and chatting to journos. We did not breach the peace, we did not frightened the horses. We indicated our presence and the fact that we have hundred thousand people behind us. Their reaction was "so what?"

But as we know, people know about the charges, people will not stop and the changes will be made. OK, so it wasn't mad, loud and headline news yesterday- but it's just a begining.

[bram stoker]

We didn't decline the press officer. BF said he would talk to the press officer IF an agenda could be agreed upon. The OFT again refused an agenda.

[Joa]

oh, allright, sorry, my misunderstanding.

[caro]

I finally feel a bit human again. Seems others have long since beaten me to giving their accounts of the day so that saves me worrying thanks guys. I can't believe that Joa and McUth got on line last night. Particularly McUth TBH cos I thought he might have trouble finding his train, let alone string a sentence together on here. I had to laugh at his comment that he felt he had spoken to a god after I introduced him to BankFodder. I kinda understand but to see him as a deity might be going a bit far lol.

 

I stayed over and had quite an adventure after the pub closed in the quest for more alcohol. Gizmo111 was asking very large burly bouncers what allowed places to charge a fiver to get in for a drink and threatening to set AlanfromDerby on them who was still wearing his CAG t-shirt. We managed to get her away in one piece. Then came the Indian restaurant with something quite large and with several legs crawling up the wall and then the journey back to the hotel. Never try to get a taxi at 2.00 on a Saturday morning in London. Suffice to say I think we got back to the hotel about 3.30 am!! I heard bird song just before we got back anyway.

 

Got home at 2.30 today and slept for about 5 hours. Hi to everyone I met yesterday, Michael, Joa, Nurseslayer, Glenn, Allixia, Nona, Lula, Paul Shieber, Morgan, Crashbandicoot etc and thanks to those I didn't get to speak to for the support too. Special thanks to AlanfromDerby for being a perfect gentleman and making sure Gizmo and I got safely back to our hotel. I hope you all enjoyed it and felt the effort was worthwhile.

 

I wouldn't have missed it for the world, although I shall be glad when my feet finally stop aching!

 

And for those who are interested, I think there will be no more discussion as to my gender

[bram stoker]

McUth. You see, it's not only me!!! Caro I had a big, oh, must be, 10 minute discussion about this name. I swear it's McUth, but he kept tellin me it's M Cuth. He must be mistaken because it definitely says McUth.

 

Feet aching - tell me about it. Although I do admit to jumping in every taxi available, even stating at one point "Follow that taxi". That was sooooo cool. Don't you just love to do that.

[barracad]

McUth. You see, it's not only me!!! Caro I had a big, oh, must be, 10 minute discussion about this name. I swear it's McUth, but he kept tellin me it's M Cuth. He must be mistaken because it definitely says McUth.

 

I was shocked to discover McUth wasn't Scottish!

 

Fancy having a Scottish name and not being Scottish. Whatever next...