38 Degrees petition – George Osbourne and RBS Bank

Latest petition request from 38 Degrees.

Tonight George Osborne may announce plans which would lose the UK public £7 billion. He’s thinking of flogging off our publicly-owned bank, RBS, on the cheap. We paid to bail it out back in 2007. But instead of deciding how to make best use of this huge public asset, Osborne is hoping to claw back some cash by selling at bargain basement prices. [1]

He’s set to announce his plans for selling off RBS in a speech tonight – but this morning the Commission on Banking (set up by Osborne himself) published a report saying that we shouldn’t rush into a sell-off. [2]

Currently he may just be planning to push ahead and ignore their advice. But with people power we could force him to listen. He doesn’t want to appear to be ignoring the opinion of experts he appointed. If enough of us tell George Osborne and David Cameron now that they need to take the Commission’s advice then they’ll realise that forcing a sell-off will damage their reputation.

We might only have today to do this. Could you sign an urgent petition now, asking George Osborne and David Cameron to listen to the Commission on Banking’s report and make sure all options are considered instead of rushing straight into the sale? We’ll send the petition to them before the big speech tonight.

Just click here to sign:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/dont-flog-off-RBS

This is a great chance to shake up the banking sector. George Osborne and his allies are keen to sell-off RBS as soon as possible. But it’s big banks like RBS which got us into our current economic crisis. Selling them off and returning to business as usual could lose us money and miss a great opportunity to change the way our economy works for the better.

The Banking Commission has told Osborne to look at all the different options, from public ownership right through to breaking it up into smaller local banks. If RBS is flogged off before the other options are properly investigated, George Osborne could waste a huge opportunity for the UK.

Osborne would love to spin this announcement as good news. There’s even talk of bribing people with a one-off payment from the sale of the bank. [3] We can make sure he knows the plans will be controversial and he’ll face strong opposition.

The announcement is likely to come tonight. Sign the petition now:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/dont-flog-off-RBS

Thanks for being involved,

James, Robin, Maddy and the 38 Degrees team

PS: It looks like George Osborne might announce a ‘quick review’ tonight which would just look at a narrow range of options for RBS’s future, not the full range recommended by the Commission. [4] With enough pressure we can make sure he knows he needs to fully and independently consider all the options on the table. Sign the petition here:

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/dont-flog-off-RBS