A Right to a Bank Account

Every British Citizen must have a statutory right to a Bank Account.

Private banks may claim the right to "de-bank" someone of whom they disapprove. Perhaps that is their contractual right.

However, it is not possible for a person to live normally, in the digital age, without a Bank Account and without access to their money.

It is not acceptable for any law-abiding British Citizen to be "de-banked" – which amounts to an enforced exclusion from participation in modern society; a deliberate material deprivation intended to remove a person's ability to function.

Private, commercial banks are unlikely to want to cooperate with this policy.

Therefore, there must be established a National Public Bank where any British Citizen can set up an account – and which can be accessed via the Post Office.

This will allow any British citizen to have a current account into which they can receive money, and pay out money, physically and digitally, nationally and internationally.

It doesn't need to be a Bank which lends money, and it doesn't need to be in competition with the private banking system. For example, it doesn't need to pay interest on deposits.

But it must be available to those British citizens who need it! And it must be forbidden by law from denying facilities to British citizens.

This is a policy made necessary by the recent actions of the private banking system, and it should be promoted by all political parties as a matter of course.

POLICY: When elected, our MSPs will work to publicise this important democratic policy which is essential to the economic sovereignty of each one of us.