Interest Rate Swap Derivatives

Debate between Natascha Engel and Mark Tami

Thursday 24th October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Natascha Engel]

I could not agree more. I do not know whether other Members have received a letter from Barclays today outlining, in not very easy-to-understand English, what it is doing and proudly proclaiming how “tightly controlled” and “heavily scrutinised” the review is

“whereby all the banks involved are required to develop a detailed methodology for agreement”,

blah, blah, blah. It goes on and on and on. If this is phrased in anything like the same way as the products individuals were sold, I am not surprised they did not understand what was going on.

[Mark Tami]

My hon. Friend talks about sanctions. A lot of these people were tricked at the last minute, whereby they were about to sign the loan and this clause was put in. They were told, “Oh no, it is an added safety for you.” Nothing was explained the other way and these people are now paying the price, but the real people who should pay the price are the banks that tricked them in the first place.

[Natascha Engel]

Not only was this a trick, but some individuals were not able to take loans unless they bought these products—that was the real scandal. The other tragedy has been: the many individuals who have taken their lives; those whose lives have been ruined; those whose marriages have broken up; and those individuals whose businesses have gone bust. What happens to them under any redress scheme? Those are the sorts of individuals that Bully-Banks has done a very big job to support, and I hope that today’s debate will mean that if the FCA is listening and if the banks are listening, they will do something about these people, and quickly.

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Debate between Natascha Engel and Mark Tami

Monday 18th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Natascha Engel]

I shall stop taking interventions now.

The argument, which I shall now try to make without taking too many interventions, is that a limit at 18, 16, 14 or 12 is quite random. Individuals mature at different times—I shall not make personal assumptions—so when we draw the line under any voting age, there will be some people who are more mature and others who are less mature, but there are lots of reasons why 16, and not 18, is a good age at which to draw the line. Although I should love to see votes at 16 for every election—parliamentary, local government and referendums—the Bill offers us our only real opportunity to lower the voting age in a referendum, because referendums come up very rarely. The change could be quite easily made; as my hon. Friend the Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) has pointed out, 16-year-olds are already on the electoral register, so the process will not be difficult for local authorities. Sixteen is a good age at which to draw the line, because it has to be drawn somewhere. All those 16-year-olds will be 18 by the time of the general election, at which point the new voting system will be in place—or not. All I am arguing is that those people need to have a say.

[Mark Tami (Alyn and Deeside) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is right to say that the proposal offers a good way to test the water for 16-year-olds. If Members on the Government Benches are right and no 16-year-olds are interested and none of them takes part, we can learn from that, perhaps by engaging further with them. The proposal offers a good test-bed for us to engage with younger people, which everyone in the House supports.

[Natascha Engel]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. Since 2002, and the glorious days of the Labour Government, all secondary schools have given citizenship education. All young people who will be 16 by the time of the referendum will have had some citizenship education, and they will have some knowledge and understanding of participation in the voting process. We talk about engagement, but if we are really serious about engaging young people in democracy we need to allow them to participate.