Boycott the banks

national | consumer issues | news report Tuesday November 13, 2007 10:16 by Aragon

Government stealing our money

Is anyone else outraged at the governments' behaviour over bank link cards?

After waiting over two weeks for an ordinary bank link card that AIB had promised to send within five working days it was surprising to receive instead a brochure telling me that, actually, I wouldn't be getting one. Instead I was going to be sent a debit card. The banks are phasing out the ordinary bank link card. 'Fine', I said, so long as there are no extra charges involved. Besdies I don't actually want a debit card.'

The nice man at AIB told me that in fact the charges would be double the usual E10 that customers have to pay annually for a bank link card. This doesnt add up though, becuase the cost of a debit card is actually forty pounds a year and the banks have been helping themselves to that amount from ordinary bank link card holders too, even though they are not credit cards which is what the levy is supposed to be about. They even take this money from children who keep their pocket money in the bank. All of these charges were imposed without notice or consultation. The man from AIB also said it had nothing to do with the banks, that it was all the fault of the government who have found a new way of raising taxes without telling us - let alone asking our permission. At a stroke they have doubled this lucrative form of taxation and will raise millions in the process. If we could believe that every penny of it was going into our deliberately starved and dying health service maybe people would overlook the arrogance and the theft.

But no, nothing like that will happen at all. The fat fuckers who run this country have dreamed up another scheme for preserving their advantage over the hardworking poor. They steal our money and slash our services at the same time. So where is the money going, exactly? Now the economy is in a nose-dive alternative means have to be found of ensuring that the wage slaves go on subsidising their disgusting lifestyles, no matter what hardship is caused. Not content with having made us pay for their SSIA dividends we are now to bear the full brunt of the government's incompetence and mismanagement of the economy. All those property developers - 'friends' of Bertie Ahern - you know the ones who get cushy little jobs and so on in return for being 'friendly' to Bertie - they have to be appeased now that the party is over. Only it's us who are doing the appeasing - even if we are not told about it.