Public Finance Black Hole - The Big Lie
- Date
-
Mon 28 April 2025
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
- Venue
- Central United Reform Church
After more than 900,000 British soldiers died in WWI, the shocked remainder returned to unemployment and an annual tax bill of more than £1 billion for interest on loans to the government. Today, following 200,000 Covid deaths, the Chancellor is closing a claimed “£22 billion blackhole" by punishing pensioners and the poorest in society. At this event, we’ll debate these injustices as well as alternative approaches to public finances based on wellbeing and equality.
Chris Cook and Vince Gomez will expose Thatcher’s big lie: our economy is not a household, we have not ‘maxed out the credit card’, taxpayers’ money comes after public spending and banks do not take in deposits and then lend.
Vince will explain how our top-down, centralised UK money system works and how we got here, while Chris will outline his vision of a networked, resilient UK monetary system to collaboratively mobilise local people, place and energise healthy local economies in which wellbeing and amenity are central.
Event Format & Information
- Doors open 6pm, start time 6:30pm
- Introduction and talk from the front of the room. People are expected to sit and listen and can move around if they need to.
- End time 8:30pm
Accessibility
Accessibility information for Central United Reformed Church can be found on AccessAble.
- Seating: Unreserved seating is available at this event, but if you’d like us to reserve a seat for you or you have specific requirements eg. front row seat, end of aisle, please get in touch.
- Masks: FFP2 masks will be available for free.
- Audio: Microphones will be used at this event.
- Quiet space: A quiet space will be available beside the main event room.
If you have any questions regarding accessibility for this event, please feel free to contact us at [email protected]
Dr John Carlisle is an NHS economic researcher and activist, former chair of the Leadership Development Institute at Rhodes University, South Africa, and the author of Beyond Negotiation.
Vince Gomez is a former trader in the City of London financial market, mainly buying and selling high-risk assets. He quit in disillusionment and is now a passionate advocate for public understanding of money creation, public spending and debt, and is actively involved with the Bank of England’s Citizens’ Forum.
In 2024, he co-authored a submission to a House of Lords economic affairs inquiry on national debt sustainability.
Chris Cook is a true visionary, transforming financial and energy policies into community assets owned and managed by local collaborative partnerships, not by big government or industry. He was the director of a global energy exchange in the 1990s, where he was responsible for the innovative legal design of the UK natural gas futures market. After the 2008 financial crash he was appointed by Lord Reid as a senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategy, Resilience & Security, University College London.
