“At this stage, no action has been taken..”
I did ask what the Minister could do to help the Presbyterian Mutual Society. As Will Crawley notes, she can, apparently, expedite legislation to “give the society an administrative option it did not previously have” – go into administration or form a company voluntary arrangement. Although there doesn’t seem to be much more detail than that yet.. and the PMS seem to be waiting for the Prime Minister’s response to their request to guarantee members’ savings. BBC report
In a statement, the PMS said its directors were grateful for the assistance of the minister and her department in “expediting legislation”. “At this stage, no action has been taken. The society is continuing to take independent legal and financial advice and as soon as any action is taken the society will inform its members,” it said.
One wonders if we had followed Mr. Allister’s lead just what we would have been able to do to save millions of pounds invested by members of the Protestant commnunity in a Protestant church mutual society. Maybe all the Unionists could have went together to Downing Street and said “we’ve tried your free-market system, it doesn’t work, now it’s time to do something different” – yeah, that would have worked!
Expect plenty of praise for the DUP Minister about this…….