As we announced last week, the Bank of England responded to our letter threatening legal action with a disappointingly dismissive response. Their letter claimed that the Equality Act did not apply, whilst also asserting that they had in any case fulfilled their duties. They refused, however, to provide any evidence to back up this
assertion, calling our requests for documentation ‘a fishing expedition’. Following advice from leading counsel who specialises in equality law that the Bank of England has got the law wrong, we have decided to go ahead with the legal challenge.
For this, however, we need your help. The Bank of England has spent £250,000 on the design of a single banknote. They have a lot of money at their disposal and their letter demonstrated that they are prepared to use it to defend their antipathy to equality. Unfortunately, I and The Women’s Room are not in such a privileged position. Having said that, never let it be said that justice can only be the preserve of the rich: we are over 27000 strong! If we all give £10 that’s £270,000 for equality! Even £1 each would be plenty to get the case off the ground. If you can give any amount to help us see justice done, please click here to donate.
If we don’t raise sufficient funds unfortunately we won’t be able to pursue the legal challenge and your money will be donated to The Fawcett Society - you can opt-out of this at the point of donating and your money will be returned to you should we not go ahead.
If you can’t donate yourself (or even if you can and want to help us more!) please forward on this email to as many of your friends and family as you can and share the fundraising site on Twitter by clicking here.
We are up against a behemoth, but the Bank of England is just one institution. We are the people, and together, we can beat them!
