Interest rates down, carbon footprint – not sure!

Today was a rather strange day, following a phone conversation I have with ITN’s Chris Choi yesterday afternoon. He wanted to get a view on falling interest rates from someone in the savings and lending industry and I gladly agreed to help.

I was already due in London today for meetings in the West End, so offered to go to the ITN studios or even use the Building Society Association or Council of Mortgage Lenders offices, both of which are in Holborn in central London; but Chris said he was fed up with faceless corporate backdrops and suggested that the crew came to our branch in Stratford, East London, to give the interview a more realistic feel. We agreed to meet there at 9-30am today.

For some time now I have been trying to reduce my carbon footprint and therefore endeavour to make use of public transport when ever practical. So at 6-30am today I set off in my car (oops) to Milton Keynes train station which is about 14 miles from home and boarded a Virgin train to London Euston. The train was pretty full, so I am sure that was more energy efficient that making the whole journey by car.

However when I arrive at Euston, my problem begins. I am a bit claustrophobic and haven’t been able to use the tube since 1989, when I had to run for the surface feeling somewhat panicked. I have tried a few times, but get the same reaction. Therefore needing to get to Stratford would involve either several bus changes or the inevitable black cab. Feeling a little guilty, but also not wanting to be late for the important ITN interview, I hailed a cab and requested he take me to Stratford. The request was met with some sucking of air through teeth and a few moans about the roads round there due to the building of the Olympic village, but we set off promptly in an Easterly direction. I arrived at our Stratford offices in plenty of time, time in fact for my nervousness levels to rise nicely in preparation for a hard hitting haul over the interest rate coals by an expert journalist.

The staff in the branch had made a special effort, some new mugs to serve the crew coffee and even some biscuits, they had polished everything in the branch that could be and seemed almost as nervous as me. As it happened the ITN team were really nice and we had a good debate about the state of economy before commencing the interview. They probably shot a good twenty minutes of insider intelligent insights (at least I think they were) on why reducing rates today is a bad idea, and how it will hurt savers even more, whilst doing not much at all to encourage banks and building societies to lend more, let alone create sudden market demand that seem to have all but vanished. (My wife recorded the lunch time news and I only ended up with about 20 seconds, but hey!)

Relatively pleased with my performance, I bid the Stratford branch staff farewell and set about getting to Carnaby Street for my next meeting. Determined not to use a cab and not able to use a tube, I walked to Stratford station and took the Docklands Light Railway to Canary Wharf. From there I walked the Canary Riverside and took the commuter ferry to Embankment Pier, I walked up to the front of Charing Cross train station and hopped on a bus in the direction of Oxford Circus, jumped off in Regent Street and walked to my meeting in Carnaby Street.

So I have in one day experienced every possible mode of transport to get into and around in London, except the tube. So was this method more environmentally friendly than simply driving straight into London, or making use of another cab to get from Stratford to the West End.

The DLR train was practically empty, I counted 6 other passengers on the huge river ferry and I had the whole top deck of the bus to myself. It did however give me time to contemplate the reaction to a potential move in base rate and at 12.01pm my blackberry chimed with news of the 0.5% cut. I am glad the Bank of England have announced plans to commence quantitative easing, but as I told ITN, I still don’t think the further cut in base rate was required.