2  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  2  We’re here today to discuss with you what causes changes in the economy, how they affect people and businesses in Merseyside and across the country and the Bank of England’s role in supporting jobs and growth. The economy matters for everyone and people want to understand it better. Three quarters think there should be better education about the economy and half want a better understanding themselves but virtually no-one – just 1 in 10 – think public figures talk about economics in an accessible way. Today, we are trying to bridge that gap. We are helping to make discussions of the economy more accessible and are launching practical tools that can be used to help educate students, and indeed everyone, about the economy. This is all part of a wider effort to improve our communications. We are doing this to make the Bank more open and accountable. Quite simply, people need to understand our actions and their effects in order to hold us to account. Doing so will also make our policies more effective. Let me give you an example. Our mission was originally set out in 1694 in the Bank’s founding charter. That was to ‘promote the publick Good’ – although that sentiment was contained within a 700 word sentence, hardly clear and transparent communication. And in practice at the time what it meant was raising money to carry on a war against France.
You can take a look at our first example of this – the November Inflation Report –online, at www.inflationreport.co.uk. This afternoon’s event will showcase a selection of the materials we are planning to run alongside these changes in our communications to help explain to people about the Bank’s work. To bring that to life, the first session will kick off with three of my colleagues – Ben, Sam and Jon –explaining to you what the Bank is doing on some topical issues, things that are influencing the Bank’s policies and the role we play in the economy right now. The questions they will answer are:   Why did the Bank change interest rates earlier this month?   What we are doing to keep banks safe? ; and    What are we doing in response to the vote to leave the EU to ensure the Brexit process is as smooth as possible? Through our dialogue with you today, we will enrich our understanding of how we can meet our objective more effectively, and we hope you will gain a better understanding of what the Bank does and how it is going about it. 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  4  Before handing back to Ranvir, I’d like to thank Speakers for Schools, We Are Futures, Economy.org and Rethinking Economics – the key stakeholders that have helped us with this morning’s events and who have been working with us to develop our educational resources.