T HE Bank of England's decision to pour £50bn more of newly-printed notes into our economy may well prove to be a classic example of throwing good money after bad. The money increases, even further, the size of Britain's national debt, our 'public mortgage,' if you like, which working families will be paying off for decades to come. During this economic downturn, the Bank has now thrown an astonishing £325bn at the economy (known as quantitative easing, or QE), in a desperate attempt to persuade us all to spend more money, thus creating more jobs. No-one knows whether the money will work. But there are tens of thousands of households across north Staffordshire and south Cheshire who are praying that better economic times lie ahead. For their sakes we hope that the latest dose of QE is more successful than previous rounds.

T here is much evidence that in the past the extra money has been hoarded by High Street banks, propping up their balance sheets. This would make QE a near-criminal waste of time, effort and resource. And the economy would not benefit. It can also hit new pensioners hard by forcing down annuity rates, giving them far less money to spend. Then there is the proven fact that every round of QE has less effect than the last. And we've already established that previous cash injections haven't done enough. Finally, with QE comes the very real danger of inflation, eating away at pensioners' savings. Borrowers should benefit from this, but they won't. Because our friendly, High Street banks continue to charge the earth for loans, preferring to keep all the cheap new money for themselves. So before we become too excited about the £50bn hand-out which we have all just had from the public purse, it may be wise to point out that the cash arrives with strings attached.