Town’s Thalidomide campaigner turns his attention to local bank
A CAMPAIGNER from Harrogate who famously secured huge international victories for Thalidomide survivors has turned his attention to his local bank.
Guy Tweedy has held a oneman protest outside NatWest headquarters in London.
Mr Tweedy says, as a customer of 35 years, he should have the right to discuss his overdraft faceto-face with a business manager rather than going online or calling a centre in Birmingham.
Protesting outside the HQ of NatWest’s parent company in London yesterday, he handed out hundreds of leaflets condemning what he calls the bank’s “anti-customer” policy.
“Call me old-fashioned, but I just want to speak to someone face-to-face,” he said. “When I speak to a nameless, faceless person in Birmingham, they don’t know anything about me.
“This is not good enough. Because I’m a ‘little’ customer, they think they can treat me like this. Well they are wrong.” Natwest says its telephone services offer longer hours, as well as allowing them to focus on more complex customers.
But Mr Tweedy, 54, says it is not about the size of the campaign, it is about taking on giants.
“It’s not as important as the Thalidomide campaign - nothing is as important as that,” he said. “It’s about taking on the big boys and getting justice. They need to improve the way they do things.”