No it bloody well shouldn’t, according to the majority of Newspagers.

“With one in five mortgage holders confirming they have used their own savings to cover their mortgage payments this year, a Bank of England rate rise could be catastrophic”, reckons Doug Miller of Lansdown Financial Services down in the good ol’ West Country.

“Many are already on the breadline, with some dangerously close to the point of no return if their outgoings increase further”, Doug adds. Well said bab.

Mark Scott, Ops Director at the Azura Group in sunny (like never) Clacton-On-Sea, thinks Doug has hit the nail on the head: “Any increase in interest rates at this time will cause further pain to the many households that are already struggling to cope with the increased cost of living.”

Scott Gallacher, an impressively cerebral chartered financial planner over at Rowley Turton in Leicester is also concerned that raising rates “is unlikely to reduce inflation and could be disastrous for borrowers.” And Scott’s usually right, in fairness.

Renegade

Or is he? Wait a minute. We have us a renegade in the ranks.

Another financial plannery guy, Joshua Gerstler of The Orchard Practice in Borehamwood, says everyone above is talking garbage (well he doesn’t exactly, but it sounds good) and that we need a rate rise prontissimo: “The longer we leave it to increase interest rates, the harder people with mortgages will find it when we do.”

Utter nonsense bellows Iain Swatton of always-on mortgage switching site, Dashly (of course Iain didn’t bellow that, it’s just more idle hyperbole): “For now, it’s important to build confidence in a fragile economy and maintain growth, and a rate rise risks scuppering that. Choking things now could impact confidence, stifle spending and knock the recovery off-course.”

Sounds dead clever does that, Iain.

Cheating coke fiend

But if you think that’s clever, enter Rob Gill of London-based Altura Mortgage Finance, who somehow manages to bring erstwhile soccer great (and cheating, Cohiba-chugging coke fiend) Diego Maradona into the interest rate debate:

“The Bank of England needs to adopt what Mervyn King called the ‘Maradona theory of interest rates’. This referred to a certain famous Maradona goal against England where he beat five English players while running in virtually a straight line. Maradona was able to clear a straight path towards goal by signalling to the defenders that he might be about to turn. Making people believe a rate rise might be imminent can create the right level of caution in parts of the economy, while avoiding the potentially damaging effects of an actual rise. A neat trick if the Bank can pull it off.”

We sort of understand what Rob’s on about. Kind of. Actually not at all, but you can’t deny it sounds impressive. Chapeau Mr Gill. Your quote was pinned right to the top of the viewsWire.