AIBU to tell you that First Direct closed bank account of gender critical blogger

[Snorkers]

https://twitter.com/WingsScotland/status/1673371351942307840

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1673371351942307840.html

Who's next? What other beliefs are no longer allowed to partake in society?

It’s scary. I was reading in the paper this morning about Nigel Farage having his account closed.

Love him or hate him it’s a fucking awful
precedent to set.

@JayAlfredPrufrock Fully agree, this and others including Farage is a disgrace.

Its irrelevant what you think about them, but cancelling funding and accounts due to open speech is a very slippery slope.

If they are preaching violence or hate crimes is one thing but the bar is well and truly slipping. Were heading for a dictatorship where the currency is controlled by a select few if we are not careful.

Has this been verified from a reputable source?

Well - it's from the horses mouth. Also in the Mail.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12251447/British-building-society-admits-closing-accounts-people-rude-discriminate.html

There will be strict rules around closing accounts. I suspect there's a lot more to the story.

Also worth noting First Direct is part of HSBC

Nigel Farage receives money for work done from Russia Today. Banks have to watch out for illegalities, and some Russian banks, even down a banking chain, are embargoed.

His bank is Coutts - the queen used to use them.

I do think there should be a basic bank account, run by say the Post Office, that is administered by the government for people who can't get a bank account any other way.

The conspiracy theory against gender critical grows, there are olenty of reasons to close an account - mainly financial. Businesses don't have to deal with people, they are NOT beholden to being there for all.

Restricting access to bank accounts for someone political, social or philosophical views is a dangerous precedent to set.

I don't agree with Nigel Farage, but I defend his right to express his views within the law.

Why can't banks and other companies focus on delivering an excellent service in their industry without getting involved in any number of causes.

Ah well. Nice of Yorkshire Building Society to confess to their illegal discrimination. It will make things so much simpler when the courts get involved.

I really doubt it. I'd bet money that they've decided the people's views (women don't have penises; no need for pride flags in a bank; immigration is bad) are discrimination and therefore they can close the account in the same way they would if someone threatened to assault a staff member.

Actually in Toby Youngs case, but a spokesman from Yorkshire Building Society said: 'We would only make the difficult decision to close a savings account if a customer is rude, abusive, violent or discriminates in any way, based on the specific facts and behaviour in each case'.

This is very open to interpretation and so In fact it seems that these strict rules you speak of do not actually exist. How do you define what the bar is for rude behaviour and discrimination in any way (this is a very broad brush to hold).

That's very scarey...each day we get more like North korea.....drip drip drip.

So someone has had their bank account shut down for saying women don't have penises, the world's gone fucking mad!

There will absolutely be more to this. I mean there’s gender critical and then there’s being a proponent of hate speech.

If e.g. said blogger abused members of staff for instance, I know of a financial institution who launched a pride campaign recently and the person at the centre of it was harassed and attacked by so-called gender critical people, seeking out details about their home life, publishing their address on social media, I don’t care if you’re gender critical, behaving like that isn’t free speech.

Nigel farage has links to Russian money, it’s entirely possible that there is a UN sanction against his name, in which case the banks have no choice.

So yeah, I call bollocks. But why not whip up a frenzy eh?

They are classes as PEPs

You got a link to that story?

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/06/30/nigel-farage-and-the-corporate-war-on-dissent/

Oh well, our punishment for bailing out the bankers.

As for the woke, people like them go on the wall first before dissidents after those who consider them useful idiots are done with them.

Can you please supply evidence that Nigel Farage has links to Russian money, It was Chris Bryant who initially came out with this claim and Farage threaten legal action if Bryant repeats his allegation outside the House of Commons, where the rules of parliamentary privilege allow MPs to make claims in parliament without the risk of being sued for libel.

So please site you evidence, rather than repeating untruths. 🤔

Under UK law regarding banking, no evidence is needed. Banks are allowed to close accounts if there is a reasonable suspicion that there has been dodgy activity. Because if it turns out there has and the banks haven't acted, the consequences fall on the bank, not the client. Blame the law for this one, the banks are just covering their backs.

No, this is happening - there are several cases - it happened to triggernometry as well.

So they can discriminate you say?

Canada did this to truckers and took their money.

The UK banks seems to have started this up the past month or so. They may be monitoring direct debits into locals to see who people support, what crowdfunding you gifted to, checking for direct debits to religious groups as the other thread said Barclays have been doing this too.

Nancy Kelly said something along the lines that a lesbian is no different to a racist if they refuse an AGP.

They deem you a NAZI in the Canada government and here on the left along with those in the Stonewalls index, if you believe in biology. I am guessing that is why and it will be a lot more accounts cancelled in the near future.

Ex-FCA official here. Banks can't just close an account because they suspect something "dodgy" is going on. An account can be frozen under certain circumstances but the bank in question would also need to report any suspicious transactions to the National Crime Agency or other relevant body for investigation.

Toby Young wrote a whole book about what an arsehole he was to other people.