Could you be 'de-banked' for being gender-critical?

[heckmuffin]

I'm sure Nigel Farage has very few fans here. However, in the light of his bank, Coutts, closing his bank accounts due to his political beliefs, could this happen to gender-critical women too?

Farage has obtained documents from Coutts which make it clear that the bank gave him the boot because his views didn't align with their 'inclusive' purpose.

I wonder if GC women such as Posie Parker have had similar issues? Or if this is something that could happen? Believing in humans being a sexually dimorphic species is, as we all know, 'not inclusive'.

Oh I know. Isn't much of London property Russian owned?

It is the hypocracy. The Russians funnel so much in, and yet they waited til NFs mortgage was paid off and then pretended it was about him potentially getting Russian Money.

And I detest NF. With every ounce of my being. But here he is right. And I hate to say it. But he is.

Gender ideologues and their liberal apologists are fond of painting feminists as right-wing because some right-wingers share the view that TWAM (I’ve just come, in despair, from reading the Megyn Kelly thread...I'm sure concern re Coutts has already been framed here as supporting Farage) - yet here we have major financial institutions sharing their view that gender identity trumps biological sex. And this millionaires’ bank is hardly alone - the bigger a corporation is, the more likely it is to deny women’s sex-based rights.

And I am not just reproducing here the MRA/TRAs’ fallacy of guilt by association - these are the institutions and establishments that actually exercise actual power in the world! They're deep-capitalist, the system - not some media personality or strutting populist politician. It’s not just a co-incidence on a particular issue.

That this is not a wakeup call to the liberal left is a further indication of just how far they’ve lost sight of economics and class and sunk instead into the individualist, divisive abyss that is identity politics. Saying they're "leftwing" is just another identity for them.

Excellent.

Yes indeed, I do sincerely hope there is an inquiry into this and these questions are asked and answered.

I expected parts of that 46 page document to feature in the BBC News report last night, but they chose to ignore it. It was all kept vague - a difference of opinion between NF and Coutts - and the viewer was left thinking the the BBC had probably got it right the first time.

Part of Coutts' charge sheet was that NF had liked Ricky Gervais' transphobic joke.

The word "transphobic" wasn't in quotes. It wasn't preceded by 'alleged'.

The person monitoring NF's social media affirmed that the joke (about "") was, as a matter of indisputable fact not worth qualifying, transphobic. And that liking the joke was incompatible with their values.

The BBC likes Farage the Brexiter as a story. They will always promote the controversialist over the voice of the status quo because it is more sensational - see also Andrew Wakefield (MMR), climate change deniers etc.

However, the BBC is also highly invested in pretending that the culture wars are a figment of the imagination/moral panic. The current Farage story is therefore problematic for them and must be suppressed.

twitter.com/mikoh123/status/1681791602224668674?t=VuLIZxKq1bouL7CoH0TuMQ&s=19

States this quite clearly why he has had his account revoked

This is brilliant. Sunak sticking his nose in is ludicrous when he never has anything to say about wrongdoing in the HOC.

I thought newsnight did OK on this story last night. In that kirsty walk was fair to farage. She had read the report into him by coutts, and they should have given us more info, quotes etc about exactly what was in it, but in general I thought it was OK. Frances copola wasn't great for the other point of view. The problem is farage frames everything in his own favoured cluture war terms using his certain buzz words. But the basic point came across that a bank has probably dropped a customer because they don't like his (perfectly legal & I expect commonly held) political views.

I'm amazed that so many ppl are not seeing the broader points. Deliberately perhaps because it's farage. Ok if you are confident that your personal values are exactly the same as the finance sector's values, and will remain so, cheer it on, otherwise be worried.

PP's point that it shows how much the 'values' in question (eg its transphobic to distinguish between women and trans women in thevway that Ricky gervaise did) have been adopted by those who run the system is right. And it's telling how comfortably those values sink into that world.

Coutts have done a terrible job here

The document is shoddy and unskilled

Bad enough for the reputational management team to excuse themselves for not living up to own aims

It is quite shocking how many people who hate him, are refusing to read multiple sources and posting nonsense about him. I don't have warm fuzzy feelings about the man either. This exercise has made me rethink those angry remainers, now, who were calling others thick, it's probably projection.

Absolutely!

The other thing I wanted to say was - at first I assumed if it wasn't a genuine financial decision on their part it would be because farage is gauche and naff and so they wanted to extract themselves. Coutts might be thinking that people with money who think coutts is their kind of bank would not think that farage is their kind of person. So coutts wouldn't want their brand to be linked unless it was worth a huge amount of dosh.

I thought it would be old fashioned snobbery because of the wide boy persona. But there's no trace of that. Perhaps that's more of a 20th century way if thinking. The 'values' alluded to in the report are a new type of snobbery. God the moral superiority of whoever wrote the report. Who do they think they are? Given that banks don't have morals, only people do, I think the people involved assume their own moral values (which are in fact class indicators rather than properly thought through set of ethics) are univerally unquestionably good, so they assume those are the values of the organisation. And are acting accordingly. It's happened quite quickly everywhere and is not a good thing.

As far as I can see all the reputational damage has been done by Coutts to Coutts. I don't spend even a millisecond wondering where the famous bank, and it's not as if Farage starts speeches and articles by saying 'My name is Nigel Farage and I bank at Coutts.' They made that decision and then lied about why.

It appears from the dossier that they've been monitoring him and his SM and press coverage. Who else are they doing that to and what other banks do that and to who? I hope I'm not alone in thinking that that's frighteningly totalitarian. Andrew Neil calls it sinister and deceitful, which is remarkably restrained IMO.

It is well known that NF and the Brexit campaign was funded directly by the Russians which NF continues to deny

That's an assertion made under parliamentary privilege which Bryant as declined to say elsewhere and for which Coutts says there's no evidence. BTW, Brexit was 2016. we're now in 2023. Why did Coutts wait seven years?

I blame the university staff.

I attended a graduation and they mentioned inclusivity, diversity and sustainability about a dozen times in the brief speeches. They sent off their graduate missionaries from the seminary to spread the word.

I said something to a grad (not my child) who gained a first, about how I didn't think I was invited to sit through a religious ceremony and got a confused face from them. They have no idea they are indoctrinated.

I wonder when Dame Alison Rose will come out of hiding.
As the person in charge she’s not showing a very good example to her employees if she hides away when faced with controversy.

This is why you have to read the documents themselves. They are quite clear that his values do not align with theirs and that's why they're letting him go. They couldn't know in November 2022 what is financial position would be in July 2023. So they made the decision to exit him regardless of what his financial position might be.
It's all there in black and white.
And even if it turned out he was below the economic level required, so are many account holders who have come forward and volunteered that information. And none if them have had their accounts closed.
Just pretend for a moment that this is nt Farage but it's Starmer abd he's being kicked out because Coutts don't like the Labour Party and left wingers in general, would you be so acquiescent?

the tribal nature of modern discourse has muddled the minds of many people

people on the left hate Farage and are therefore siding with a bank (yay! banks!) for closing the account of a person with the "wrong" views

ffs even bank robbers are allowed to have bank accounts...

Exactly.
The FCA and the City of London police are complicit with all of it.

What kind of 'left' would side with BANKS in this matter? With Big Money? Beacons of Ultra Capitalism?

How is it at all liberal to champion the removal or your bank account for 'wrong think'?

Are we in Mao's China or something? Or Eastern Germany during the Berlin wall?

What's next? Tell on your neighbours for turning their radios on to a discussion of a subject you or the big corps don't agree with?

If I'm listening via the radio or TV or SM to a GC debate or speaker, shall I turn the volume down in case I lose access to my financial capital?

This is BRITAIN.

I am shocked at the complacency from people over this. Just discussed this with a relative and she too isn't bothered because it's happened to NF. Apparently me agreeing with him in any way is worse than the implications of Banks closing people's accounts because they don't like their views, never mind what this means to the very definition of our democracy🤦🏿‍♀️

Coutts have been caught red handed - they are part of NatWest who should be called to account. Unless you are committing a crime or encouraging it then banking should be politically neutral.

The Beeb putting up Frances Coppola is a farce - she is on record as calling Farage a hard core racist ( he isn't) and is deeply against Brexit (Guido Fawkes has the story)

Be interesting to see who Dale Vince banks with as he actually does fund criminal activity

If they fly your flags the lefties who think magic thing happen when you say words will side with anything.

It really is quite the reminder about how simple some people are. And how easily led.

@LauraNicolaides

Selective out-of-context leaks from Farage, and the bank silent because of its duty of confidentiality.

Do you still believe this? Also the bank wasn’t very confidential when they lied that NF hadn’t got enough money to bank there.

I am shocked at the complacency from people over this. Just discussed this with a relative and she too isn't bothered because it's happened to NF. Apparently me agreeing with him in any way is worse than the implications of Banks closing people's accounts because they don't like their views, never mind what this means to the very definition of our democracy🤦🏿‍♀️

I'm continually baffled at how people never relate this to themselves and think it couldn't affect them. It's the 'nothing to hide, nothing to fear' witlessness - well who the hell gets to define what 'nothing' is? it certainly isn't the people who come out with this. You'd have thought 2020-2021 would have shown people how fast this sort of control can take hold.

NatWest, having triggered via Coutts government intervention against them and the other banks, are finally beginning to understand what kinds of mess they're in:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12320703/Coutts-says-SORRY-Nigel-Farage-deeply-inappropriate-report-insists-values-freedom-expression-government-announces-crackdown-customers-accounts-closed.html