Always watching … so you don’t have to
What is wrong with the Westminster MSM chief editors? The Silly Season cannot be the sole reason for their front pages today focussing on the sad death of a rock star. I excuse BBC ‘staff’ for grasping at that straw since it means the grave error of one of their own, Mr. Jack, can be kept out of the limelight. Without further ado, here’s the usual compilation of the front pages: “Newspaper headlines: ‘Nothing compared’ to superstar Sinéad O’Connor” (link).
Poor lady: her death is being abused as a cheap excuse by the MSM to disengage from the NatWest scandal. It also means that the astonishing remarks by Labour shadow secretaries can be buried even deeper inside their usual guff. I shall keep at it as far as I can because this is not just about Nigel Farage, this is not just about NatWest. It is not even simply about ‘woke capitalism’, as described in ‘SpikedOnline’ (link).
If you’re now bored – sorry: I’m doing this to have a record because this scandal might be the first step in a people’s revolt against the powers given to institutions which were benign as far as we knew and which have now become monsters run by administrators for the profit and glory of those administrators. Clearly, it’s not just the NHS where this is the “business model”.
This “business model” is beloved by the Left, so let me draw your attention to an article in The Times. It is indicative of Labour and of the ongoing campaign by this paper to heave Starmer into No 10. I was wondering when we’d hear a peep from Labour. After all, they can’t all have gone away on foreign holidays and the NatWest Scandal has been ‘in the news’ for quite a number of days. So what kept them so quiet?
Well, it seems that Starmer was hiding until after Dame Alison Rose had resigned, only speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live ‘after the fact’, saying:
“NatWest got this one wrong. And that’s why Alison Rose had to resign.” Asked if he felt sorry for Farage, he said: “Yeah, he shouldn’t have had his personal details revealed like that. As a broad principle, nobody should be refused banking because of their political views.” (link, paywalled)
Did he have anything to say before yon Dame quit? No. Well, clearly he knows that nobody would be able to accuse him of any ‘wrong speech’ until after a problem has resolved itself without any initiative by him.
Now let’s hear from the Shadow Chancellor Ms Rachel Reeves. Her comment is a perfect example of why Labour will do nothing at all, at best, to deal with the ‘woke’ culture in our institutions, overlooking and excusing any wrongdoings:
“In an interview with Channel 4 filmed shortly before Rose quit, […] Reeves said: “I don’t like some of the, frankly, what I see as bullying attitudes towards her. She’s the first female chief executive of NatWest. She took over at a time when that bank had real big problems. It seems to me that Alison Rose has done a good job turning that bank around.” (link, paywalled)
The “bad government” bullied poor little Dame A.R. into resigning! That’s terrible! Her having broken one of the fundamental banking laws, to keep affairs of clients private: nah, Dame A.R. was a good girl and only resigned because she was bullied. Moreover, according to the DM’s report (link), Madame Reeves even hinted that yon Dame was a ‘victim of sexism’.
That’s two of the ‘victim’ cards being played. I’m sure Ms Reeves regrets that she couldn’t have played the ‘racism’ card as well. Keep this in mind: a Labour government will excuse any wrongdoing when these cards are being played. Finally, there’s Mr Thomas-Symonds, shadow trade secretary, who spoke on Sky News, questioning:
“[…] why No 10 and the Treasury had put pressure on Rose while being “slow” to act against ministers embroiled in scandals. He told Sky News: “It’s astonishing, isn’t it, to see the chancellor of the exchequer and the prime minister under pressure from outside weighing in so quickly against a business leader like Dame Alison Rose. When you think about the situations we’ve had in government, whether it’s with Nadhim Zahawi, whether it’s with Gavin Williamson, whether it’s with Dominic Raab, when the government certainly hasn’t been holding itself to that same standard.” (link, paywalled)
I’m delighted by this shadow secretary’s scintillating display of intellectual and political prowess! Note that the names he throws around are those of former ministers. As far as I know none of them was the CEO of a bank which disregarded a fundamental principle of banking, dropping private, sacrosanct information into a willing journalist’s ear.
Moreover, what is this ‘pressure from outside’ of which he speaks? Doesn’t he know that government owns a chunk of NatWest? That they have a duty of care towards those shareholders, ultimately we, the tax payers? Would he have been happy to keep poor, bullied Dame A.R. as CEO?
Why isn’t he, why isn’t Ms Reeves or indeed Starmer screaming about the exorbitant salaries of Dame A.R. and the Board Director who rakes in £730,000 p.a.? Does it even matter to them that NatWest shares dropped by £800m yesterday, in the wake of this scandal (link)?
Why is it that all those Labour shadow this-and-that are so extremely relaxed with CEOs of institutions paid for with our, the’ hard working families’, taxes? Have they now adopted ‘Animal Farm” as their latest political manual?
That’s all I have for today. I’m delighted to record the attitude of Labour’s top politicians: a warning of the future awaiting all of us who are not denizens of the Westminster swamp. Have a good day.
If a low ranking or even middle manager of Nat West had leaked confidential client information they would be sacked and sent down the road without a penny? Surely a 38.6 % state owned bank shouldn’t give this lady a penny pay-off?
I feel sure that the Co-op Bank would give Farage an account! Mind you it wouldn’t go down well coming off the grouse moors with his toff friends and flashing a Co-op debit card at the bar would it?
I too am becoming bored, not with Farage himself, but the constant “dissing” of Farage I am hearing on this otherwise very interesting site.
I believe he has had a second major Triumph and has performed a fantastic service for the electorate and his country
This breaking into government and supported by a pillar of main stream media with an issue that is absolutely perilous to our democracy and which would have previously at best received “the nothing to see here treatment” and his programmes subsequent “cancellation” and perhaps prosecution for false reporting.
The DAILY TELEGRAPH have been super in their support and coverage of every aspect of this woke directed and illegal banking practice, not just for him, but now as becoming apparent for many others who have had their accounts summarily withdrawn and apparently the practice does not stop at Nat west and Coutts and this “religion” of wokeism, diversity where political and personal views ‘Are not in accordance with ours’ also extends to many other industries, establishment operations and perhaps central government too.
Farage as I say has been receiving wonderful support and coverage from the DT (And weekend issues) on an almost daily basis for some weeks now.
I am not going to quote chapter and verse, but just take today’s Telegraph coverage.
Front page Nat West may have broken law over Farage Entire board under pressure to stand down…
Reports page 4 and 5. Plus reports 2 whole pages an article “commentary” by Nigel himself
Centre page 15 Editorial commentqqq “Alison Rose position is clearly untenable.” ……….what many have long suspected that she has discussed the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account with BBC journalist Simon Jack
Business page 21 two sections Nat West has now become the final victim of the bitter Brexit wars…..It is also a story about the deep divisions that continue to ripple through the country over Brexit.For Mr Farage does not merely suspect………etc
And Ben Marlow Rose debacle shows idiocy of corporate moralising……it says something about the sheer incompetence that has characterised the entire Nigel Farage debacle.
Please don’t diss Nigel – he can get at the top
Funny I thought there might have been a reply to this
I have faith in Nigel, he has learned to duck, dive and dissemble in the hardest of schools and with this campaign he has opened up a “chink” to the seat of power, I hope it will be a bridgehead for more of us and others to follow so central office can be held to account fully for all the betrayals
Viv, “So what kept them so quiet?”
Because it is the UniParty innit.
A Met Office article on the BBC online news site today that 40C summers in the United Kingdom will be the norm by the end of the century, and the summer of 2022 was record breaking for heat. Same old same old, both the Met Office and the BBC are like a broken record and deserve each other. So what has happened this year then with constantly below average temperatures and rain nearly every day? No doubt they will say it is just a blip. I get fed up hearing BBC weather forecasters on their online news site that the sun, the rain, the snow, the wind, thunderstorms hail and probably a jack frost is all down to climate change and global warming. No, it isn’t its called weather, and it changes everyday. Idiots………
Well Colin at 12.45pm. Who expects to be still around at the end of this century?
Pauline…….well… there is one person on here who will be around, and he has a certain police box at his disposal!!!
I guess that’s me.. The earliest weather I can remember was one hot summer sometime1937 then 1940 near Birmingham. And I only remember hot summers ( till a deep snow winter some time about 1944), And after that nothing special. So I don’t care.
As I keep saying. nothing works, nothing is honest work, correct, nothing is repaired, nothing is in its place. I know we now vote for women. But they’re no better, in fact worse because get away with it longer. But at least they understand tidy., clean, waste, quality and if you don’t feed it’ll scream. Sometimes.
WE should not confuse global if it exists, warming, with housekeeping and growing up.
Modern experts are usually a wasted space that another computer could be put in. Hooray.
This spat with Nat West is merely another example of this sloppiness, dishonesty, criminality and so on. FROM THE TOP DOWN. ( WE confuse Tech with work.)
From her perspective, all in all, probably no big deal. Yes Viv, if permanent suntan looks, rather than washer-woman looks (GB sent one to Brussels all those years ago), she’d still be in banking post. Following her Golden Hello, there will be the inevitable bonus shares and Golden Goodbye. Next job, head of a new govmt quango / think-tank, say ‘diversity and new taxes'(?). And with a Golden Hello – to get the right calibre of person, at a new higher salary. And Viv, if you think you are cynical …!
Nat West, I should I say National Westminster Bank hasn’t had its customers in the forefront of their collective minds for some time. In my local town there was at one time two branches of National Westminster within 250 yards of each other although one had in fact been National Provincial until the then then Westminster Bank took it over. Now, both branches have closed, so it seems that their local customers in the town are of no concern to the bank management at all. No doubt they will claim that most of their local customers bank online, or at least the National Westminster senior management want them to bank online even if individual customers don’t want to. And how many older people went it comes down to do anything online whether it be banking or anything else. It is a major cop out by National Westminster, the bank which just doesn’t care. The last branch closed about six months ago, but the writing was on the wall some time before that as queues from the counter extended the length of the hall and out onto the public footpath outside, with only one cashier available to serve customers. Now, their customers have to travel seven miles to the nearest town to do their banking. Some service, or should I say no service. I was a customer of National Westminster in the 1970’s but changed to a mutual building society as the level of service even then was very much higher than National Westminster. So the fall of National Westminster has been a long one………….
CH- yes I remember reading about ‘building societies’.
And let’s not forget – we have gone from poor Banking sevice;
– to ‘Indian / African / Indonesian’ basic command of the English language service – whatfor are you being wanting?
– Now its: on kepad press 43 for this – I did not understand your reply please try again (and again;, and press 27 for that – exterminate, exterminate . . .
I used to believe service companies, who did not provide service would fail. OK, so I was wrong.
Biscotte. I find I have to choose the ‘right’ time of day to get understandable english when requesting my balance by phone. It is not just accents. It is them speaking so fast. I find that with just about everyone nowadays.
Biscotte……..’exterminate, exterminate’ For a minute I thought we were on Skaro……
My experience of NatWest has been similar Colin Hussey. But I cannot be bothered to change. They send me a paper bank statememt once a month, because of course, I do not have internet access! Derrr . . . tell fibs. Would I do that?
It is a 30 mile round trip to any bank in my town the last one closing about 5 years ago. There is a mobile can twice a week for very limited services and some banking available at the Post Office. At the moment we’re lucky to still have a couple of cash points. They have forced people online for many things and during the scamdemic refused some banking facilities because “covid”!!!
Farage has reiterated that he will not be returning to front line politics (bye-bye Reform) but declared in the DT that “My war on woke banks is about to rapidly expand”.
“The desperation of those that have been wronged by the big banks means that I simply have to do something. I may not have picked this fight, but I now find myself right in the middle of it. I will be launching, over the course of the next few days, an exercise designed to gather together all of those that have been de-banked. I’m hoping to build a very large database of cases to find out which banks are the worst offenders and what the commonest reasons are, so that we can prepare and present a lobby to ministers, and to Parliament, in order to achieve fundamental change. ”
This is late in the day – as Katie Hopkins, Tommy Robinson, and Nick Griffin can attest – and potentially usurps The Free Speech Union who submitted a large dossier of cases to the Treasury earlier this year. He was even silent when his fellow Brexit MEPs such as Martin Daubney and Claire Fox had their Metro bank accounts closed. Claiming to be motivated by ‘the desperation of those who have been wronged’, a desperation he has ignored for years, will not fool anyone. Yet, there will be no charge to submit a case to Farage unlike Toby Young’s outfit which only acts for paying members so there is that.
By the time he has compiled his new database of cases (garnered through a website he has yet to launch) the rule changes for banks, such as they will be, will be history and the government moved on. There is a much wider problem with woke corporations – the culture war is real and wars need leaders – and Farage’s obsession with himself may prove to be a cul-de-sac.
SY……..I think most of us to the right of centre have given up on Farage doing anything positive on the political side now, as he sees himself as a media man, and we all trust them don’t we? Regrettably, Farage is yesterdays man in political terms, but that is his choice. I think he sees his future shouting from the sidelines in the warmth and safety of a radio/tv studio to a fairly limited audience. Personally I find the format of his GB News programme to be somewhat tedious……
We have. I rarely watch his show. I have a low tedium threshold.
SY…..it was the general concensus of opinion at that meeting we attended a couple of weeks ago that Farage was now considered to be a waste of time on this side of the political divide.
“If you’re now bored – ” I’m certainly not bored; that state of mind would be a lot pleasanter than the one I’m in: despair and dread.
ULEZ however appears to have reached the parts that other toilet cleaners can’t (!!!) ( to my amazement, several confirmed normies I know who always scoffed at any sort of campaigning, are going on the ULEZ march).
So maybe this issue will add to the momentum. We can but hope. Many many thanks Viv for keeping the spotlight on it.
Another question , when will this too big to fail ‘bank’ that does everything to show its erg credentials include the people made redundant , the inconvienience to customers when it closes branches and to the taxpayer that still owns 39% by providing profit and share prices that will allow the treasury to sell the shares. Share prices during the tenure of the departed ‘leader’ have hardly changed let alone the last fourteen years.
Just one thought – the only way the commercial banks can raise money to pay staff to keep branches open is if all the customers are in debt so paying massive interest charges. Just saying.
Pauline………..banks do make their money through other activities as well. Like lending money and charging interest rates and using our monies to invest in various funds etc from which they gain interest. I always got the impression that banks didn’t like their customers getting into debt. In my local town there is no National Westminster Bank branch, no Lloyds branch any longer, no Barclays branch, no TSB either, and what’s more no main Post Office either. It seems to me at least that they have all given up and decided that their customers are not worth worrying about. As much as anything else, these banks are also depriving people especially school leavers of a career in banking, if that is what they want to do. I for one do not trust the concept of online banking, and will never do it.