Beware the words yon animal utters …

 

And just like that it’s ‘back to normal’. The riots in France have vanished from sight as far as our MSM are concerned. We’re back to ‘NHS News’, and to Cricket: apparently there was some cheating at the Ashes match  – although you wouldn’t know if you just scanned the headline for Auntie Beeb’s compilation: “Newspaper headlines: Banks free speech warning and ‘strikes until 2025’” (link). 

I found it rather ominous that our Westminster MSM seem to have generally disregarded the cancelling of Nigel Farage’s bank accounts. Interestingly, The Times hasn’t picked up on the news that the Treasury is going to wade in and that Mr Hunt is ‘deeply concerned’. The DT ran with this yesterday evening. Perhaps The Times’ ‘sources’ weren’t informed in time? The DM copied from the DT, hiding their report underneath a lot of usual guff (link). As for me – having read the ‘news’, I am also deeply concerned and shall tell you why. Firstly, see this (all emphases are mine):

“Banks are to be told by the Treasury that they must protect free speech amid an escalating row over the blacklisting of customers who hold controversial views. Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, is understood to be “deeply concerned” that overzealous lenders are closing down accounts because they disagree with customers’ opinions and has asked City minister Andrew Griffith to investigate the issue.” (paywalled link)

Yay – another ‘investigation’! Facts reported by those whose accounts have been cancelled clearly cannot be trusted. Next:

“Whitehall sources said that results of a consultation on the subject will be published within weeks, after it was launched earlier this year in the wake of PayPal blocking the accounts of free speech groups. The Treasury is poised to recommend a more rigid notice period if payment providers, including high street lenders, want to close a customer’s account as well as requiring banks to provide more information about why they have decided to shut accounts. Regulators will be able to take action against banks that break the rules.” (paywalled link)

There it is: just ‘regulate’ the ‘notice period’ and make banks tell their ‘reasons’ to their cancelled customers and all will be well! The blue-eyed ‘concern’ expressed by both Mr Hunt and Treasury ‘officials’ is neither here nor there because anyone who hasn’t been born yesterday surely knows that banks will still be able to cancel accounts, only this time they’ll ‘follow guidance’ more strictly.

The fact that Mr Farage’s accounts were cancelled and that all other banks were blacklisting him because a certain Labour MP, abusing his privilege, has accused him in the HoC of having been paid by Russia – no, that’s not being mentioned. However, there was this little snippet of info which caught my eye:

Some of the UK’s biggest lenders, including Barclays and HSBC, are ranked highly in a Workplace Equality Index run by LGBT+ charity Stonewall, which aims  to “measure and improve their inclusion practice”. HSBC is ranked 12th and Barclays 32nd, having moved up five places after a “recalculation”. The charity’s Diversity Champions scheme includes guidance to employers on gender-neutral spaces and the use of pronouns. […] Stonewall said that there were no requirements in its scheme for how companies engage with customers and it did “not seek to influence operational decisions”.” (paywalled link)

Do I detect a strong whiff of Pontius Pilate’s hand-washing here? And what about the BoE which, according to The Times, declared that “People of any gender can be pregnant, Bank of England states – Central bank also offers to help staff to pay for gender reassignment treatment using private medical insurance” (link, paywalled)? Yes, they’ve also been ‘Stonewalled’. Moreover, Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union and of the Daily Sceptic, told the DT that:

“[…] he believed thousands of people have had their accounts closed: “Indeed, the Free Speech Union has been lobbying the Treasury to change the payment services regulations for the last nine months and submitted reams of evidence about the scale of the problem. Since then, it has only got worse. The Treasury urgently needs to change the regulations to prohibit this new and sinister form of cancel culture.” (paywalled link)

Nine months … words fail me! The pious statements by ‘government’ and Treasury ‘officials’ simply are word decorations because they are only concerned with ‘regualtions’ which must be adhered to:

Government sources stressed that even people with extreme views should be entitled to hold a bank account if they have not broken the law. The Treasury source added: “Banks and payment providers occupy a privileged place in society and it would be a concern if financial services were being denied to those exercising the right to lawful free speech.” (paywalled link)

Note the weasel words: ‘exercising the right to lawful free speech’! Who decides what is ‘lawful’? Stonewall? MPs, abusing their privilege, defaming someone in the HoC who has no recourse in law to demand a retraction? Would criticising government \measure’s like lockdowns be deemed ‘unlawful’? It’s nice though that Mr Hint and the Treasury are ‘concerned’!

I leave you with the one report about the French riots I found. It’s in the DM (link). However, I highly recommend watching this video which Paul Joseph Watson published yesterday evening. This issue won’t go away and I’ll get back to it in the next few days.

That’s all I have for today. Beware weasel words, especially when coming from ‘concerned’ government officials! Have a good day.