Partial view of the Westminster swamp
Aaand …. she’s gone: the NatWest CEO Dame Alison Rose has resigned last night. That was quick! The leading articles in this morning’s print editions are still only demanding that she goes. Meanwhile, good old BBC staff choose to go with the Greek “wildfires” rather than the Alison-Rose story: “Newspaper headlines: ‘The fight for Rhodes’ as wildfire crisis deepens” (link). I wonder if ‘staff’ would’ve gone with the NatWest story if the grauniad had used it for their leading article …
I am taking a closer look into the online reports in the DT (paywalled link) and The Times (link, paywalled) because, for the record, there are some more admissions from her and the BBC which are indicative of the rotten state of this country’s institutions. Firstly, the summary from Dame Alison Rose’s ‘excuse letter’:
“Explaining what she had told Mr Jack, Dame Alison said in her statement: “Believing it was public knowledge, I confirmed that Mr Farage was a Coutts customer and that he had been offered a NatWest bank account. Alongside this, I repeated what Mr Farage had already stated, that the bank saw this as a commercial decision.” She insisted she had not revealed “any personal financial information” about Mr Farage but admitted: “I left Mr Jack with the impression that the decision to close Mr Farage’s accounts was solely a commercial one.” (paywalled link)
It’s an utterly stunning example of ‘how to weasel out’ by claiming innocence or at least ignorance. So she thought it was ok to ‘confirm’ that this de-banking was for ‘commercial reasons’ because Mr NF had said so? Was she unaware of that ‘dossier’ compiled by the bank’s ‘reputational risk’ department? The answer is yes, as she herself acknowledges in her letter:
“Rose denied being part of the decision-making process to “exit” Farage as a customer. She said the decision was made by Coutts. She said she was informed in April that the decision was “for commercial reasons” and added that at the time of her discussions with Jack she was not “in receipt” of the dossier Coutts had compiled.” (link, paywalled)
So she ‘knew nuthin’ about nuthin’ but ‘knew’ Mr NF’s de-banking was for commercial reasons, just one of those things. She was ‘informed in April’ but seems to have been blissfully unaware that homelike like Nigel Farage might not take this lying down, that there would be repercussions. She also believed that her ‘revelation’ couldn’t possibly be a “personal financial information”. She was oh-so innocent thinking that this BBC journalist wouldn’t use her little piece of gossip. All this begs the question: how competent was she as CEO?
This is the caliber of our top bankers: cosily gossiping to journalists while ‘unaware’ that their gossip would be used. And we ‘trust’ people like that to run the finances of our country? Moreover, this begs the question if her woke attitude had trickled down the ranks, permitting staff to de-bank those less prominent that Mr NF. Worse: this seems to be the ‘culture’ in other banks as well.
And then there’s good old Auntie Beeb, now desperately trying to save their own skin, with ‘sources’ telling The Times:
“BBC sources accused Rose of “double standards” and insisted Jack had gone back to her to double check the facts before he published his story. “She stood by it,” they said. “She knew it was coming even though it wasn’t right — or the whole story at least.” (link, paywalled)
I wonder why Mr Jack actually ran this story when he, or at least ‘BBC sources’, knew ‘it wasn’t right’. He or those BBC ‘sources’ apparently didn’t try to find out if that Rose gossip was actually, factually correct. It seems that nowadays our MSM journalists only ‘fact-check’ if their ‘sources’ are fine with being quoted, anonymously. There’s more – this is delicious:
“A senior BBC source said: “We would question why she was able to breach client confidentiality as the source but then NatWest hid behind client confidentiality when we were in the firing line for reporting the story. Confidentiality seems to be a flexible concept as far as NatWest is concerned in this case.” (link, paywalled)
I love it! The BBC being caught in the ‘confidentiality’ trap! Will they now ask if ‘confidentially’ is generally a flexible concept’, used by all of Whitehall and institutions such as banks and the NHS when we peasants ask for information on decisions having been made which affect us personally? Moreover, it seems that she and the Natwest board only moved after a rather direct reminder by the Banking Regulator that ‘they stood ready to act.” (link, paywalled). What else have they been hiding if this scared them?
And finally, there’s a sweet little poll, running in The Times as I write. It asks: “Should banks be free to drop customers whose views they disagree with?” (link, paywalled). Sadly, 21% of readers think this is fine. However, not even the august Times hacks recognise that the question is utterly wrong! Do they, do the readers not understand that banks shouldn’t even know the views of their customers, never mind de-banking them for their views?
May I respectfully and humbly ask if certain politicians, thrown out of their jobs as MPs for ‘sexual harassment’ or anti-semitic views, have been de-banked? If not – why not? Also: will the little people who’ve been de-banked now receive apologies and satisfaction? If not – why not? And: will the ‘financial authorities’ demand that all these ‘dossiers’ banks hold on their customers views be shredded? If not – why not?
That’s all I have for today. There’s more to this stench arising from the Westminster swamp which I for one won’t let go just yet. It’s good that, thanks to the Silly Season, other ‘news’ won’t distract us. Have a good day.
So the rise of Rose is down to media savvy and networking? Not very savvy putting together a 30 page document on Farage? Clearly, the first female CEOs climb up the greasy pole had nothing to do with banking, and more than a little to do with identity politics.
Yes Stout the bigger problem is with the political elites. ‘Oven-ready Surrender Treaty’ EU retained law nonsense. oh FFS. We did try with the referendum. What next?
British state TV sorry for asking if any Moroccan footballers are lesbians – A BBC reporter pressed the women’s squad captain to ‘out’ her teammates.
bbc (Oxford Graduate no doubt) – the gift to Britain that never stops giving.
So Nigel’s done it again!
Dethroned a Prime Minister I mean
Oh I know it’ds not quite the same , but this was a prime mover and shaker in a major bank
I’m pretty sure Cameron’s final conversation with his successor – the Maybot was to ” GET Farage for me and destroy UKIP”
I keep asking myself why this BBC reporter just ‘happened’ to be seated next to this particular highly placed exec and why when it was produced this particularly vivious and long time assembled document had been gathered.To me this smells, even stinks of a continuation of the same Cameron inspired “remoaner’s” campaign/c#nsp#racy to get rid of Farage and also complete the final demise of Brexit.
I applaud Nigel’s victory, but unfortunately fear it is only one step along the way to ensuring he has a return to proper banking and all those others, reported and not so, and not just from this one bank who have not just been inconvenienced, but those also who have had their businesses ruined (SMEs etc) .i do not believe it is on the cards that the Government will legislate for it to be made illegal for Banks,businesses and other major ‘establishment’ entities to assemble politically inspired documents at all, in fact I believe they will ignore all Nigel’s and others efforts in this direction and even double down on it..Well if they did, that would give the game away! After all, don’t even now official bodies ‘read’ our every utterance,some “gather and assemble ‘juiy’ bits of personal information and ‘lean’ on MSM and social media to run ‘cancelling’ operations”
All I can say is “Watch out Nigel (and the rest of us), this is a fight against a relentless authority and Establishment operating on a world wide platform.
YOU AINT SEEN NUTTIN YET!
It is the duty of every freedom loving person who banks with any division of Nat West to close their accounts forthwith. Let’s take the Chairman down too!!!
Kick the barstewards whilst they are down!
May I advise pursuing the switch service to do this and collect £200 !! Very easy to do.
Ah but to whom to switch; that is the question. The four largest, and others may well too, have small print allowing surveillance of one’s social media. And ten have refused Nigel an account. Those who hate Farage so much they revel in his discomfiture, show their agenda-driven one-track, inflexible, knee-jerk, thought-free mind set completely missing the point. Labour MP for Brighton, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, told how he too was blacklisted to the extent of having to quit a Charity for which he worked, and is backing Farage. Perhaps if some business ‘exited’ the custom of Lineker or Maitless because their Tweets did not align with that business’s values, the penny might drop, but I doubt it. It’s hilarious to see them trying to brand the victim as a bully.
So Rose is no more. I thought her boss was standing by her? Two minutes on wikepedia I learn her boss is not even a banker. Looks like another well connected Oxbridge type moving from one well paid gig to another. What does the glittering resume suggest? No real business experience. Outstanding conformity. An establishment placement keeping an eye over things. Rose was looking to please her boss. And it is impossible to imagine her boss did not know what she was doing. Well now we know a little more about the people who are running the banks.
Speaking of banks, another bank has just collapsed in the US but it’s been kept out of the MSM. FDIC in the US has gone to great lengths to cover up this story so as not to frighten the public into withdrawing funds, this strategy was agreed at a meeting late last year according to a leaked video that I’ve watched.
Since the bank failures earlier this year many hundreds and thousands of dollars have been freshly printed and used to prop the banks up. The bank that has failed is called PacWest and it has merged with the smaller Bank of California in order to survive.
Behind the scenes the banks are in a desperate situation and the banking crisis is far from over, will be back with a vengeance and probably just getting started.
In the old days people who left school with no qualifications (mostly jail bait, not all!) went to work in Woolworths or suchlike, now its HR.
I would imagine that when all this kerfuffle has died down, things will go back to normal and those people with whom the banks disagree will still be ‘de-banked’. However, what’s the betting that the banks will insist that anyone de-banked is a high financial risk, or a possible loan defaulter or money launderer, or something like that. Nothing to do with the customer’s political opinion of course …
Alison Rose betrayed the BBC’s trust. When she confirmed to them that they could run the lie without telling them it was a political misdirection, she used them for her own ends. So a “senior source” at the BBC counter-briefed against her and supplied Farage with further ammunition. But will she also step down from the government’s energy task force (pushing the unpopular heat pumps)? Will it be the end of her hobnobbing with King Charles? Meanwhile, there will one or two people at Coutts looking over their shoulder.
This contretemps between snobs is entertaining but the real significance is being missed. It is an instance of what goes wrong when parliament passes ‘skeleton’ or ‘framework’ bills which set out principles but no detail on practical implementation. A particularly egregious example is sex education in primary schools. Suddenly obliged to provide it clueless school heads outsource the content to Stonewall and Mermaids. Similarly with ESG and EDI and anti-money laundering legislation. Parliament has not lost it outsourcing habits, deeply ingrained from decades of EU membership, and increasing single issue committees – Covid, Climate Change, Natural England et which necessarily exaggerate their various raison d’être – replace proper parliamentary law making. Their reports and draft bills are so complex ordinary MPS are reduced to nodding donkeys at vote time. Revised regulation by the FCA and Treasury is a game of whack-a-mole. The underlying problem, a parliament with no will to govern, remains.
Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly will not be among the values of woke corporations because the Public Order Act and Online Safety Bill make it clear that these values are not supported by the British State.
Couldn’t agree more, Stout! There’s one other delicious observation in the opening paragraph of The Times’ editorial this morning:
“Dame Alison Rose is a media savvy businesswoman. She places tremendous importance on maintaining her public profile, illustrated by the contingent of public relations people in her extensive private office. This facility for garnering favourable coverage helped to propel her to the position of chief executive of NatWest Group, one of the biggest players in British consumer banking,”
So she had more PR staff than competent bankers or at least admin who’d know about confidentiality and privacy laws …
Her PR ’empire’ and networking reminds me of another laydee who is very good at this while lacking any solid knowledge to fulfil her job: Ms Baerbock, the current German Foreign secretary who infamously said during presser that the contrary views of her German electorate were of no interest to her.
This will all end in tears.
No will to govern and no ability to govern. During our 45 years in the EU wilderness they were paid to do nothing, so turned to plotting and politicking forgetting the prime purpose. Now they are still paid to do nothing except nod through their globalist instructions. We partially escape a small tyranny only to be subsumed by a much larger one.The place is stuffed with useless narrative-drones, who even if they remembered why they are there haven’t a clue about life or anything outside their uniparty agenda. Angela Rayner is a prime example: left school with more children (son born at 16) than GCE’s (none) – as the meme has it – but lectures and despises others in her potty mouth style from her delusion of the moral high ground. That tiny few who do have principles and knowledge and do speak out are vilified and ignored or hounded out.
Yes, true. But the Hammond’s, May’s, Cameron’s, Starmer’s, Clegg’s, Johnson’s, Hunt’s, Wallace et al are the really dangerous, wreckers and poisoners of society and our freedoms. not the Angela Rayners of Westminster.