A rare glimpse of a shape-shifting Westminster denizen
Suddenly, they all have got something to say about ‘Coutts v Farage’, even the government. Strangely enough, it’s now become a ‘Free Speech’ issue, nothing to do with Mr NF at all: “Newspaper review: Banks in ‘free speech’ row and UK inflation falls”.(link).
Cynical old me, delighted that it took only three weeks for the majority of the Westminster MSM to take this issue seriously, thinks however that their sudden interest has another reason. It’s because today is by-election day. You might like to read this little column in the DM (link) about this day of reckoning for the Tories.
That’s why “Coutts v Farage” is in the limelight for another day. Now the infamous dossier has even been published in The Times – paywalled, of course, and only as box in their article: “Nigel Farage row: banks risk losing licences over free speech – Lenders told to respect free speech as arch Brexiteer threatens to sue” (link, paywalled).
See how the editors manage to get ‘free speech’ into both the headline and the sub-header? You have to see the first paragraphs of that report to grasp the insincerity of both government and the Westminster MSM. Thats’ why I’m quoting at length, not least to demonstrate the fine art of producing crocodile tears at the drop of a hat (emphases are mine):
“Ministers are considering making free speech protections a condition of permits after Coutts closed down the accounts of Nigel Farage, the former leader of the UK Independence Party (Ukip), because his views did not “align with our values”.
The Treasury is also expected to announce plans as soon as next week to force banks to give customers three months’ notice before closing accounts, rather than one month as at present. Banks will be required to give an “explicit” explanation of why they are closing accounts, and customers will retain their right of appeal.
Ministers believe that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” and that greater transparency would force banks to change their behaviour. A government source said people’s right to express their views was sacrosanct.” (link, paywalled)
Note well how urgent all this is: ‘ministers’ are ‘considering’ and ‘believing’, the Treasury is ‘expecting to’: a hive of activity, of urgency and of a pathetically naive belief that government regulations will make everything right. I’ll not mention the saying about bolting horses and stable doors. I predict however that we’ll not hear anything about how and when Treasury and ministers will have produced their ‘guidance’.
The sickening aspect to this is that all these government figures have suddenly found their heart to defend Free Speech, even unto ‘a source’ saying that “people’s right to express their views was sacrosanct”. This made me sick because, after the covid years, the years of cancel culture at universities, the years of ‘hate speech’ legislation, there’s too much evidence that no, our right to express our views is not sacrosanct, hasn’t been for years and is not protected by government.
Moreover, the attitude of ‘not sharing our values – therefore off with their heads’ has become so entrenched that on social media the ‘fact checkers’ and ‘professionally offended’ are policing every utterance while under relevant articles, where permitted, comment posters harass all who do not toe the line of ‘public opinion’, from the Ukraine war to this banking scandal.
Finally, to document the blatant hypocrisy of the editors of the august paper ‘The Times’, this morning’s title of their leading article, the editorial, says it all:
“The Times view on Nigel Farage’s banking issues: No Accountability – Banks have no right to close accounts solely because they disagree with customers’ lawfully expressed views. The government should ban this Kafkaesque practice” (link, paywalled)
How lovely, how generous, how erudite to bring Kafka into the headline! Take note however of the weaselling-out, proof that this whole, pious chatter about protecting free speech is just a facade: only ‘lawfully expressed’ views deserve protection. Of course, Westminster decides what is ‘lawful’ and what isn’t.
I don’t expect to see the ‘hate speech’ laws being scrapped. Thus, banks will still be able to close accounts, now perhaps with a three-month period and the ‘right to appeal’. I also wonder why nobody has picked up on Mr Farage’s claim, that other UK banks have refused to open an account for him. Will there be ‘legislation’ for this?
That’s all I have for today. I think this’ll be the last we hear about the “Coutts v Farage” scandal. After three weeks of silence, all the weasel words about protecting ‘Free Speech’ show that this sudden interest was simply employing the “dead cat on the table” stratagem to attract the attention of us peasants. Have a good day.
Free speech – well and good.
Digital currency examining every transaction is covered by many books and documents, detailing object of the Great Reset.
They all point to items such as:-
– [you are at the supermarket checkout] Sorry Sir, you have bought ‘your allotted ration’ of meat, sugar, salt, alcohol, (delete as appropriate), as approved by the State. Your Bank will not honour your payment of your money to buy what you want to buy (stuff that the State deem is not good for you). Nanny knows best.
– [in the Bank] can I wish to buy a car and need a loan.
Certainly Sir, what would you like to buy?
I’ve seen a Jag – 400 brake horse power and so fast ‘it catches pigeons’. Has it more than a 50 cc engine Sir?
Hell no! It’s immaculate and I’ve always wanted one. Sorry Sir, Big Brother only allows max 50 cc engines or loans for electric cars, limited to a range of 100 miles – so no.
uSA’s Greatest Pres, Pres Trump put forward a Bill to outlaw such practices a few months before the rigged elections. The incoming prototype AI Bidet machine said, ‘I speak your weight. And the leg is lation shall not pass’. And it did not come to pass. Here endeth today’s lessons.
On a lighter note…
If Farage is found guilty after this witch hunt..
Will he be known as a registered hex offender!!
That’s a bit of an improvement on yesterday’s !
Mary….yeah, but not by much. However I didn’t think this site had been given over to failed comedians. I would much prefer a serious and sensible comment. I know I do a fair amount of moaning on here, but there is plenty to moan about with this government and its main opposition. And Farage’ predicament is a serious one although I do think we have been fed only half a story. More than anything else, I want Farage to get off his backside and back on the political campaigning trail, and by that I don’t mean backing Mr. Tice. I mean a proper political campaigning trail……..
CH “we have been fed only half a story”.
Like yourself, I think that what we’re told about this doesn’t feel right (like everything else MSM says of course, as we here all well know !). Nothing to do with whether the bank phoned him or not.
Now don’t get me wrong: our loss of free speech is one of THE really serious issues now. and Farage is high profile. But why are MSM making so much of this in this particular way, at a time like this, with him in particular.
Only trying to cheer people up., With all the doom and gloom in the world.
Never mind I’ll give up.
Keep it going I say, Chris.
One joke a day is hardly “giving over the site to failed comedians”.
No keep going.
It’s the thought that counts !!!!! (Just teasing !!!!)
I know it’s a hard thing to say but he might end up having to sell seashells by the seashore.
One could tell what the true intention would be when Sunak responded to the question that David Davis put to him in the House of Commons yesterday, and that was that complainants should refer their complaints to the Senior Ombudsman. So, in other words don’t rely on useless Sunak or his government to do anything to address the issues of bank closures, as the onus should be on the complainant to take this up. The Conservatives are failing the country and its citizens on so many fronts now its almost a hopeless cause, and they know it. Standby for an utter thumping of the Conservatives at the three by elections today, but this will be viewed by senior party officials tomorrow morning as disappointing and something expected in mid term elections where the party of government are trying to address problems etc blah blah blah. The same old excuse is trotted out year after year, decade after decade, no matter who is in power, and no doubt Starmer will be saying the same thing in a couple of years time if the country’s electorate are stupid enough to elect his party to power. I sincerely hope that the voters in these constituencies have not listed to the tired messages put out by the mainstream parties that they do at every election of promising so much but delivering so little, and place their votes elsewhere. We need a political revolution in this country, but I do happen to believe that the Conservative Party will go down the same route as the old Liberal Party of the early 20th century and go to political oblivion with only a small rump of MP’s left.
CH- the ombudsman is similar to ‘sign this petition’ … and it will be dismissed, sorry meant discussed, in parliament – pure clickbait.
I have submitted cast iron examples to the ombudsmen for both banking and data protection malpractices.
These are ignored and a multi, mega multi page questionnaire comes back. It takes a great deal of time to fill it in. Send it off, and by return, yes a govmt dept *by return*, you get a letter saying we see no merit in this.
It’s the invincible armour, that police complaints, prime minister, barristers and the like, use to fob off the likes of us little people = you didn’t honestly think this was meant to work for you, did you? Really?
We have ‘taken a survey’ is another ‘drop dead little people’ – another form of clickbait, championed by the govmt ‘bought and paid for’ bbc.
“Sunak responded … that complainants should refer their complaints to the Senior Ombudsman.” Farage told Danny Kruger on last night’s show, that a friend of his had done just that… 15 months ago and despite letters and emails had still had no response.
Do we need any more proof that the EU remains our enemy across the Channel?
https://www.gbnews.com/news/world/falkland-islands-argentia-eu-deal-diplomatic-triumph
Well past time for us to get what we voted for, full departure from the EU and related institutions with no financial support of them, instead of Boris’ mess.
Sunak is like a modern day Neville Chamberlain and will do everything in his power to side up and appease the dictators of the European Union. If ever there was a decision that the European Union cannot be trusted on anything that affects the United Kingdom, it has to be the decision to to refer to the Falkland Islands as Las Malvinas, talk about rubbing the salt in. And they want us within the EU Defence Pact. They should be told to go and take a run and jump, but then we have a prime minister who is afraid of his own shadow. Put simply the EU has zilch respect for this country and our liberation of the continent in the First World War and Second World War now counts for absolutely nothing.
Vote Tory – The party of free speech and bank accounts for all. There is a by-election this week after all.
Now the weather continues to be weaponised against us:
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/07/19/first-it-was-covid-now-were-being-scared-into-submission-over-the-weather/
Full article in the DT for those with a subscription. I don’t believe that temperatures are any different from those I’ve experienced before in the UK.
On another free speech topic, Big Brother Watch have drawn attention to the fact that the Government’s covert Counter Disinformation Unit has been ripped to shreds by members of the House of Lords. Whilst many assumed it was targeting things like Russian disinformation, it has been found unsurprisingly that the unit is sweeping up information about campaigners instead.
Woke institutions will not suddenly recant and become libertarian because of a brief, hypocritical reference to free speech by Rishi Sunak. Coutts have not reinstated Farage’s accounts. The Labour Party are not condemning Coutts and the BBC has not published a correction or apology. Nothing has actually changed.
There are restrictions on utility companies’ ability to cut customers off even when the customer goes into debt over a protracted period. Access to banking in this increasingly cashless world – my father did not have a bank account at all getting his wage in cash each week something that died out more or less when he did – ought to be akin to having an electricity account.
Politicians shed no tears when Katie Hopkins, Tommy Robinson, Nick Griffin et al lost their bank accounts. Farage is not the canary in the coal mine. He merely illustrates that Coutts overreached, got a bit carried away, like some councils did with the RIPA 2000 Act to use covert surveillance on people using the wrong recycling bin. RIPA was not changed. Local Authorities were merely told to not get carried way (i.e. get caught).
In future the banks will consider how much fuss their customer could make. A few high profile individuals may now get to keep their accounts the better to keep the shafting of us plebs out of the news. Our establishment are very good at ‘something must be done’ in a way that does not really change anything.