Farage, debanking, Natwest, the BBC, and accountclosed.org
First post after a long time lurking, sorry if there's a better place to post something this long but I thought this whole story might interest
@Null, in particular the last section.
29th June:
Nigel Farage puts out a video saying that his bank of multiple decades, Coutts (a subsidiary of Natwest), is cutting him off without good reason.
Youtube (0:38 - 1:53)
He got a phone call a couple of months ago, and then a letter, saying his bank account is to be closed due to a "commercial decision". He has since tried to sign up to 7 more banks for personal and business account and been declined every time. He says he is thinking about having to leave the country.
4th July:
The BBC published an article with the title
Nigel Farage bank account shut for falling below wealth limit
(
Archive 04/07/2023) , deboooonking the ridiculous idea that Farage was removed for political reasons, and saying that the real reason Coutts kicked Farage out was purely a "commercial decision" in that he simply didn't have enough money to be in the rich-person bank anymore. Coutts said that Farage had fallen below limit of £1M in current account.
10th July:
New video from Farage:
Youtube (0:34 - 2:24) - now 9 banks have rejected him for a new account (he suspected on the excuse of "politically exposed person" EU banking rules). He criticises Coutts for breaching client confidentiality and says that he has contact from other people with Coutts saying that they are below this £1M so-called "limit" and still have their accounts intact.
18th July:
After an information request about why he was de-banked, Farage manages to acquire an internal 40-page Soviet-style "dossier" by Coutts on himself (attached), mentioning "Brexit", "Trump" and "racist" dozens of times, and generally decrying him as a horrible racist antisemitic fascist literally-Hitler meanie. (
Article,
Archive). Includes the excerpt "Commentary and behaviours that do not align with the bank's purpose and values have been demonstrated". Proof as written that the purpose of banks and likewise institutions is no longer about making money. Also amusing that they refer to him as
NF all the way through, wonder if that was on purpose.
Included in the memo is "he meets the EC criteria for commercial retention", and other statements to the same effect, which means that Coutts simply lied when they briefed BBC that the de-banking was for commercial reasons. To be generous to the BBC, this is yet another case where a modern "journalism" organisation has done absolutely zero due diligence and investigation, and has accepted every claim from their "trusted source" at face value. To be less generous, this is a senior journalist (the business editor) of the state broadcaster deliberately conspiring with a client in power to spread lies about a political opponent and control a narrative (say it ain't so).
Here's his video on the report:
Youtube
Timestamps:
0:00 - 1:18 outline
3:31 - 5:42 the infiltration of power structures by the usual suspects
6:38 - 7:28 talking about how banks are working with financial data companies to use people's internet and social media posts to decide their worthiness for a bank account
21st July:
The BBC decides to edit the title and body of their completely false article, to say "we didn't say the thing that we said, it was our source".
The headline on the Farage story has been clarified and an update posted. It should have been clearer at the top that the reason for Mr Farage's account being closed was commercial - was what a source told the BBC. That has been corrected.
(
Tweet,
Archive)
The new article:
Nigel Farage bank account shut for falling below wealth limit, source tells BBC
(
Archive)
Simon Jack has since "apologised" to Farage (
Article,
Archive)
25th July, afternoon:
The board of Natwest, the parent bank to Coutts, says it "retains full confidence in Ms [Alison] Rose as CEO of the bank"
26th July, 01:30 in the morning, after a long emergency meeting:
Alison Rose resigns with unanimous agreement of the board (lol)
Article,
Archive
27th July:
Even the prime minister, Rishi "who's colonising who now" Sunak, has weighed in on the issue, in the typical Tory style of weakly holding a piece of wet tissue up to the cultural battering ram being wielded against the country:
Article,
Archive
He has refused to back the new CEO, who was one the board members who outwardly defended Alison Rose and gave his confidence in her. So there might still be more resignations to come.
Natwest's stock has fallen from 260 to 238 since the 19th of July. Basically, the moral of this story is that while the miasma has sunk its tentacles into almost every nook of power in public and private institutions, you will still get wrecked if you ignore the golden rule: Don't fuck around with rich people's money.
Account Closed:
Farage has created a new campaign website,
accountclosed.org, to raise awareness for people who have been cut off from the banking system for political reasons, and to fight for access to the exchange of money to be a common, politically neutral service.
Article,
Archive
It looks pretty bare at the moment, but they have a contact page and are inviting people to give their input. It seems like they might be very receptive to tying in de-banking to the internet infrastructure censorship that has been going on here.
