Nigel Farage cries persecution, nobody wants to be his banker after ties to Russia

The original quote as per the article is:

"But it is to say that any normal and fair-minded person would have a perfect right to be concerned if a group of Romanian people suddenly moved in next door."

So the idea that Farage was talking about a group of grown men literally that just happened to be from Romania, is nonsense. A group of Romanian people moving in next door could be a family, and Farage had no problem telling people to be concerned by it - and assuming someone to be a criminal based on their nationality and ethnicity is of course xenophobic and racist.

Should people be denied access to banking services for having the wrong opinions? No

(Or rather 'Yes' if you are a proto-totalitarian liberal intellectual)

It was only two years ago that some boardsies were calling for protestors against mandatory vaccination in Canada to be shot dead. The Canadian Armed Forces refused to be deployed so Trudeau had to back off. A sad day for Irish liberals sitting in their pyjamas baying for blood.

Btw I think my milkman is a Russian agent, he keeps delivering the wrong milk. Very suspicious. Should I report him?

It's widely accepted that farage is a racist and xenophobic, there are plenty of examples of it.

It's also widely accepted that he tries (and sometimes fails) to couch his language to try and avoid outright accusations.

If you support him, as a person, you are supporting a xenophobe and a racist, you need to be comfortable with that.

Proclaiming yourself a master debater does not make it so (especially when everyone realises you're just having to do the same hiding of racism and xenophobia to "debate properly").

I don't agree that businesses should be forced to do business with anyone provided those reasons for not doing business are legal, e.g. if farage actually lost his bank account, I would directly support him to get it back (provided it wasn't used for illegal activities). I don't support changing the laws to make it easier to launder money or receive payments from sanctioned individuals or nations, but that is down to the country to agree.

However, banks care for none of that, boutique banks care even less, they'll deal with the devil if it makes them money and they can do it legally, flexing the term legal as much as they can.

As said before, it's funny that farages return to media attention has been him destroying another part of the UK after the utter disaster of brexit. He really is a very selfish person (I'm not sure if he's stupid as well, I don't think he cares that he destroys things as long as he gets attention and some money out of it).

Coutt said they closed Farage's account because his balance had fallen below the minimum £1 million.

Then it was discovered there were files showing bank admitting he did meet 'commercial criteria' but views were "at odds" with "inclusivity".

Basically you're saying that he could have opened an account with another bank so he was not completely locked out of the financial system (true).

That's not good enough.

Proto-totalitarian institutions are testing the waters to see what they can get away with. Are we supposed to say "Oh well one bank can cancel people for having the wrong opinions but still plenty of consumer choice!"

If one bank does it, they could all do it - one by one. Bank defauls could also mean larger and larger monopolies as small banks are folded into bigger ones.

Many boardsies are hopelessly compromised because their own dictatorial instincts are so strong, and we saw this especially in the covid forum. They assume that if totalitarian structures are put in place, it will be controlled by people like them forever and "myogynists", "xenophobes" will be imprisoned, starved out or otherwise harmed.

Well that might happen or the nature of the regime could change at the moment it solidifies its unbreakable power and become some sort of anti-left dictatorship.

Ordinary people (without too much money or power) should be vigilant about institutions and the shady things they are doing behind the scenes.

Do you think Coutts haven't done this since their inception? I imagine it changes with the times but I'd be amazed if they haven't removed customers because of reputational risk in the past. Ordinary banking services are what people are entitled to under law. Boutique wealth management is not normal banking services, they even offered him a bank account in their less prestigious service. So it's far from the crisis his fans are making it out to be.

Also one last note, regardless of the dossier, Coutts were perfectly within their rights to shut down his account. He did fall below the required amount in his account. At that point, this kind of bank does weigh up if it's worth having you as a customer.