But, thankfully, less effective.
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Ha, true.
Are we supposed to feel sorry for Farage?Thanks to him and his stirring mates a lot of decent normal people had their bank accounts closed for no good reason at all.Did Farage give a damn about them?No.Enough said.
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I certainly don’t.
No, it’s not about “feeling sorry” for Farage. It’s not even about Farage, in particular.
It’s about the principle of whether
is legitimate.
It’s very useful having that “Go to the top of the thread” function.
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Or it’s about whether businesses can choose who to transact with.
Farage said that he supported the bakery who refused to make a “gay pride” cake - in this case he can’t have his gateaux and eat it.
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I think the answer to this depends whether you’re talking about a private bank or a retail bank.
I don’t understand why that would make a difference. Remember, I’m thinking about what a bank should do, rather than what it can.
Because a private bank, as opposed to a retail bank, is primarily offering wealth management services. Those are not essential services, in my opinion… nobody is going to be unable to pay their bills or receive their salary if they don’t have access to tax advisers and inheritance experts.
However, a retail bank provides services which are crucial for the modern way of life. I can’t imagine how anyone would survive without access at minimum to a current account. You’d be unable to receive a salary (in most cases) or benefits (in all cases). These should be available to everyone, in my opinion.
I think that because a private bank is not providing an essential service then they should be free, within reason, to choose who they deal with. Provided they’re not discriminating against people based on protected characteristics, then I really don’t see what the issue is. Someone’s political beliefs don’t fall under the definition of protected characteristics, so what Coutts did doesn’t fall foul of the Equality Act.
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And no one in the UK has to, in theory at least, I can’t speak to whether people fall through the cracks. Basic bank accounts are sometimes suitable for active bankrupts even as they offer no access to any kind of credit. The use of electron cards (I don’t think they’re now branded as Electron but still use the Electron/ Solo system) means that if you ain’t got the cash in the account it will decline, so there’s no possibility of spending money you don’t have. These accounts have be been created specifically so everybody can have the essentials needed in 2023. They rarely advertise them well, as usually they’ll be offered after a decline, once they’ve tried Nige on a Coutts and computer said no, they’ll try a NatWest, then if computer says no on that, they’ll offer him a Foundation Account, and by the look of it he’s still applicable for the £200 switching bonus with his Foundation account… assuming he’s got any accounts still open to switch 
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Don’t forget this is who we’re talking about
I’m surprised any bank wants to give him an account.
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I completely agree with (what I presume is) your opinion about the man. And I’m quite sure there’s an element of snobbery about his desire for an account at Coutts.
I am just very uncomfortable with the idea that a bank might refuse to continue to provide a service on the grounds of a customer’s politics.
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Or their apparel, haircut or colour, skin, tattoos or lack of them, sex, etc etc etc.
But if they are a private business they can set the terms they want unless those terms are against the law. Having less than X (sum) in your account is the apparent clincher but they could refuse for all sorts of reasons.
Maybe he can try Drummond’s or Hoare’s but I don’t suppose they’ll want him either.
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There’s a vaguely well known cheat for NatWest where you put in the sort code for the branch of Drummonds, Childs & Co or Hoare when you apply online for an account, and you get a rebadged NatWest premier account, so basically a NatWest account with a fancy debit card, posh name on the bank statement, and because those banks are out of a bygone age… a chequebook, almost like they’re french If this loophole is still open perhaps Nige could still get his fancy pants account 
Is there any reason to hope that the legislation that is promised would be any help to people who happen to lose their accounts because they no longer live in the UK?
Not affected us, yet, but just wondering. 
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Can you really not see that this is an inflated story?
Doubt it. Can’t see how they could be obliged to provide a service to someone who was not resident. There are more than 5 million people with British passports outside the UK, many with no connection to UK so how would they do basic ID and credit checks?
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Exactly!
What could be next if this is left unchecked?
Insurance companies, phone providers etc refusing service on political grounds?
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Insurance companies can already refuse to provide a service on lifestyle/health grounds. I don’t see why refusing to cover someone with some health condition they can’t choose not to have is more acceptable than refusing them for any other reason.
There are conditions for practically any transaction.
In any case it would seem that Farage is being somewhat disingenuous and portraying himself as an unfortunate victim to garner sympathy.
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Yes.
if a couple of gay activists wanted a bakery to bake them a cake promoting Pride, and the bakery didn’t want to,
Like Vero said its a private business and they should be allowed to accept or refuse custom
Forage is peed off because he obviously knew the reason and proved it by producing the article, thereby highlighting the ethics of (the) bankers or should that be a W.