Wisbech can look after himself (he does little else on here) but I am curious as to which part of this post you find deluded.

An absurd, self-defeating thing for Coutts to have done, but do you really believe that Farage is not politicizing his private life?

And the comment about government intervention is equally valid. The Tories must be desperate if they are seeking to interfere with the commercial freedoms of their paymasters.

Tbh silver I think it is important to highlight it. 1000s have had accounts closed but didn’t have the platform or fame to highlight it. This could have been over just one tweet or insta or letter to the papers. The next one could be you or yours having it done to them. These organisations think they are the judge jury and executioner and that isn’t their job. Report someone by all means if it’s bad enough to merit reporting but we all have to go down the correct channels, why shouldn’t they?

I see. Good points.

Banks will make the pub argument. A pub can sell to who they want and expel who they want for any reason, good or bad. Likewise banks. However, it is not quite the correct analogy, is it? If you are wearing a lairy shirt and the landlord asks you to leave, it is unlikely to cause you issues with paying your mortgage or buying the family groceries.

Also, there is an element of payback. After the banks fecked up on sub-prime lending, it was us who had to divert funds from critical public needs to prop them up, a shift that has never been corrected. I lost a job over this. Thus, we either part own them; but they all owe us.

Either accounts are closed for sound commercial/legitimate reasons (laundering etc.), or they are closed for the bad reasons you give. In which case legislation (or a threat of it) may be necessary to address this chilling effect.

And this is not left or right. A bank can presumably close an account of someone preaching radical but peaceful Islam or hard left activism as much as they can shut down the likes of Farage.

This.

I would add that as we are moving to a cashless society how are people expected to live without a bank account. I predict at some point in the not too distant future one of the major parties will propose a legal right to banking.

If you've just came out of prison for a terrible crime you still need a bank account but your reputation isn't exactly stellar.

One more point

Farage will have no difficulty whatsoever in opening a regular account with almost every bank, including others within the RBS group I imagine. It was only the association with Coutts and their image which caused this. I wonder if he has a Harrods credit card, or whether they don't want his name associated with them?

My tenant who served many years inside had a bank account before he came out. No doubt it had requirements and restrictions but he was still able to function in today's world. I expect he was given training on this prior to release.

For the avoidance of doubt any comments in response to a previous post are directed to its ideas and not at any, or all, posters personally.

We are living in insane times.

The country I grew up in was so much better than this.....If only we could just have the tech and get rid of all these mentalists.

'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)