Banking on wokeness & cancel culture
It’s pretty hard to do life without a bank account. In fact, with our move to a cashless world, having a bank account has become an essential service. But what happens when banks cancel your accounts or don’t even want your business – because you happen to be a social conservative. It’s happening – at a disturbing level.
TRANSCRIPT:
It’s pretty hard to do life without a bank account isn’t it. In fact, with our move to a cashless world, having a bank account has become an essential service.
But what happens when banks cancel your accounts or don’t even want your business – because you happen to be a social conservative.
It’s happening – at a disturbing level.
Some disturbing examples of banks closing the accounts of generally-christian ministries that they don’t agree with.
In July 2020, Barclays Bank notified Core Issues Trust (CIT) and the International Federation for Therapeutic and Counselling Choice (IFTCC), that their banking facilities would be stopped. These groups help those struggling with unwanted sexuality and gender issues to gain the freedom that they personally desire. The cultural and political elite call it ‘conversion therapy’. It’s actually freedom by knowing the Truth and living your life according to your own conviction and beliefs. But NZ politicians think it should be illegal and you should go to prison for it.
Barclays, a top-ranking Stonewall employer and the headline sponsor for London’s Gay Pride parade, appeared to cancel the accounts following a coordinated harassment campaign from LGBT activists. This is their leader Mike Davidson who hosted me in Hungary when I spoke at their conference last year.
The good news is that Barclays has been forced to pay over £20,000 compensation to the group after the ministry got legal support from Christian Concern in the UK.
But they’re not the only example.
Rev Richard Fothergill discusses having his bank account closed by Yorkshire Building Society after criticising their stance on Pride.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZvKAvQ6F4w
The building society wrote to him advising they had a “zero tolerance approach to discrimination” and that their relationship with the customer had “irrevocably broken down”.
Yep – the bank’s ability to operate your bank account means that you must align with their worldview.
And more recently Case #3
Nigel Farage – and his family. Nigel farage of course led the Brexit campaign to remove the UK from the EU – which was supported by a majority of Brits.
On a US interview podcast he shared his story. And I just want to share a few extracts
He did some official information act requests and guess what he found
And in fact on his own tv show that he now hosts, he shared that they’ve not only targeted him personally, but also his wider family
Now here’s the interesting bit = have a listen
He mentions Refinitiv – and their monitoring. I checked to see whether they have a presence in NZ and on the Reserve Bank of NZ website, they are mentioned
I have no idea of the significance of that, but Nigel Farage is expressing concern. Perhaps we should be concerned also.
NatWest faced intense political and media scrutiny over the decision. A third of NatWest is owned by the Government. CEO Alison Rose stepped down after she admitted to a “serious error of judgment” in discussing Nigel Farage’s relationship with the bank with a BBC journalist. The BBC also had to apologise to Farage also.
Here’s the other disturbing bit. When Farage went looking for a new bank, nine other financial institutions refused his business. But you have to have a bank account. Do they expect social conservatives to store their cash under the couch again?
Leaked minutes from a Coutts Bank Reputational Risk Management Committee meeting said of Farage …
“He is seen as xenophobic and racist. He is considered by many to be a disingenuous grifter. Being associated with Nigel Farage presents a material and ongoing reputational risk to the bank.”
The leaked documents go on to list Farage’s other sins ..
He supported Brexit. He supports Donald Trump. He thinks immigration numbers are too high. He doesn’t support Net Zero (which is to do with carbon emissions).
So his views and views held by millions of others around the world didn’t align with those of his bank and so he was outski.
It goes on:
“The committee did not think continuing to bank NF (Nigel Farage) was compatible with Coutts given his publicly-stated views that were at odds with our position as an inclusive organisation.”
Classic. We’re going to be inclusive by excluding people we don’t agree with.
And finally case #4
According a report in the Telegraph in the UK, An aristocrat has accused NatWest of behaving like Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union after shutting her bank accounts with no explanation.
Alexandra Tolstoy, who is Anglo-Russian, said that the bank was acting as a “kangaroo court” by refusing to explain why it closed both her accounts after six years. The father of her three children is Sergei Pugachev, an oligarch with links to Vladimir Putin, but the pair split in 2016 and Tolstoy said she has “not received a penny” since.
Tolstoy, who runs a horse riding holiday business, said that after receiving a letter with 60 days’ notice of the closure, she wrote to NatWest’s chief executive explaining she was no longer connected to Mr Pugachev.
However, staff at the bank’s executive office told her they were “not obliged to enter into any discussion or provide a reason for our decision” and refused to meet her.
She said: “The irony is it’s like the Soviet Union. Only they would at least tell you what you are accused of. Even in the kangaroo courts of Stalin, you knew what you were being accused of. “It is absolutely extraordinary that this is happening in the UK”
She added. “It should be a human right to have a bank account,”
Correct.
Want one more?
According to this report, a parents organization in the U.K. was prevented from opening an account with Metro Bank after the bank found out the parents opposed transgender procedures for children.
The parents group, “Our Duty,” which represents over 2,000 parents who are rightfully concerned about children “transitioning” and whose goal is to come alongside other parents who are struggling with the right decisions and answers for kids who are, unfortunately, struggling with gender confusion and looking to permanently alter their bodies. The group claims their goal is not political or religious, but rather that they want to safely bring “children to adulthood healthy in body and mind,” pointing out that transgender medical procedures are harmful and often lead to regret.
Metro Bank, the UK’s seventh-largest bank with roughly 2.5 million customers, reportedly told Our Duty’s founder, Keith Jordan, that the group was not eligible for a business account because “the content of your website conflicts with the culture and ideas we are pushing.”
You may remember the interview with Californian mum Erin Friday that I did. She is part of the US chapter of Our Duty – supporting parents whose children become caught in the harmful net of gender ideology.
And of course who can forget Canada. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau froze the bank accounts of citizens who dared to protest his government’s handling of the Covid crisis.
It seems that core services such as banks and even telcos such as Spark and ONE NZ believe that only their view matters.
Here’s the key point.
Why do they feel they have to ram down their beliefs and make you bow at the altar of their god – their DEI? diversity equity and inclusion. It’s because the reasoning and logic behind DEI is so weak and flawed that it cannot stand on its own merit.
It must be rammed down – with consequences for unbelief in the new cultural religion. That’s actually the driving force behind hate speech laws also. Non-adherents to DEI must be punished.
My encouragement – keep pushing back. People are finally starting to wake up. The sooner this new woke religion crumbles under the weight of its stupidity and its real definition of delusion, inequity and exclusion, the better for all of society.
Keep pushing back.
