![]() And, of course, don’t necessarily expect to keep your bank account. Don’t expect to get a decent job in a big company. Don’t expect to work in the public sector. Sure, you can disagree with them, but don’t then expect to live the same kind of life as other people. Already a whole range of Leftist opinions are the norms, the accepted world-view of supposedly right-thinking people. We are beginning to forget what it was like to live in a country where people disagreed about politics but otherwise could get on with their lives. One leading figure at a conservative magazine summed it up yesterday, writing (not ironically): “Very bitterly regretting that Coutts appears to be in the wrong here and Nigel Farage in the right.”Īll too quickly, we are going down the road to a different kind of society – to a hyperpoliticised society, in which politics gets into everything. With so many people going public about their loss of banking facilities for political reasons, was it really plausible that Farage would not turn out to be one of them, too? But the initial glee at his misfortune infected even some who might have been expected to be more sympathetic. As so often with SW1 commentators, their dislike of the man blinded them to reality. Plainly, views of Nigel himself had a role here. And many actively rejoiced in his “debanking” – a horrible neologism, by the way, hopefully going down the memory hole fast. All too many (step forward Jon Sopel) were ready to believe the feeble and, in the light of events, clearly misleading Coutts “explanation” for its actions, relayed by the BBC. Far too few people spoke up when he first made his allegations. Even the repeated comment that Farage is “polite to staff” is revealing, as if they find it surprising from someone with his opinions.īut the Farage affair has also highlighted the decline in our culture of freedom. Wikipedia is cited as if it were a reliable source – as is the far-Left boycott group “Hope not Hate”. ![]() The Coutts papers read as if written by gullible schoolchildren with a Marxist teacher. Anyone who doesn’t believe that we are already in a culture war – and losing it – should read the Farage dossier.Īnd it’s childish, too. Opinions widely held by many people, including me – criticism of net zero, doubts about diversity, equity, and inclusion, uncertainty about the wilder fringes of the LGBTIQ+ etc movement, and of course support for Brexit and concerns about immigration – all are treated as not just a matter for disagreement but an offence against today’s household gods. It’s important, too, because of the childish yet dangerous politics that underlie it.ĭangerous because it is so obvious from the now-released Coutts dossier that the bank’s decision-makers see only one world view as reasonable. ![]() “If even he can be left without a bank account, then obviously it can happen to me, too.” This chilling effect is why it’s so crucial that this never happens again. “Nigel is one of the best-known politicians in the country,” people will be thinking. Indeed, it is clear, from the accounts that have since emerged, that it already has. The Farage case is important for many reasons, but the most obvious is that, if we don’t stop it here, the same thing will happen to many others. “Why would the bank care about your opinions?” we would have said. Not very long ago, this would have seemed literally incredible. ![]() Someone has lost their bank account because the bank didn’t like their opinions. The only appropriate response to it is cold fury, mixed with deep, deep, apprehension. The saga of Nigel Farage and his Coutts bank account is one such story. That is why they so often capture the spirit of the age. They are saying what they really think when they believe that no-one is listening, and acting as they really want to when they think that they can get away with it. ![]() The actors aren’t playing to the gallery. Often only minor in itself, it is its very pedestrian quality that is so revealing. Every so often, a news story captures our society’s dysfunctions. ![]()
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