Coutts Have Been Telling Fibs

[retrocop]

or at least being economical with the truth. Mr Farage's account was closed for political reasons and the views Mr Farage hold do not align with Coutt's. Going under the financial threshold had little to do with their decision. I hope he takes them to court as a result of unproved malicious allegations and slurs made against him.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/textbased/news/text-12312737/Top-bank-lied-Nigel-Farage-ban-Coutts-axed-saying-wasnt-rich-emerges-believed-views-dont-align-values.html

[sp1814]

naomi24

But it is...it's the same issue. If Coutts can be sued for failing to provide a service whose views don't align with their corporate values then so can bakeries and B&B owners.

It's exactly the same argument.

[sp1814]

"to provide a service *to those* whose"

How is this different???

[naomi24]

If it's the same argument there's no reason for you to divert the thread to talk about your particular hobby horse. This is about Mr Farage.

[sp1814]

Thank you for the invaluable advice naomi24 - but for now I'm going to highlight the inconsistency that some show when the story doesn't fit their world view.

And that is what this story shows.

Also, I don't know if you were aware of this, but the thread is about Coutts, not NF.

Only in the last sentence does the subject become NF.

[naomi24]

Read the OP again.

[ichkeria]

Farage though claimed that he had been refused a alternative bank account, ansd claimed that he was probably being victimised. To thew extent of hinting that he was being forced abriad.
And as far as I know that was not the case.
Mr Farage seems to revel in the idea that he is important enough a person to merit this sort of treatment, and I would suggest that that is very far from the case.

[sp1814]

Thanks naomi24

Regarding the OP...NF can't take Coutts to court because they didn't slur him. He was slurred by someone else (too many to name here).

The link between this case and the B&B /bakery is that they too refused service and were taken to court. But if NF does this, he'd have to prove he was discriminated due to his political beliefs - and there is no legal basis for this.

[naomi24]

Ich, //Mr Farage seems to revel in the idea that he is important enough a person to merit this sort of treatment//

But it seems he is important enough because apparently he has merited this treatment. I doubt he's revelling in it though. Not much fun having your life disrupted in this way.

[sp1814]

ichkeria

It IS true that it must be extremely stressful to have your finances compromised in such a way.

I wonder why the the banks (I think he approached seven of them) refused his service???

[Gromit]

He is still insisting that he has been victimised because he is a ‘Politically Exposed Person’ (PEP).
But it doesn’t mean what he thinks it means. He holds no important office or any public duties. He cannot be PEP so his whole argument rather fails.
The people who can be assigned PEP status are listed here (Farage does not fit the criteria).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politically_exposed_person

[naomi24]

Gromit. Does PEP cover people who have led political parties and who have been elected to public office in the recent past - or does it cease to apply immediately the subject abandons politics?

[Old_Geezer]

Vital services that act together are not comparable to non-vital services where one can take one's business elsewhere.

[Old_Geezer]

If a bank considers an individual a PEP it doesn't matter what someone's view posted in Wikipedia is. The outcome is the same.

[sp1814]

O_G

If Coutts refused service to NF he can take his business elsewhere. Only if banks grouped together (formed a cartel) and collectively decided to freeze him out would he have a problem. We have no reason to believe this happened.

NF has named Coutts as being the bank that wanted to rid themselves of his custom. I think he should name the other seven...

[Gromit]

People in the UK who may be Politically Exposed are:-

• A foreign person who has held any time in the preceding year a prominent public function outside the United Kingdom, in a state or international institution
- Does not apply to Farage.

• Members of courts of auditors or of the boards of central banks
Ambassadors, chargés d'affaires and high-ranking officers in the armed forces
- Does not apply to Farage.

• Members of the administrative, management or supervisory bodies of state-owned enterprises
- Does not apply to Farage.

• Heads of state, heads of government, ministers and deputy or assistant ministers
- Does not apply to Farage.

• Members of parliaments
- Does not apply to Farage.

• Members of supreme courts, constitutional courts or of other high-level judicial bodies
- Does not apply to Farage.

[Atheist]

I wonder if they know something that they aren't revealing.

[Atheist]

The banks, that is.

[Old_Geezer]

We have every reason to believed it happened. Farage himself tells of how he can't get an offer suitable as a business account from any he's tried. He'd hardly put his business at that risk if it were not so.

[sp1814]

O_G

No we don't.

All we know is that NF was unable to get a business account on the terms he had with Coutts. Maybe he was turned down for equivalent accounts for commercial reasons. We only have his word for this and he needs to name the banks otherwise how can we believe him?

[naomi24]

Gromit, Farage was an MEP and also leader of a political party … but that aside, you haven’t answered my question.