The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
I have no fondness for banks, but in truth both banks and honest customers (nearly all of them) are in a quandary. This is all of a piece in a society where maximal rights to privacy go hand in hand with maximal duty to disclose + litigation culture. Think safeguarding, fraud, laundering, tax avoidance, etc.
A recent Supreme Court (the UK one) judgement is worth considering.
Here a clearly educated couple sued Barclays for effecting a large transfer (£700k) which Barclays had questioned and they had insisted on. They then sued the bank, lost at first instance, won in the CA and lost in the SC.
The SC left them one possible route to suing the bank (failure to try to recover in a timely manner).
If I were a bank or a customer, I would read the judgement and conclude I have no choice but to require (bank) and give (customer) a lot of disclosure in a lot of transactions.
PS Now the name Supreme Court is tainted by Trumpian associations, it should be renamed again. 'Judicial Committee of the House of Lords' has a nice ring to it.
It doesn’t feel to me that the Farage story has cut through to the public. Certainly not in the way he would like.
- there’s no detectable general outrage about banks acting arbitrarily, certainly not outside the limited world of PEPs. - Nobody thinks Coutts (if they’ve even heard of it) is woke.
I think for a story like this to really grab the imagination and have a political effect it needs to resonate with a large section of the public - as did partygate, as did Labour antisemitism, Labour vacillation on ULEZ, the Kamikwaze budget and the ongoing sewage debacle.
I think the danger is that he now uses this platform to increase his profile and as we near the election become very political with unknown consequences
He is very much a lose cannon, and his appearances on the media recently have been more than anytime since his time fighting the EU
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
Choose a less intrusive bank would be my recommendation
Such a thing doesn't exist and if it tried to be, the FCA would be on it like a ton of bricks. Plus in any case wholesale financial information - your financial details - is readily available from any number of sources.
As I said - I don’t have to give a reason for any transaction.
Amateur (but fairly competent looking) effort to reproduce the RT superconductor research reported this week.
Should be interesting to follow.
Meissner effect or bust. Day 1.
Made good progress on the list of to-dos. I'm doing this all after-hours, so it's been a long day. Since we're gated by the delivery of the PbO + Pb(SO4), which should be tomorrow, we're working on infrastructure first. https://twitter.com/andrewmccalip/status/1684433849781202944
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
Friend of mine who knows these things, was involved with Cambridge Analytica, spelled it out thus:
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your birthday, your children's names, your travel arrangements? The answer, because you plaster it all over social media, is no, not really.
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your bank account details, your payment history, your credit rating? The answer, because you believe these things are important, is yes very much.
To which he responds that the first set of info is extremely difficult to obtain, requiring passwords and invitations; while the second is super easily available to anyone who wants to know.
Did you mean “unhappy” in both cases?
Nope. People are generally much more relaxed about telling people what they had for breakfast than what they spent that £250 on the other day.
It doesn’t feel to me that the Farage story has cut through to the public. Certainly not in the way he would like.
- there’s no detectable general outrage about banks acting arbitrarily, certainly not outside the limited world of PEPs. - Nobody thinks Coutts (if they’ve even heard of it) is woke.
I think for a story like this to really grab the imagination and have a political effect it needs to resonate with a large section of the public - as did partygate, as did Labour antisemitism, Labour vacillation on ULEZ, the Kamikwaze budget and the ongoing sewage debacle.
I think the danger is that he now uses this platform to increase his profile and as we near the election become very political with unknown consequences
He is very much a lose cannon, and his appearances on the media recently have been more than anytime since his time fighting the EU
Hopefully for Sunak he’ll use it to bang on about banks, because that’s a lot less dangerous than banging on about small boats or how unfairly the poor Russians are being treated.
But the media always give him a generous hearing regardless of the topic. He has a privileged position in that regard, rather like Boris used to, because he’s charismatic. I don’t think he needed Couttsgate to get back into the public eye.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
HYUFD is always assuring us that the average Tory voter in the south-east is a millionaire anyway - in fact, his eagerness to abolish IHT would suggest many of them are doing better than that. (OK, some of Mr F's dosh is in a house, I expect, but logic won't always apply).
Mr F definitely a man of the Tory people. Hence the threat to the "Conservative" Party.
Depends, HYUFD could be right. Add south east average property values, home ownership stats, average salaries, average age, and then add Tory voter and it isn't a million miles away from being likely.
So many of our media and political classes know bugger all about banking/AML regulations.
TBF, I don't think we needed to be told that. It's fairly obvious, and could in any case be extrapolated from their frightening ignorance of every other subject.
We're back in the times when the LibDems can win in lots of places, some very surprising, provided they throw the sink at a constituency.
In which case, the limiting factor at a General Election is how many catapults, trebuchets and other sink-throwing apparatuses (apparatae?) they possess
Monbiot has been championing a new tactical voting wheeze:
As he says, this also put in an appearance in Godalming, with a false claim that Opposition parties had been consulted. I kicked up a fuss and the anonymous sponsors hastily withdrew it, though I expect it will be back in less devious terms. Tactical voting is fair enough if people want to use their vote that way, but lying isn't.
Rudy Giuliani has now admitted that while acting as Trump’s lawyer, he made false statements by asserting that two Georgia election workers had mishandled ballots while counting votes in Atlanta during the 2020 election.
Giuliani’s concession came in court papers filed on Tuesday night as part of a defamation lawsuit that the two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, had brought against him in Federal District Court in Washington in December 2021.
The suit accused Giuliani and others of promoting a video that purported to show the two women — who are mother and daughter — manipulating ballots while working for the Fulton County Board of Elections.
In a two-page declaration, Giuliani acknowledged that he had in fact made the statements about the women that led to the filing of the suit and that the remarks “carry meaning that is defamatory per se.” He also admitted that his statements were “actionable” and “false” and that he no longer disputed the “factual elements of liability” the election workers had raised in their suit. https://twitter.com/joncoopertweets/status/1684202856725839876
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
It’s a breach of confidentiality
If you choose to supply an explanation that’s up to you.
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
I have an HSBC Premier account. And like @Heathener I get asked for a reason for transfers of funds to other accounts - even when it is clearly a business account. I assume this all relates to money laundering, but it does mean that my bank is generating records of who I am paying *and why*.
Well if you are enough of an idiot to bank with hsbc - the money launders bank of choice - you deserve everything you get
I should bank with Coutts! Oh that's right, like Farage I don't enough money...
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
Choose a less intrusive bank would be my recommendation
Such a thing doesn't exist and if it tried to be, the FCA would be on it like a ton of bricks. Plus in any case wholesale financial information - your financial details - is readily available from any number of sources.
As I said - I don’t have to give a reason for any transaction.
And it doesn’t talk to credit agencies
Not that I am interested, nor want to spend the money, but I bet I could find out significant financial information about you.
Amateur (but fairly competent looking) effort to reproduce the RT superconductor research reported this week.
Should be interesting to follow.
Meissner effect or bust. Day 1.
Made good progress on the list of to-dos. I'm doing this all after-hours, so it's been a long day. Since we're gated by the delivery of the PbO + Pb(SO4), which should be tomorrow, we're working on infrastructure first. https://twitter.com/andrewmccalip/status/1684433849781202944
Must be fun to be someone like that. Just doing things like making space capsules or replicating ground breaking physics experiments as a hobby.
Best bit of that thread is that he - a proud American based in LA - refers to a vacuum as sucky mcsuckface, surely a sign of British popular culture memes making their way across the Atlantic.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
HYUFD is always assuring us that the average Tory voter in the south-east is a millionaire anyway - in fact, his eagerness to abolish IHT would suggest many of them are doing better than that. (OK, some of Mr F's dosh is in a house, I expect, but logic won't always apply).
Mr F definitely a man of the Tory people. Hence the threat to the "Conservative" Party.
Depends, HYUFD could be right. Add south east average property values, home ownership stats, average salaries, average age, and then add Tory voter and it isn't a million miles away from being likely.
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
It’s a breach of confidentiality
If you choose to supply an explanation that’s up to you.
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
I have an HSBC Premier account. And like @Heathener I get asked for a reason for transfers of funds to other accounts - even when it is clearly a business account. I assume this all relates to money laundering, but it does mean that my bank is generating records of who I am paying *and why*.
Well if you are enough of an idiot to bank with hsbc - the money launders bank of choice - you deserve everything you get
I should bank with Coutts! Oh that's right, like Farage I don't enough money...
Unlike the couple who got stung in @algarkirk 's case above.
That's astonishing. And I can see why they were distraught.
But ultimately, it's not the bank's fault that they carried out the instructions of the account holder. It was definitely the fault of the account holder.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
HYUFD is always assuring us that the average Tory voter in the south-east is a millionaire anyway - in fact, his eagerness to abolish IHT would suggest many of them are doing better than that. (OK, some of Mr F's dosh is in a house, I expect, but logic won't always apply).
Mr F definitely a man of the Tory people. Hence the threat to the "Conservative" Party.
Depends, HYUFD could be right. Add south east average property values, home ownership stats, average salaries, average age, and then add Tory voter and it isn't a million miles away from being likely.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
HYUFD is always assuring us that the average Tory voter in the south-east is a millionaire anyway - in fact, his eagerness to abolish IHT would suggest many of them are doing better than that. (OK, some of Mr F's dosh is in a house, I expect, but logic won't always apply).
Mr F definitely a man of the Tory people. Hence the threat to the "Conservative" Party.
Depends, HYUFD could be right. Add south east average property values, home ownership stats, average salaries, average age, and then add Tory voter and it isn't a million miles away from being likely.
Oh, that's indeed my point.
Ah I see. Soz.
A Blue Wall thing, though. Not exactly one for Sedgefield I would think. Other than a general **** the Establishment kind of thing.
Amateur (but fairly competent looking) effort to reproduce the RT superconductor research reported this week.
Should be interesting to follow.
Meissner effect or bust. Day 1.
Made good progress on the list of to-dos. I'm doing this all after-hours, so it's been a long day. Since we're gated by the delivery of the PbO + Pb(SO4), which should be tomorrow, we're working on infrastructure first. https://twitter.com/andrewmccalip/status/1684433849781202944
Must be fun to be someone like that. Just doing things like making space capsules or replicating ground breaking physics experiments as a hobby.
Best bit of that thread is that he - a proud American based in LA - refers to a vacuum as sucky mcsuckface, surely a sign of British popular culture memes making their way across the Atlantic.
Just so long as he doesn't try to follow the Radioactive Boy Scout with his reactor in the garden shed. But - seriously, very nice.
Amateur (but fairly competent looking) effort to reproduce the RT superconductor research reported this week.
Should be interesting to follow.
Meissner effect or bust. Day 1.
Made good progress on the list of to-dos. I'm doing this all after-hours, so it's been a long day. Since we're gated by the delivery of the PbO + Pb(SO4), which should be tomorrow, we're working on infrastructure first. https://twitter.com/andrewmccalip/status/1684433849781202944
Must be fun to be someone like that. Just doing things like making space capsules or replicating ground breaking physics experiments as a hobby.
Best bit of that thread is that he - a proud American based in LA - refers to a vacuum as sucky mcsuckface, surely a sign of British popular culture memes making their way across the Atlantic.
There's been rather a lot of scepticism expressed about the paper - but there'll be dozens of efforts like this (mostly professional), so it ought not to be very long before it's either confirmed or exploded.
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
We're back in the times when the LibDems can win in lots of places, some very surprising, provided they throw the sink at a constituency.
In which case, the limiting factor at a General Election is how many catapults, trebuchets and other sink-throwing apparatuses (apparatae?) they possess
Monbiot has been championing a new tactical voting wheeze:
As he says, this also put in an appearance in Godalming, with a false claim that Opposition parties had been consulted. I kicked up a fuss and the anonymous sponsors hastily withdrew it, though I expect it will be back in less devious terms. Tactical voting is fair enough if people want to use their vote that way, but lying isn't.
I read it - briefly - is he saying that there is a caucus of "progressive" parties and then whoever wins in each meeting everyone is asked to vote for that candidate?
Friend of mine who knows these things, was involved with Cambridge Analytica, spelled it out thus:
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your birthday, your children's names, your travel arrangements? The answer, because you plaster it all over social media, is no, not really.
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your bank account details, your payment history, your credit rating? The answer, because you believe these things are important, is yes very much.
To which he responds that the first set of info is extremely difficult to obtain, requiring passwords and invitations; while the second is super easily available to anyone who wants to know.
Did you mean “unhappy” in both cases?
Nope. People are generally much more relaxed about telling people what they had for breakfast than what they spent that £250 on the other day.
You're missing StillWaters' editorial point. Have another read of what you said?
Personally I'd be willing to share monetary details (so long as that dfidn't increase the risk of fraudulent misuse) but reluctant to give the name of children, if I had any. I like the Norwegian system of publishing everyone's tax records, but I suspect many here wouldn't agree.
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
I understand why Coutts fired him as a customer.
Farage caught them out
Rose made a serious error for a banker
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
At the same time Suella Braverman illegally stopped payments of £3 to asylum seekers so they can eat. Which has had approximately 0% of the media attention spent on a semi politician ineligible for private banking services being denied those services. I don't think I'm being Whataboutist in thinking the priorities are wrong.
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
Friend of mine who knows these things, was involved with Cambridge Analytica, spelled it out thus:
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your birthday, your children's names, your travel arrangements? The answer, because you plaster it all over social media, is no, not really.
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your bank account details, your payment history, your credit rating? The answer, because you believe these things are important, is yes very much.
To which he responds that the first set of info is extremely difficult to obtain, requiring passwords and invitations; while the second is super easily available to anyone who wants to know.
Did you mean “unhappy” in both cases?
Nope. People are generally much more relaxed about telling people what they had for breakfast than what they spent that £250 on the other day.
You said people are not happy for a third party to know birthdays etc but they are happy for them to know financial details
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
It’s a breach of confidentiality
If you choose to supply an explanation that’s up to you.
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
I have an HSBC Premier account. And like @Heathener I get asked for a reason for transfers of funds to other accounts - even when it is clearly a business account. I assume this all relates to money laundering, but it does mean that my bank is generating records of who I am paying *and why*.
Well if you are enough of an idiot to bank with hsbc - the money launders bank of choice - you deserve everything you get
I should bank with Coutts! Oh that's right, like Farage I don't enough money...
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
Friend of mine who knows these things, was involved with Cambridge Analytica, spelled it out thus:
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your birthday, your children's names, your travel arrangements? The answer, because you plaster it all over social media, is no, not really.
Would you be happy if a stranger knew your bank account details, your payment history, your credit rating? The answer, because you believe these things are important, is yes very much.
To which he responds that the first set of info is extremely difficult to obtain, requiring passwords and invitations; while the second is super easily available to anyone who wants to know.
Did you mean “unhappy” in both cases?
Nope. People are generally much more relaxed about telling people what they had for breakfast than what they spent that £250 on the other day.
You said people are not happy for a third party to know birthdays etc but they are happy for them to know financial details
I find that counter intuitive
You are absolutely right please re-read the post with as you acutely note - "unhappy" for "happy".
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
But what if they produce this chart in a seat they are targeting but actually came third last time?
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
Choose a less intrusive bank would be my recommendation
Such a thing doesn't exist and if it tried to be, the FCA would be on it like a ton of bricks. Plus in any case wholesale financial information - your financial details - is readily available from any number of sources.
As I said - I don’t have to give a reason for any transaction.
And it doesn’t talk to credit agencies
Not that I am interested, nor want to spend the money, but I bet I could find out significant financial information about you.
Certain information is a matter of public record in some countries.
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
I understand why Coutts fired him as a customer.
Farage caught them out
Rose made a serious error for a banker
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
At the same time Suella Braverman illegally stopped payments of £3 to asylum seekers so they can eat. Which has had approximately 0% of the media attention spent on a semi politician ineligible for private banking services being denied those services. I don't think I'm being Whataboutist in thinking the priorities are wrong.
I *think* I posted that here. But memory has been swamped by the Faragian tsunami, which makes your point.
Yes, good piece from Mike and it echoes my own view that this could be a very good election for the LDs.
Their biggest stumbling block is that they have to overcome some seriously large majorities to win a lot of seats from the Conservatives, but as the bar illustrates, they are capable of doing this.
I am going to provisionally estimate that yhey will emerge from the GE with at least 30 seats. They may even displace the SNP as the third largest Party.
As Generals go, Davey is almost as lucky as Starmer.
Good morning
Fair comment and as things stand entirely possible
On the Farage banking affair there are times, when no matter how you dislike someone's political views, when a stand has to be made against an injustice
Yesterday, Nick Thomas Symonds was terrible on Sky attempting to defend Alison Rose and even worse, Rachel Reeves penned a piece (before Rose resigned) accusing Farage and the media of 'bullying' Rose which was just crass in the extreme
Starmer eventually endorsed her resignation, but only after seeing the way the wind was blowing
This was not a political issue, but the difference between trust and confidentiality, and no doubt if it had been anyone other than Farage, these labour politicians would have had a different response
And I would say the same thing if it had been Corbyn who had been subject to this injustice
Agreed, Big G.
Awkward as it is to find oneself supporting Farage, it has to be said that he has as much right to privacy as the rest of us.
What possessed this woman to blurt out his private details to a journalist is beyond me.
Because she thought she was so brilliant she knew better.
You meet the same phenomenon with OFSTED inspectors.
The fact that they might actually have quite poor judgement doesn't cross their minds.
I can't comment on OFSTED inspectors but the 'they thought they were so brilliant they knew better' attitude is prevalent in many senior executives (and politicians) .
Maybe it's a function of their success in climbing the slippery pole - they come to believe in their own brilliance.
Thank **** such hubris never afflicted Nigel Farage.
Although to be fair he has been particularly deft in his takedown of these particular liberal elitists. These might even be a hatful of compo at the end of this particular rainbow.
Farage is now setting up a campaign group on the de-banking issue, after many people have shared their similar stories with him over the last few weeks.
“ Now it is time to fight back. A common feeling that has been expressed to me over these past few weeks is one of helplessness bordering on despair. It is clear that nobody has been speaking up for everyday people. Now, I intend to be their voice and to campaign for the cultural and legal changes that our banking system needs. Every law-abiding citizen in this country should have the right to a bank account. The resignation of Dame Alison Rose is the first step to ensuring this can happen. Banks must return to operating as they used to do. Then – and only then – can we return to business as usual.
“I am now seriously motivated by this issue. The desperation of those that have been wronged by the big banks means that I simply have to do something. I may not have picked this fight, but I now find myself right in the middle of it. I will be launching, over the course of the next few days, an exercise designed to gather together all of those that have been de-banked. I’m hoping to build a very large database of cases to find out which banks are the worst offenders and what the commonest reasons are, so that we can prepare and present a lobby to ministers, and to Parliament, in order to achieve fundamental change.”
Fair play to him, if he can use his story to bring wider attention to the issue.
I am very very cynical that he will do so. His case attracted attention because he was rich and politically powerful, and the fact that his cause turned out to be just was just coincident to the support: were it not he would still be supported. With the possible caveat that a court case would provide a precedent that could be used by poor people, I doubt that this will help the poor. Happy to be proved wrong, though.
Rightly, or wrongly, being poor remains a legitimate reason for a bank to reject you, surely?
Um, no. Where else is a poor person to put their pennies?
If functioning in society requires the ownership of a bank account, then people must be able to have bank accounts. To do otherwise is to ostracise that person. Consequently if banks do not want to provide one then the state must.
PB has a marked tendency to service the needs of the rich whilst neglecting the needs of the poor, or even imposing upon them against their will.
We're back in the times when the LibDems can win in lots of places, some very surprising, provided they throw the sink at a constituency.
In which case, the limiting factor at a General Election is how many catapults, trebuchets and other sink-throwing apparatuses (apparatae?) they possess
Monbiot has been championing a new tactical voting wheeze:
As he says, this also put in an appearance in Godalming, with a false claim that Opposition parties had been consulted. I kicked up a fuss and the anonymous sponsors hastily withdrew it, though I expect it will be back in less devious terms. Tactical voting is fair enough if people want to use their vote that way, but lying isn't.
I read it - briefly - is he saying that there is a caucus of "progressive" parties and then whoever wins in each meeting everyone is asked to vote for that candidate?
What is the lying bit?
Yes, that's his proposal, and there's nothing false in the article. But he linked to a similar but anonymous Godalming initiative, which falsely claimed that they were acting in consultation with the Opposition parties. They hastily and a bit incompetently took it down when I complained, so the link now shows either a version without the false claim (www.godalmingashprimary.org), or an advert for a charity in Devon (godalmingashprimary.org), depending on whether you put "www" in front of the link.
My guess is that an enthusiast in Monbiot's effort in Devon knows someone in Godalming and put it up for them, without really knowing the local situation. I'm sure they'll sort it out eventually.
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
But what if they produce this chart in a seat they are targeting but actually came third last time?
Then that will be more in the borderlands of misleading. Though not @dishonest” as such. And of course traditional.
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
But what if they produce this chart in a seat they are targeting but actually came third last time?
That is absolutely fine. I double checked the chart before saying that. Such a statement is still completely honest. Also coming from 3rd happened in one of the by elections.
I suspect Greg Hands will be delighted with that new LD barchart.
In 2019 he won with 49% of the vote ie less than half the votes but there was only 2% between the LDs and Labour for second. On current polls Starmer Labour would be a clear second so anything which helps divide his opposition also helps him cling on and keeps Chelsea and Fulham Tory blue
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
In the end, yes, but only after you become a billionaire and President of the US apparently.......
It doesn’t feel to me that the Farage story has cut through to the public. Certainly not in the way he would like.
- there’s no detectable general outrage about banks acting arbitrarily, certainly not outside the limited world of PEPs. - Nobody thinks Coutts (if they’ve even heard of it) is woke.
I think for a story like this to really grab the imagination and have a political effect it needs to resonate with a large section of the public - as did partygate, as did Labour antisemitism, Labour vacillation on ULEZ, the Kamikwaze budget and the ongoing sewage debacle.
I think the danger is that he now uses this platform to increase his profile and as we near the election become very political with unknown consequences
He is very much a lose cannon, and his appearances on the media recently have been more than anytime since his time fighting the EU
Yes, much as I despise the toad, Farage does have a useful role in splitting the right wing vote. He does have a place in the political ecosystem.
The Farage bank row is a classic summer holiday news story
This is actually much more important than the number of swans counted on the Thames
Is it really though? Every time I make a bank tx, even if it's a few £'s I have to supply an explanation.
Banking privacy doesn't exist in Britain anymore. She shouldn't have talked to the media but the news will move on.
The days when a leading politician could spend their election expenses on any way they see fit have sadly gone (with acknowledgement to Peter Cook)
FWIW, I’ve never been asked for an explanation about any banking transfer. But perhaps I live a simpler life than you.
All the time now with many banks. And that complicated high level bank of which you speak is Virgin (Clydesdale).
Every transfer requires one to choose an explanation from a drop-down e.g. 'paying a member friend or family'; 'paying for a product' etc.
It's supposedly for anti-fraud. But if you think anything you do online is private, including banking, then you aren't aware of the all-pervasive privacy invasions.
p.s. had yet another of these yesterday. I was discussing the merits of Wales in verbal conversation with a friend.
Half an hour later, links to Wales appeared on my internet searches.
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
Not just in business.
Indeed. I’ve never understood the people who lead multiple lives - wife, mistresses etc - keeping it all going must take a huge and increasing effort.
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
Valery Legasov's line from Chernobyl comes to mind: "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid".
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
Valery Legasov's line from Chernobyl comes to mind: "Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid".
Unless you are a Civil Servant involved in lockdown breaking parties.
I suspect Greg Hands will be delighted with that new LD barchart.
In 2019 he won with 49% of the vote ie less than half the votes but there was only 2% between the LDs and Labour for second. On current polls Starmer Labour would be a clear second so anything which helps divide his opposition also helps him cling on and keeps Chelsea and Fulham Tory blue
Anywhere the Lib Dems were second last time they will be the challenger in voters’ minds this time.
The harder ones are seats where Labour were second but the demographics suggest they might have a cap in support. It’s seats like that where FPTP really helps the Tories (and SNP).
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
If you lie to people who have the will, the motive, the resources, the platform to fight back - then it will/might get to you in the end. But I see businesses lying to me and others not infrequently without any consequences beyond pissing some unimportant individuals off.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
HYUFD is always assuring us that the average Tory voter in the south-east is a millionaire anyway - in fact, his eagerness to abolish IHT would suggest many of them are doing better than that. (OK, some of Mr F's dosh is in a house, I expect, but logic won't always apply).
Mr F definitely a man of the Tory people. Hence the threat to the "Conservative" Party.
At most they would only be a millionaire in terms of house price only a fraction of them would be earning a million pounds a year.
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
Even works if Coutts haven't explicitly lied.
If you want/need to do something to someone troublesome, you have to do it by the book. You have to make sure there are no holes in the process at all, because any holes will be exploited. It's as true for political self publicists as it is for naughty schoolboys.
Amateur (but fairly competent looking) effort to reproduce the RT superconductor research reported this week.
Should be interesting to follow.
Meissner effect or bust. Day 1.
Made good progress on the list of to-dos. I'm doing this all after-hours, so it's been a long day. Since we're gated by the delivery of the PbO + Pb(SO4), which should be tomorrow, we're working on infrastructure first. https://twitter.com/andrewmccalip/status/1684433849781202944
Must be fun to be someone like that. Just doing things like making space capsules or replicating ground breaking physics experiments as a hobby.
Best bit of that thread is that he - a proud American based in LA - refers to a vacuum as sucky mcsuckface, surely a sign of British popular culture memes making their way across the Atlantic.
Good thread by someone who know what they're talking about (unlike me).
Superconducting magnet engineer chiming in.
This result could be very big news, and overnight revolutionize all of electronics and energy. It might not.
Here's a mental model for the non-expert to understand what's going on.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
HYUFD is always assuring us that the average Tory voter in the south-east is a millionaire anyway - in fact, his eagerness to abolish IHT would suggest many of them are doing better than that. (OK, some of Mr F's dosh is in a house, I expect, but logic won't always apply).
Mr F definitely a man of the Tory people. Hence the threat to the "Conservative" Party.
At most they would only be a millionaire in terms of house price only a fraction of them would be earning a million pounds a year.
Sure, but the 'millionaire' is easily confused (and some will aspire to more). Also, it's not an annual income, but a lump sum that gets you that cheque book. Invest 1m or save 3m cash.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
But what if they produce this chart in a seat they are targeting but actually came third last time?
That is absolutely fine. I double checked the chart before saying that. Such a statement is still completely honest. Also coming from 3rd happened in one of the by elections.
I think it is definitely dishonest (although within the normal bounds of cherry-picking you'd expect) in seats where Labour (or someone else) actually has a better objective claim to being the best-placed to defeat the sitting Conservative (or sitting someone else).
It might also be counterproductive if not carefully targeted. It already has the disadvantage of being seen as just another dodgy LibDem bar chart.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrat
There is something that has been missed in the comments above.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason 2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule 3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses 4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
If you lie to people who have the will, the motive, the resources, the platform to fight back - then it will/might get to you in the end. But I see businesses lying to me and others not infrequently without any consequences beyond pissing some unimportant individuals off.
Oh, it works for a while. Which is why the NU10K types enforce -
1) rotating through jobs every few years 2) anything that happened under the previous boss is an Act Of God - no blame, stuff happens.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
The lesson from the Coutts affair is that the current government masquerading as Tories are still more afraid of Nigel Fucking Farage than the City.
Fuck business remains the order of the day...
It can't be long until people start claiming that putting Alison Rose in a room with Simon Jack was all part of a Farageite plot.
I still can't understand why some people can't grasp that Natwest/Coutts are the ones in the wrong here. Well I can - it's because their brains automatically put Nigel Farage in the wrong, so in this situation see Alison Rose as the good guy. But I can't understand that mindset.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
Since paying mortgages has been banned from expenses, the following arrangement is said to have occurred.
Politician A buys a house in London. Rents it to politician B. Politician B buys a house in London. Rents it to politician A.
Isn’t that lovely? Two happy families, cooperation, investment….
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Another issue with "the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport" is the number of banks and lawyers you hope have got their IT security ducks in a row so your passport is not for sale on the dark web.
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
But what if they produce this chart in a seat they are targeting but actually came third last time?
That is absolutely fine. I double checked the chart before saying that. Such a statement is still completely honest. Also coming from 3rd happened in one of the by elections.
I think it is definitely dishonest (although within the normal bounds of cherry-picking you'd expect) in seats where Labour (or someone else) actually has a better objective claim to being the best-placed to defeat the sitting Conservative (or sitting someone else).
It might also be counterproductive if not carefully targeted. It already has the disadvantage of being seen as just another dodgy LibDem bar chart.
Where this one gets interesting is considering how voters will behave. People look at the polls and start considering stuff like UNS - in which case a seat like Chelski and Fulham should be a Labour target.
In reality we know that the ABC tactical voting machine is already slewing results and will do so even more gratuitously as we approach the election. The electorate want ABC. Seats will reasonably clearly be seen as for Labour of LD. As we are seeing consistently with byelections in this parliament.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought just about anyone ordinary could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise.
One way of reading the stats is that everyone who persists manages to sort out a Basic Account with someone eventually, but at least one bank isn't pulling their weight in making it easy and seems generally keener on Computer Says No reasons for rejecting people. Which isn't the point really.
And that's where the stories of the Aristocrat who (no longer) banks at Coutts and the Aristocrat who cleans our boots (and can't get a basic account) do join up.
We have got a business model of banking where "nah, too difficult/ expensive" is part of the thinking. Branches, customers, services and transactions that aren't easy and quickly profitable are to be trimmed.
Capitalism doesn't have to look like that, but capitalism coupled with short horizons probably does. Fix that, and a lot of the British Disease subsides.
(Talking of which, without being conspiratorial, what's the benefit to society in a hedge fund shorting a bank?
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
You might clear a couple of billion from the Saudis.
I suspect Greg Hands will be delighted with that new LD barchart.
In 2019 he won with 49% of the vote ie less than half the votes but there was only 2% between the LDs and Labour for second. On current polls Starmer Labour would be a clear second so anything which helps divide his opposition also helps him cling on and keeps Chelsea and Fulham Tory blue
Good post. We just don't know do we. Labour have come through from 3rd in GE before when on a high and a LD leaflet like this will then help the Tories by splitting the vote. What I don't know is whether the LDs have been working the seat and whether Nicola Horlick is still the candidate which makes a difference as to whether the LDs will really try.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Another issue with "the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport" is the number of banks and lawyers you hope have got their IT security ducks in a row so your passport is not for sale on the dark web.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Anyway. I have a long, complicated surname. Cossacks stole all the vowels when we lived in the shtetl…
So I have my surname as an internet domain.
So my email is firstname@surname.com
Because I run it, anything before the @ that isn’t a proper, setup email address goes to me.
So i often give out, online, an email address specific to a purpose.
Say I fill in a form with - isuspectthisbsnkissellingdata@surname.com
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
I think you big data spods/election fraudsters will find this interesting...
Fred Wellman @FPWellman Have I got a story for you. It starts with a simple tip that someone has done a FOIA request for all 7 million voter signature cards in Georgia. I was able to get a screenshot of the request. It's much more insane than I could have possibly thought and people need to know... Jul 23, 2023 · 9:01 PM UTC https://nitter.net/FPWellman/status/1683220702990680071
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Another issue with "the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport" is the number of banks and lawyers you hope have got their IT security ducks in a row so your passport is not for sale on the dark web.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Anyway. I have a long, complicated surname. Cossacks stole all the vowels when we lived in the shtetl…
So I have my surname as an internet domain.
So my email is firstname@surname.com
Because I run it, anything before the @ that isn’t a proper, setup email address goes to me.
So i often give out, online, an email address specific to a purpose.
Say I fill in a form with - isuspectthisbsnkissellingdata@surname.com
Then find that email address on the web in hours…
Genius.
When I finally sort out the business email system, I'm doing that.
I suspect Greg Hands will be delighted with that new LD barchart.
In 2019 he won with 49% of the vote ie less than half the votes but there was only 2% between the LDs and Labour for second. On current polls Starmer Labour would be a clear second so anything which helps divide his opposition also helps him cling on and keeps Chelsea and Fulham Tory blue
I agree, Labour is the main threat to the Tories in Chelsea and Fulham. The LDs only came second because of Corbyn.
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
But what if they produce this chart in a seat they are targeting but actually came third last time?
That is absolutely fine. I double checked the chart before saying that. Such a statement is still completely honest. Also coming from 3rd happened in one of the by elections.
I think it is definitely dishonest (although within the normal bounds of cherry-picking you'd expect) in seats where Labour (or someone else) actually has a better objective claim to being the best-placed to defeat the sitting Conservative (or sitting someone else).
It might also be counterproductive if not carefully targeted. It already has the disadvantage of being seen as just another dodgy LibDem bar chart.
I get the point that you are making, but anywhere where it is not clear cut is fair game. The chart is completely accurate and in somewhere like Chelsea and Fulham fair game, even though both LDs and Lab have a claim to be the challenger. Do you expect the LDs to just go 'Oh you have it cos you are doing so well in the polls even though we are in 2nd place?'.
Looking like a rainy few days in London coming up. @kinabalu 's tip for 2-1 Australia for the Ashes (which I followed - thanks) - is looking increasingly attractive.
On weather: it feels like a very rainy July. Yet reservoir levels in the North West are below average for the time of year (though in contrast to the start of July, we are now above the levels from last year). I wonder what the lag between rain and levels is? I think it must be quite a lot: first, the moors need to be saturated in order for streams to form and rain to run off. June was very dry, so July has probably been spent replenishing the sponge. https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/your-reservoirs/reservoir-levels/
Average house price in Chelsea and Fulham is 1.4 million pounds so a Tory manifesto commitment to scrap IHT or raise the threshold to 1 million pounds would help Hands in this marginal seat
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Another issue with "the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport" is the number of banks and lawyers you hope have got their IT security ducks in a row so your passport is not for sale on the dark web.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Anyway. I have a long, complicated surname. Cossacks stole all the vowels when we lived in the shtetl…
So I have my surname as an internet domain.
So my email is firstname@surname.com
Because I run it, anything before the @ that isn’t a proper, setup email address goes to me.
So i often give out, online, an email address specific to a purpose.
Say I fill in a form with - isuspectthisbsnkissellingdata@surname.com
Then find that email address on the web in hours…
I used to do a similar thing. I got all emails to @mycompanyname.co.uk. Great for spotting spams. I would also send emails with different beginnings to my email address or include them in documents to see where they subsequently appeared or were used.. Caught at least one organisation misusing data.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Another issue with "the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport" is the number of banks and lawyers you hope have got their IT security ducks in a row so your passport is not for sale on the dark web.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Anyway. I have a long, complicated surname. Cossacks stole all the vowels when we lived in the shtetl…
So I have my surname as an internet domain.
So my email is firstname@surname.com
Because I run it, anything before the @ that isn’t a proper, setup email address goes to me.
So i often give out, online, an email address specific to a purpose.
Say I fill in a form with - isuspectthisbsnkissellingdata@surname.com
Then find that email address on the web in hours…
Genius.
When I finally sort out the business email system, I'm doing that.
On company claimed that they weren’t selling data.
So I set up a second account. So when the nice lady on the complaints hotline asked about the email address that had appeared in spam, I replied -
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Another issue with "the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport" is the number of banks and lawyers you hope have got their IT security ducks in a row so your passport is not for sale on the dark web.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Anyway. I have a long, complicated surname. Cossacks stole all the vowels when we lived in the shtetl…
So I have my surname as an internet domain.
So my email is firstname@surname.com
Because I run it, anything before the @ that isn’t a proper, setup email address goes to me.
So i often give out, online, an email address specific to a purpose.
Say I fill in a form with - isuspectthisbsnkissellingdata@surname.com
Then find that email address on the web in hours…
I do exactly the same. I bought a domain for my consultancy business, and any company who asks me for my email address gets theircompany@mydomain.com.
Makes it really, really easy to find out where the spam is coming from.
It’s a useful starting point for conversations with customers, given that a fair bit of my business is IT security training!
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
The truth is sadder. The expectations are lower.
During lockdown one leading pol, who didn’t come from money, did a tour of her house (everyone masked up) on how she was coping.
In her vast mansion, in the main kitchen (there were others, including one for the servants), she had an ice cream freezer. A Fisher freezer (or similar) just for ice cream. Which was full of tubs of from an artisan outfit - $50 a tub or something.
I mentioned this to one of my US relatives (hard core Democrats) - who couldn’t understand why I thought it noticeable. They expect that being a leading politician gets you to $10-100 million dollars.
Plural, they're using their victories across the past couple of years, not just the most recent victory.
Clever and an honest bar chart. Are we sure this is the Lib Dems?
It's clever, but it's as dishonest as usual. Picking only the ones you won when they've lost several days in the same timeframe is an example of cherry picking stats, which is just as misleading as their usual bar charts with the axis cut off.
Beaten by @TimS , but I am baffled as to how you see this as dishonest. They didn't attempt to win Selby or Uxbridge so they are not relevant. If they used such a chart in seats like that it would be dishonest, but they haven't. They are comparing like with like. If you see such a chart appear in Hartlepool you would be right, but that won't happen.
But what if they produce this chart in a seat they are targeting but actually came third last time?
That is absolutely fine. I double checked the chart before saying that. Such a statement is still completely honest. Also coming from 3rd happened in one of the by elections.
I think it is definitely dishonest (although within the normal bounds of cherry-picking you'd expect) in seats where Labour (or someone else) actually has a better objective claim to being the best-placed to defeat the sitting Conservative (or sitting someone else).
It might also be counterproductive if not carefully targeted. It already has the disadvantage of being seen as just another dodgy LibDem bar chart.
I get the point that you are making, but anywhere where it is not clear cut is fair game. The chart is completely accurate and in somewhere like Chelsea and Fulham fair game, even though both LDs and Lab have a claim to be the challenger. Do you expect the LDs to just go 'Oh you have it cos you are doing so well in the polls even though we are in 2nd place?'.
No. I also don't expect the Libdems to be honest in their election material. Doesn't make it honest just because it's what we expect.
If a firm advertised a new fund by showing some of their existing funds doing better than some of a rival's existing funds, while omitting the funds where they are doing worse than the rival's equivalent, I guess you'd agree that would be dishonest?
I suspect Greg Hands will be delighted with that new LD barchart.
In 2019 he won with 49% of the vote ie less than half the votes but there was only 2% between the LDs and Labour for second. On current polls Starmer Labour would be a clear second so anything which helps divide his opposition also helps him cling on and keeps Chelsea and Fulham Tory blue
I agree, Labour is the main threat to the Tories in Chelsea and Fulham. The LDs only came second because of Corbyn.
It's more subtle and intangible than that. The seats the LDs can actually win have particular qualities. One of them is being a certain sort of educated posh. Another is being south west - an area especially ripe for recovery.
C and F is complex. In 2017 Labour did well and LDs collapsed. In 2019 Labour did much less well and the LDs more than doubled their vote. Corbyn of course Lab leader both times.
The question is whether demographically the 'knitted muesli but never Labour' set prevail over the 'we are urban so it's Tory or Labour' set. This could give betting opportunities.
Looking like a rainy few days in London coming up. @kinabalu 's tip for 2-1 Australia for the Ashes (which I followed - thanks) - is looking increasingly attractive.
On weather: it feels like a very rainy July. Yet reservoir levels in the North West are below average for the time of year (though in contrast to the start of July, we are now above the levels from last year). I wonder what the lag between rain and levels is? I think it must be quite a lot: first, the moors need to be saturated in order for streams to form and rain to run off. June was very dry, so July has probably been spent replenishing the sponge. https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/your-reservoirs/reservoir-levels/
Thanks back for the thanks. I nailed Wimbo too so I'm feeling more smugcity than usual at the moment and therefore moved to mention again my top 2 politics calls: They are Donald Trump will not be president again and Labour will win a majority at the GE. These are terrific 3.4 lay and 1.6 back bets respectively imo.
"Something strange has happened over the past few years in [UK] boardrooms up and down the country. Chairmen and chief executives have surrendered their common sense and succumbed to a form of corporate capture, otherwise known as the woke agenda" -The Times
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
The truth is sadder. The expectations are lower.
During lockdown one leading pol, who didn’t come from money, did a tour of her house (everyone masked up) on how she was coping.
In her vast mansion, in the main kitchen (there were others, including one for the servants), she had an ice cream freezer. A Fisher freezer (or similar) just for ice cream. Which was full of tubs of from an artisan outfit - $50 a tub or something.
I mentioned this to one of my US relatives (hard core Democrats) - who couldn’t understand why I thought it noticeable. They expect that being a leading politician gets you to $10-100 million dollars.
Nancy Pelosi, whose husband also has an uncanny ability to pick stocks. As in, he’s consistently beating Soros in picking stocks.
Average house price in Chelsea and Fulham is 1.4 million pounds so a Tory manifesto commitment to scrap IHT or raise the threshold to 1 million pounds would help Hands in this marginal seat
... which is why the LibDems are producing that graph on their literature. Greg Hands is vulnerable if the anti-Tory vote can coalesce around a challenger. The LibDems came second at the last GE, but Labour were only 2 or 3% behind, so I can see why they're doing it.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought just about anyone ordinary could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise.
One way of reading the stats is that everyone who persists manages to sort out a Basic Account with someone eventually, but at least one bank isn't pulling their weight in making it easy and seems generally keener on Computer Says No reasons for rejecting people. Which isn't the point really.
And that's where the stories of the Aristocrat who (no longer) banks at Coutts and the Aristocrat who cleans our boots (and can't get a basic account) do join up.
We have got a business model of banking where "nah, too difficult/ expensive" is part of the thinking. Branches, customers, services and transactions that aren't easy and quickly profitable are to be trimmed.
Capitalism doesn't have to look like that, but capitalism coupled with short horizons probably does. Fix that, and a lot of the British Disease subsides.
(Talking of which, without being conspiratorial, what's the benefit to society in a hedge fund shorting a bank?
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
Today.
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
Looking like a rainy few days in London coming up. @kinabalu 's tip for 2-1 Australia for the Ashes (which I followed - thanks) - is looking increasingly attractive.
On weather: it feels like a very rainy July. Yet reservoir levels in the North West are below average for the time of year (though in contrast to the start of July, we are now above the levels from last year). I wonder what the lag between rain and levels is? I think it must be quite a lot: first, the moors need to be saturated in order for streams to form and rain to run off. June was very dry, so July has probably been spent replenishing the sponge. https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/your-reservoirs/reservoir-levels/
Wales is the killer punch there. The North West itself are either MoE of average or significantly above, but the Dee system is still in an area that's had below average rainfall for a long time (despite a wet March) so it's noticeably below average and skewing the rest. Doubly complicated since that's where so much water for Liverpool and Manchester comes from.
Severn Trent as well, the Elan Valley and even Llyn Clywedog are below where you'd expect them to be.
It may be, with river flows recovering somewhat, they will start to rise. But I can understand water companies not betting the house on it.
Average house price in Chelsea and Fulham is 1.4 million pounds so a Tory manifesto commitment to scrap IHT or raise the threshold to 1 million pounds would help Hands in this marginal seat
Yes we don't want the LDs getting busy in Chelsea & Fulham. That's a central London seat. It's Labour. What we want the LDs doing is winning seats off the Cons in the SW and blue wall towns and burbs.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
Today.
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
"Something strange has happened over the past few years in [UK] boardrooms up and down the country. Chairmen and chief executives have surrendered their common sense and succumbed to a form of corporate capture, otherwise known as the woke agenda" -The Times
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
Today.
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Fake news.'
That TV series was only released a month ago!
Maybe, but the dialogue is straight out of Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
The Tories should be worried about the rise and fall and rise again of Reginald Farage. As an almost millionaire he practically an Ordinary Man compared to our billionaire Prime Minister. And now that he has pledged himself to Stand Up for the ordinary people in a crusade against the woke establishment, he could be a serious threat to the Tories.
It is increasingly clear that the Tories are going to fight an insurgent campaign against Keir Starmer's government - the blob, the establishment, the lawyers, the regulators - all the people ruining the lives of the ordinary.
If Farage is there to point out that the Tories ARE the government, it won't work. Especially if he is leading another crusade to motivate all the let behind people to vote against the amassed forces stopping them from succeeding.
There has been an assumption that ReFUK will be an irrelevance. The fall out from the Coutts affair suggests that may not be true.
There is a wider issue on the conduct of banks. Farage has found something to elevate his profile with, or re-elevate it. There will be, I expect, more stories like this one which, on the face of it, is inexcusable.
I get very twitchy about the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport, but at least I have one to prove my identity.
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
Another issue with "the number of banks and lawyers with a photocopy of my passport" is the number of banks and lawyers you hope have got their IT security ducks in a row so your passport is not for sale on the dark web.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Anyway. I have a long, complicated surname. Cossacks stole all the vowels when we lived in the shtetl…
So I have my surname as an internet domain.
So my email is firstname@surname.com
Because I run it, anything before the @ that isn’t a proper, setup email address goes to me.
So i often give out, online, an email address specific to a purpose.
Say I fill in a form with - isuspectthisbsnkissellingdata@surname.com
Then find that email address on the web in hours…
I used to do a similar thing. I got all emails to @mycompanyname.co.uk. Great for spotting spams. I would also send emails with different beginnings to my email address or include them in documents to see where they subsequently appeared or were used.. Caught at least one organisation misusing data.
If you don't want to use @mydomainname you can do this with gmail (yes, I know).
myemailaddress+anythingyoulikehere@gmail.com still gets delivered to myemailaddress@gmail.com
Most forms accept addresses with a plus symbol, so each one gets a different suffix.
To be fair, most spam machines probably know this and chop it off, but not all...
"Something strange has happened over the past few years in [UK] boardrooms up and down the country. Chairmen and chief executives have surrendered their common sense and succumbed to a form of corporate capture, otherwise known as the woke agenda" -The Times
We add 'the history of corporate governance' to the very long list of things Professor Goodwin has no knowledge of.
Surely the list of things he has knowledge of will be more wieldy? Think of the planet - all the paper required
The list of things he does know about could easily be written on a postage stamp, leaving room for the Lords Prayer. And leave the stamp legible and usable.
Another day on from the Farage / Coutts fun. As he is ineligible for an account there (I assume they won't wave their rules just because they have made a tit of themselves) will the Nigel now be demanding that "ordinary" people like him should be allowed a Coutts account?
I am feeling the Farage love on here, he is doing this not for himself, but for the poor people. Handily, I have another invisible Garden Bridge available.
What strikes me is that Mr Farage has had hassle from being a PEP. So he makes himself an even more Politically Exposed Person with his mission against the banks. What bank is now going to take him on, if it means banner headlines in the DM every time some minion burps unintentionally while handling his non-Coutt's cheque book? Which will only "justify" him even more.
Nevertheless: the point remains: we need to understand this basic bank business and how well it works. Benpointer thought from his CAB experience that just about anyone ordinary and poor could get one (which is not the same as having an existing one closed down), but RCS1000's stats suggest otherwise. The logical inference, which may be wrong, is that it is folk with substantial money that they can't explain who are having trouble, or else they are people with houses, etc., who have fallen foul of another bank. I can imagine that one bank's cloising an account could lead to 5-10 mostly unsuccessful applications in a chain reaction.
It does warrant more investigation. I find it very hard to understand how anyone survives in today's society without a bank account. People in receipt of benefits need one*. Most employees will too. Guess if you've a huge suitcase of cash under the bed you can survive for a time. Or if you are entirely living in the black economy.
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
The banks are all supposed to offer a simple card-and-no-credit account. However, the rejection rates for these are still high. But vary from bank to bank, apparently.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
Damn. I hate it when politicians have a vested interest in keeping poor people poor.
American politics has legalised bribery.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
Today.
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Fake news.'
That TV series was only released a month ago!
Maybe, but the dialogue is straight out of Mr Smith Goes to Washington.
(A film that I dearly love, though.)
In this case, it was Jack Ryan went to Town with it.
Comments
Again.
A recent Supreme Court (the UK one) judgement is worth considering.
https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2023/25.html
Here a clearly educated couple sued Barclays for effecting a large transfer (£700k) which Barclays had questioned and they had insisted on. They then sued the bank, lost at first instance, won in the CA and lost in the SC.
The SC left them one possible route to suing the bank (failure to try to recover in a timely manner).
If I were a bank or a customer, I would read the judgement and conclude I have no choice but to require (bank) and give (customer) a lot of disclosure in a lot of transactions.
PS Now the name Supreme Court is tainted by Trumpian associations, it should be renamed again. 'Judicial Committee of the House of Lords' has a nice ring to it.
He is very much a lose cannon, and his appearances on the media recently have been more than anytime since his time fighting the EU
And it doesn’t talk to credit agencies
Should be interesting to follow.
Meissner effect or bust. Day 1.
Made good progress on the list of to-dos. I'm doing this all after-hours, so it's been a long day. Since we're gated by the delivery of the PbO + Pb(SO4), which should be tomorrow, we're working on infrastructure first.
https://twitter.com/andrewmccalip/status/1684433849781202944
So many of our media and political classes know bugger all about banking/AML regulations.
But the media always give him a generous hearing regardless of the topic. He has a privileged position in that regard, rather like Boris used to, because he’s charismatic. I don’t think he needed Couttsgate to get back into the public eye.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/26/totnes-election-democracy-change
As he says, this also put in an appearance in Godalming, with a false claim that Opposition parties had been consulted. I kicked up a fuss and the anonymous sponsors hastily withdrew it, though I expect it will be back in less devious terms. Tactical voting is fair enough if people want to use their vote that way, but lying isn't.
Giuliani’s concession came in court papers filed on Tuesday night as part of a defamation lawsuit that the two workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, had brought against him in Federal District Court in Washington in December 2021.
The suit accused Giuliani and others of promoting a video that purported to show the two women — who are mother and daughter — manipulating ballots while working for the Fulton County Board of Elections.
In a two-page declaration, Giuliani acknowledged that he had in fact made the statements about the women that led to the filing of the suit and that the remarks “carry meaning that is defamatory per se.” He also admitted that his statements were “actionable” and “false” and that he no longer disputed the “factual elements of liability” the election workers had raised in their suit.
https://twitter.com/joncoopertweets/status/1684202856725839876
Best bit of that thread is that he - a proud American based in LA - refers to a vacuum as sucky mcsuckface, surely a sign of British popular culture memes making their way across the Atlantic.
That's astonishing. And I can see why they were distraught.
But ultimately, it's not the bank's fault that they carried out the instructions of the account holder. It was definitely the fault of the account holder.
Difference is that the politicians are responsible for them.
What is the lying bit?
Personally I'd be willing to share monetary details (so long as that dfidn't increase the risk of fraudulent misuse) but reluctant to give the name of children, if I had any. I like the Norwegian system of publishing everyone's tax records, but I suspect many here wouldn't agree.
I find that counter intuitive
I would guess most adults without bank accounts are supported by someone else.
* There is a benefit Payment Exception Service https://www.gov.uk/payment-exception-service but it looks like a very tedious system to use. Maybe the only route for those who can't get a bank account due to a fraud conviction?)
Gah
There's a related issue - access to Government services online. It has proved difficult to get through the Government Gateway and then the HMRC process in my experience esp if one doesn't have a photographic drivers' licence - demands to send mobile phone photos of passports (insane security wise), questions about one's credit record (not easy if one last took out a loan in 1992), and so on. And on top of that there seems to be a random element (as well as the sort of recursive loop in the website which drives one potty). @DavidL was unsurprisingly complainiong about it a few weeks back.
(And even when one does get to the HMRC site the tax information seems pretty pathetic. No clear statements of tax charged and why - just that "tax is sorted for year Y". If HMRC have done it for you it seems to be impossible to correct it once that has happened. But that is another matter.)
If functioning in society requires the ownership of a bank account, then people must be able to have bank accounts. To do otherwise is to ostracise that person. Consequently if banks do not want to provide one then the state must.
PB has a marked tendency to service the needs of the rich whilst neglecting the needs of the poor, or even imposing upon them against their will.
My guess is that an enthusiast in Monbiot's effort in Devon knows someone in Godalming and put it up for them, without really knowing the local situation. I'm sure they'll sort it out eventually.
Cowardice.
If Coutts has invited Farage round, to tell him he was no longer The Thing, and given him his NatWest card, there would have been no story. Because they would have acted according to the law and regulations.
Instead they tried to play a game -
1) we don’t give a reason
2) this makes it look like an investigation under the no tipping off rule
3) if Farage raises it, everyone will say “Russia” and run the sides of their noses
4) trebles all round
There was a small flaw in their plan. Due to the people involved forgetting that they weren’t the only actors in the drama.
What do you do when you’ve been binned by one bank? You go to another.
If Farage got an account at another bank, this would suggest that there wasn’t an investigation, red flags etc. He would *know*
So when other banks started asking Coutts what had happened, as part of their due diligence, what did Coutts say? Did they add some more lies to the pile? Is the story about not getting accounts at other banks true?
It goes to show something I’ve said for a long time, in business. If you lie, you are creating an alternate reality. You now have to maintain that story to end. It doesn’t go away. It will get you in the end.
In 2019 he won with 49% of the vote ie less than half the votes but there was only 2% between the LDs and Labour for second. On current polls Starmer Labour would be a clear second so anything which helps divide his opposition also helps him cling on and keeps Chelsea and Fulham Tory blue
The harder ones are seats where Labour were second but the demographics suggest they might have a cap in support. It’s seats like that where FPTP really helps the Tories (and SNP).
If you want/need to do something to someone troublesome, you have to do it by the book. You have to make sure there are no holes in the process at all, because any holes will be exploited. It's as true for political self publicists as it is for naughty schoolboys.
Superconducting magnet engineer chiming in.
This result could be very big news, and overnight revolutionize all of electronics and energy. It might not.
Here's a mental model for the non-expert to understand what's going on.
RTAPS: The good, the bad, and the ugly: 🧵
https://twitter.com/Andercot/status/1684339092635496449
The fusion engineers seem quite excited by this, even if they remain a bit sceptical.
https://www.coutts.com/become-a-client/private-form.html
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account. The only way to not get an account would be to have an actual red flag on the interbank systems.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrats on a Congressional committee. Accused of all kinds of stuff - despite the plan being to offer chargeless banking to poor people.
When they asked some political consultants, they explained that the Democrats in question represented the poor areas. In such areas there is a big cross over between community credit setups and activism on the left. The community credit outfits make a lot of money and donate heavily to the politicians. Cheap, available banking cuts into that nice lite circle.
It might also be counterproductive if not carefully targeted. It already has the disadvantage of being seen as just another dodgy LibDem bar chart.
I used to work for one of the alt-banks. Since they offered no credit, they offered soft entry. If someone sent you a payment via the bank specific payment system and you weren’t signed up, it created an account for you under the name you provided - just name and email. To actually transfer the money etc, you had to scan your passport or driving license etc, to upgrade your account.
Another interesting story - the same outfit tried setting up in the US. They got monstered by the Democrat Oh, it works for a while. Which is why the NU10K types enforce -
1) rotating through jobs every few years
2) anything that happened under the previous boss is an Act Of God - no blame, stuff happens.
Well I can - it's because their brains automatically put Nigel Farage in the wrong, so in this situation see Alison Rose as the good guy. But I can't understand that mindset.
Politician A buys a house in London. Rents it to politician B.
Politician B buys a house in London. Rents it to politician A.
Isn’t that lovely? Two happy families, cooperation, investment….
In reality we know that the ABC tactical voting machine is already slewing results and will do so even more gratuitously as we approach the election. The electorate want ABC. Seats will reasonably clearly be seen as for Labour of LD. As we are seeing consistently with byelections in this parliament.
It was one of the Lizard People (in a people suit), sent by the Zeta Reticulans who were told to this by the Illuminati.
He made her talk using the Mind Control ray, borrowed from the Rothschilds.
Providing you obey a complex system of rules, you can enter politics with nothing in your pockets. And retire with a hundred million dollars. As a beacon of probity and honest dealing. If you are actually corrupt….
The irony here is that while there is no conspiracy (the paper explains that the short was computer-driven) you wonder if Farage might have to be silenced so they can avoid the appearance of conspiracy and carry on making money.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/07/26/paul-marshall-hedge-fund-nets-millions-bet-against-natwest/ (£££)
"Singapore to execute woman on drugs charge for the first time in 20 years - BBC News" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66309347
Anyway. I have a long, complicated surname. Cossacks stole all the vowels when we lived in the shtetl…
So I have my surname as an internet domain.
So my email is firstname@surname.com
Because I run it, anything before the @ that isn’t a proper, setup email address goes to me.
So i often give out, online, an email address specific to a purpose.
Say I fill in a form with - isuspectthisbsnkissellingdata@surname.com
Then find that email address on the web in hours…
'Now, listen...!'
'No, you listen. That is the sound of your country Senator, telling you it deserves better.'
Fred Wellman @FPWellman
Have I got a story for you. It starts with a simple tip that someone has done a FOIA request for all 7 million voter signature cards in Georgia. I was able to get a screenshot of the request. It's much more insane than I could have possibly thought and people need to know...
Jul 23, 2023 · 9:01 PM UTC
https://nitter.net/FPWellman/status/1683220702990680071
When I finally sort out the business email system, I'm doing that.
On weather: it feels like a very rainy July. Yet reservoir levels in the North West are below average for the time of year (though in contrast to the start of July, we are now above the levels from last year). I wonder what the lag between rain and levels is? I think it must be quite a lot: first, the moors need to be saturated in order for streams to form and rain to run off. June was very dry, so July has probably been spent replenishing the sponge.
https://www.unitedutilities.com/help-and-support/your-water-supply/your-reservoirs/reservoir-levels/
"New Seat Details - Chelsea and Fulham" https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/fcgi-bin/calcwork23.py?seat=Chelsea and Fulham
Average house price in Chelsea and Fulham is 1.4 million pounds so a Tory manifesto commitment to scrap IHT or raise the threshold to 1 million pounds would help Hands in this marginal seat
So I set up a second account. So when the nice lady on the complaints hotline asked about the email address that had appeared in spam, I replied -
“WeLieAboutSellingData@surname.com”
Makes it really, really easy to find out where the spam is coming from.
It’s a useful starting point for conversations with customers, given that a fair bit of my business is IT security training!
During lockdown one leading pol, who didn’t come from money, did a tour of her house (everyone masked up) on how she was coping.
In her vast mansion, in the main kitchen (there were others, including one for the servants), she had an ice cream freezer. A Fisher freezer (or similar) just for ice cream. Which was full of tubs of from an artisan outfit - $50 a tub or something.
I mentioned this to one of my US relatives (hard core Democrats) - who couldn’t understand why I thought it noticeable. They expect that being a leading politician gets you to $10-100 million dollars.
If a firm advertised a new fund by showing some of their existing funds doing better than some of a rival's existing funds, while omitting the funds where they are doing worse than the rival's equivalent, I guess you'd agree that would be dishonest?
C and F is complex. In 2017 Labour did well and LDs collapsed. In 2019 Labour did much less well and the LDs more than doubled their vote. Corbyn of course Lab leader both times.
The question is whether demographically the 'knitted muesli but never Labour' set prevail over the 'we are urban so it's Tory or Labour' set. This could give betting opportunities.
@GoodwinMJ
"Something strange has happened over the past few years in [UK] boardrooms up and down the country. Chairmen and chief executives have surrendered their common sense and succumbed to a form of corporate capture, otherwise known as the woke agenda"
-The Times
9:27 AM · Jul 27, 2023"
https://twitter.com/GoodwinMJ/status/1684480620557115393
Greg Hands is vulnerable if the anti-Tory vote can coalesce around a challenger.
The LibDems came second at the last GE, but Labour were only 2 or 3% behind, so I can see why they're doing it.
'I hope you were blind to what you were doing, but if you were, it was because your greed made you so.'
'Fake news.'
Severn Trent as well, the Elan Valley and even Llyn Clywedog are below where you'd expect them to be.
It may be, with river flows recovering somewhat, they will start to rise. But I can understand water companies not betting the house on it.
(A film that I dearly love, though.)
myemailaddress+anythingyoulikehere@gmail.com still gets delivered to myemailaddress@gmail.com
Most forms accept addresses with a plus symbol, so each one gets a different suffix.
To be fair, most spam machines probably know this and chop it off, but not all...
The list of things he does know about could easily be written on a postage stamp, leaving room for the Lords Prayer. And leave the stamp legible and usable.