Banks Go Woke

According to The Telegraph, Stonewall, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights charity in the United Kingdom has captured British banks to the extent that they are now members of its diversity scheme. The scheme includes guidance to employees on gender-neutral spaces and the use of pronouns. Some of the banks that have signed up are HSBC, which allows customers to identify as gender-neutral; Natwest; Nationwide, which encourages staff to use pronouns, and Barclays, which offers private medical cover for employees transitioning genders. This is a bizarre move if you ask me, encouraging dangerous procedures for which the side effects are known to be serious. Thankfully, Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland are yet to respond, although presumably it is only a matter of time?

To make matters worse, banks are now closing the accounts of customers with right-wing views, those who take issue with certain gender ideological and LGBTQ contentions, or individuals who simply hold the ‘wrong’ opinion on Brexit. For example, an equalities chief had his account closed for no reason, while an employee reveals LGBTQ activists are applying pressure to their boss to de-bank anti-woke customers; Metro Bank has blocked a group of 2000 gender-critical parents from opening bank accounts because of their views, and Nigel Farage and two former Brexit Party MEPs had their accounts closed. Although Farage supposedly had his closed due to having ‘not enough money’, is it a mere coincidence that they were all part of the Brexit campaign and had their accounts shut concurrently when this announcement was made? The Reverend Richard Forthergill had his account closed days after he wrote to his bank complaining about their message during pride month, and Stuart Campbell, who runs the pro-independence Wings Over Scotland blog, had his shut due to his stance on gender issues.

The wokery does not stop there. The Bank of England has opined that people of any gender can be pregnant, to which end the bank is dedicating a floor of its office to gender neutral lavatories; staff are being encouraged to include pronouns in their email signatures, and are urged to wear rainbow lanyards alongside rainbow symbols. You also cannot miss the ostentatious rainbow flags, blowing in pride of place atop the buildings of an increasing number of banks of late.

Call me old-fashioned, but I preferred it when the banks’ principle concern was monetary rather than mutilatory. Besides which, whatever happened to freedom of speech? If private and public institutions are free to take political stances on contentious matters, why is the public being denied a voice? Certainly we are allowed an opinion, but increasingly it seems only one endorsed by the institutions themselves. I would love to know where their conjectures are coming from, because this is complete misinformation – an argument they have no evidence for. We have evidence on our side, but then perhaps that is the point; cancelling us is easier than dealing with our logic. 

The banks of course are merely a symptom of the malaise afflicting our once great nation. With schools, universities and the police force having already capitulated, it was perhaps inevitable that the banks would follow suit. One wonders what is going to be next? Fortunately, our Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has issued a warning to the banks for closing down customer’s accounts who have controversial views, and the government is investigating. I can’t say I hold out much hope however. Perhaps the best that can be hoped is that the banks become the latest victims of ‘go woke, go broke’ – except that the last time the banks failed, the public had to bail them out – and I don’t recall them having a problem with the colour of our money then, do you?

Jack Watson has a Substack newsletter called Ten Foot Tigers about being a Hull City fan. You can subscribe here.

If you enjoy The New Conservative and would like to support our work, please consider buying us a coffee – it would really help to keep us going. Thank you!