Banking on Outrage

I can't help but feel that the right-wing press plumbed new depths this week with their apparent surprise upon discovering that the UK's banks are private commercial entities with the legal right to decide upon who they do business with.  They seem aghast at the idea that such entities are perfectly entitled to close the accounts of existing customers who break their rules, don't meet their criteria for holding an account, or that they simply don't like.  Just wait until they find out that pubs and even shops have the right to refuse to serve anyone they like.  Yet, this seems to be the bizarre alternate reality we appear to have fallen into since that self-styled  'man of the people' Nigel Farage went running to the press, whining that his account at Coutts, the bank of Royalty and millionaires, had been closed.  According to him, it was because they didn't like his political views, according to the bank (backed up by internal memos released to Farage and publicised by him), the main consideration was that the amount he had deposited in his account had fallen below the minimum level required by Coutts.  In fact, it had fallen that low some time ago, but they'd held off closing the account immediately to see if the situation was rectified.  But it wasn't and this, combined with the possible reputational damage to the bank because of Farage's continued unsavoury political activities, led to the closure of the account.  There were no conspiracies and nothing sinister here, just a perfectly legal normal business decision.

But Farage is always given a public platform by the media and, as usual, used it to bray and bellow about this 'injustice', eventually resulting in an apology from Coutt's parent bank, Nat West, (who, incidentally, had offered Farage a regular account).  Obviously, the right-wing press got behind their darling, (who, let us not forget, is not and never has been an MP, having been roundly rejected by voters whenever he has stood) and the spineless Tories, as ever running scared of the extreme right minority that has captured their party, also fell into line, demanding action against Coutts and banks in general to prevent the woke bastards from 'cancelling' people they don't like.  Which is where this fiasco really gets bizarre - these are the self same people who usually start ranting on about the evils of the 'Nanny Sate' whenever any kind of government regulation of any aspect of private enterprise is proposed.  Yet, here they are, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak included, threatening to legislate against banks to force them to take on customers regardless of commercial and ethical considerations.  So much for their much vaunted support of 'freedom of choice', eh?  Which, of course, is the supposed basis of the capitalist system they supposedly embrace.  That and non-interference in markets and a reduction in legal 'red tape' restricting businesses 'freedom of action'.  We really do seem to have fallen through that looking glass, don't we?