The Halifax Bank has provoked a furious backlash from customers after posting a tweet from its official account yesterday saying “Pronouns Matter”. MailOnline has more.
Some customers immediately said they wanted to close their accounts as they hit out at the move.
One wrote: “For a moment there, I was hoping this was a joke photo on a parody account, then I saw the verified tick now I’m thinking I should close my Halifax account and take my money elsewhere.”
Another simply asked: “How do I close my account?”
The critical tweets prompted the bank to defend its new policy by responding to the tweets. It said in one post: “We strive for inclusion, equality and quite simply, in doing what’s right. If you disagree with our values, you’re welcome to close your account.”
The bank also gave instructions to customers who wanted to close their accounts, saying they could call them or put a request in writing.
Another critic questioned whether displaying pronouns “really” mattered when “things like climate change and war” are happening.
Halifax responded to the tweet directly, with staff member ‘Dave’ writing: “We want to create a safe and accepting environment that opens the conversation around gender identity.
“We care about our customers and colleagues’ individual preferences, for us, it’s a very simple solution to accidental misgendering.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: If your employer has asked you to include your gender pronouns on a lanyard or in your email signature and you don’t want to, please see the Free Speech Union’s FAQs on this issue for some guidance.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
I read this in the Telegraph earlier. I have sold the shares in my Halifax trading account and will close it as soon as I transfer the money. My Halifax credit card is going in the bin to complete my own move away from them
Well done.
The person on their social media who said if you don’t like our values you are welcome to close your account sounds a right cocky tosser, quite apart from anything else.
That’s certainly not someone whose advice on anything I’d be inclined to trust.
I bet that’s a reply not sanctioned by head office. Bit of a Gerald Ratner moment possibly.
The line is pretty much standard for virtuous businesses who make profits on autopilot and are hence beyond customer service.
If it were still possible to operate entirely with cash, they wouldn’t be so cocky.
The problem is that they know a. you can’t get by in the world today without a bank account b. It’s not that simple and easy to open an account elsewhere and c. eventually all the other banks might follow their mad lead and you’ll have to swallow all the gender fluid sh*t one way or another.
Some people argue that banks are public utilities and thus, ought to be nationalized. This would obviously not prevent them from being politically controlled. But they would then be properly politically controlled and also, properly politically accountable.
RW, banks are already de facto government agencies.
They have been given not only the authority but the obligation to monitor everyone’s transactions to identify “suspicious” activity. Basically they are already government spies.
If a client turns out to be money laundering, for example, and they are deemed to not have done the appropriate checks (and in true gangster form, those checks are not specifically defined, it’s up to the bank to work out what they need to be) then the bank is slapped with hideous fines.
Banks at no time have stood up for the privacy of their customers. Just like the tech companies, the moment the government has knocked on their door demanding their full cooperation, they have given it quickly and willingly.
Banks are not independent entities. They are extensions of government power and authority.
“then be properly politically controlled and also, properly politically accountable.”
And probably even worse.
The people I know who are arguing for this are not exactly in favour of the way states in Europe are presently usually being governed.
They’d be even more subject to whatever the wokery of the times was…
What’s to swallow? I can understand the staff of the bank being disgruntled by this nonsense, but how does it affect customers. How often, for instance, are you having to refer to bank staff in the third person?
Actually, just read it again, and I stand corrected: It is the customers who are being asked to declare their pronouns (must have mis-read it). That really would get me scurrying!
On current trajectory it’s just a matter of time before a customer gets thrown out and their account closed for refusing to use a new made up pronoun. They’re already inviting people to do it voluntarily.
Yes, and it’s straight out of the “Classic Guide to Losing Customers Overnight”!
And hopefully that tosser will soon be out of a job.
It never occurs to them, as with objecting to ‘the knee’, that people can have genuine and honest opinions that differ from theirs. Its all ‘Are yer with me, or agin me.?”
The thing that’s seriously gross here is a so-called business employing professionals tasked with telling customers to f**k off and take their custom elsewhere if they openly disagree with political opinions sufficiently important people working for this so-called business happen to have. That shines a real light on how much Halifax really values its customers, namely, not at all.
People who don’t want their money to be accidentally misgendered should move it away from this institution while there’s still time for it. After all, regrettable computer errors affecting those guilty of the wrongthink of today can happen easily.
I so miss the days when companies just sold you products and services and that your custom didn’t depend on conforming to certain political views.
This is more dangerous than it seems. Imagine every company did this. Would that mean that you might not be able to buy food if you don’t agree with transgender ideology. Will I be denied healthcare if I don’t indulge a nurse’s fantasy that he or she is neither a man or a woman?
I’m pretty sure this is a path towards violent civil conflict.
I think the reaction of these customers are partly because they can see their interactions in-person with bank staff being made awkward for anyone who doesn’t believe in gender fluidity, etc. And partly also as what I see as an essential counter-current to the general trend of woke evangelism, and a boycott on businesses that encourage this.
How Schools Sexualise Your Children
“Groomed: How Schools Sexualise Your Children” exposes the worrying degree to which politicised, divisive ideologies – including gender theory, critical race theory, queer theory and “transgender toolkits” – are being taught to our children through Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA07ta2tJpQ
Reclaim The Media
Stand for freedom against the Weasels of Westminster Yellow Boards By The Road
Friday 1st July 4pm to 5pm
Yellow Boards
Junction B3430 Nine Mile Ride &
New Wokingham Road
Wokingham RG40 3BA
Tuesday 5th July 11am to 12pm
Yellow Boards
Junction B3408 London Rd &
John Nike Way, Binfield
Bracknell RG42 4FZ
Stand in the Park Sundays from 10.30am to 11.30am
make friends & keep sane
Wokingham
Howard Palmer Gardens Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA
Henley
Mills Meadows (bandstand) RG9 1DS
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Are they any sceptics meeting near Richmond TW9?
I think I’m going to start saying my pronouns are she/him/its and watch their eyes swivel as they try to work out what is going on.
Nice idea. But bound to fail in practice. If this doesn’t exist already, they’ll celebrate you as newly discovered gender and add you to the list.
Probably.
thee/thou/*thy/thine should get them scratching their heads trying to work out the correct grammatical usage! Anyone remember how tricky it was learning Latin, Welsh or German & the head scratching that was involved trying to work out which one to use & when??
Unless of course you’re a Yorkshire lad or lass who still uses these pronouns
*In Barnsley thy is replaced with the colloquial tha
“In Barnsley thy is replaced with the colloquial tha”
Tha knows.
It reminds me of the time that Prince decided he was a symbol, and that symbol was the one for infinity. He was ahead of the game, wasn’t he? Actually you could have all sorts of fun and games with this and really tie them up in knots. They would be so desperate not to offend they might actually address you as ‘your majesty’ if that is what you designated for yourself.
People who get upset by incorrect pronouns choose to get upset. Yes it’s a choice. If they get upset that’s their problem and not mine.
If somebody demands I call them “he/him/shim/sher”, my response will likely be “ok” and not call them anything or if I’m feeling cheeky, I’ll tell them to can call me “Lord” because most of the time I identify as a God.
I’m always getting misgendered. It doesn’t bother me.
Stand for freedom against the Weasels of Westminster
* Yellow Boards By The Road *
Friday 1st July 4pm to 5pm
Yellow Boards
Junction B3430 Nine Mile Ride &
New Wokingham Road
Wokingham RG40 3BA
**
Stand in the Park Sundays from 10.30am to 11.30am
make friends & keep sane
Wokingham
Howard Palmer Gardens Sturges Rd RG40 2HD
**
Bracknell
South Hill Park, Rear Lawn, RG12 7PA
**
Henley
Mills Meadows (bandstand) RG9 1DS
*
Telegram http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Halifax? Does anyone you know actually bank there?
The Herald newspaper in Scotland now has a new pop-up box when you log in asking you which gender you are. It’s not mandatory and only asks if you are male, female or binary. They’re a bit behind the Times really and don’t say why they want the information.
What happens in the majority of the world’s languages with male and female gender as part of their structure?
Je ne sais pas.