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The Daily Sceptic
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How to End Workplace Woke Groupthink

by C.J. Strachan
8 May 2024 5:46 PM

“Can you help us with our HR team, it’s out of control?”

This incident was related to us by a senior HR Consultant. The question was from a CEO of a large public sector employer. The scenario was that the CEO and board in question were getting increasingly concerned about their HR Department, which appeared to be neglecting its primary duties and instead pushing radical ideological agendas on the employees, enforcing compliance by creating a false consensus around those agendas. The situation was causing huge unrest and resentment among the staff, engagement and productivity were at rock bottom and multiple grievances had been raised by employees holding religious faiths. The brief was to find out what was going on and fix it.

Since the Cass Report was published there has been a slow dawning among senior leaders that the policies and training that exists in their organisations may be contributing to the fractures in employer-employee relations and relations between colleagues, causing serious issues for workplace harmony and productivity. Increasingly, leaders are worried and are looking for solutions to what appears to have been an overreach by their HR Departments. Such concerns are now in the mainstream press with almost daily articles highlighting the problem.

None of us are any stranger to cancel culture and it’s only the most disingenuous or ignorant who deny it is a problem. We’re very aware of the public figures who have been on the end of various campaigns. Break with the new orthodoxies, be they gender self-ID or public health mandates and expect to be cancelled as a heretic and beyond contempt – even if you an expert in the field. When Nobel prize winners are treated in such a way, what chance does a delivery driver for a supermarket have? Or a nurse? Or a teacher? Or a plumber or joiner for that matter?

The thing is, it is one thing to go after a public figure, it is quite another to go after someone without a public platform through which he can defend himself. There is a general air of disquiet in the corporate world at the moment as directors, business leaders and CEOs across the private and public sector are waking up to the fact that their organisation is essentially persecuting employees for personal opinions and beliefs.

With the CIPD, the organisation which ostensibly manages HR Professional Qualifications, appearing to be obsessed with every social justice cause to the extent that it has woven them into the fabric of everything it does, it is hardly surprising that HR Departments are enthusiastically inflicting Unconscious Bias training and other highly controversial and divisive ideas onto their workers. Often HR Managers themselves are too afraid to speak out, too afraid to challenge the consensus and to point out that it is not the role of HR to socially engineer their employees. An atmosphere of fear permeates the world of employment: say the wrong thing and you will also be condemned. This even affects the most powerful and is why Fair Job‘s CEO clients typically only want to engage in the strictest confidence.

Cancel culture, be it inflicted on a public figure or the man on the street (or in the office), arises out of confirmation bias bubbles. When a cancellation is brewing happens there is rarely any cool head saying “Now wait a minute, folks”, just a headlong rush to stone the heretic. Such bubbles develop their own manufactured consensus and then project that onto society: “Because we all agree it must be true.” It’s made worse as when cool heads interject, they find themselves accused of the same heresies. This obviously has a big impact on the workplace. But if you look at how employment law and policy have developed in recent years it’s easy to see how it has come about.

A reasonable issue arises – let’s say gay rights – and because legally you cannot discriminate against someone based on sexuality it is perfectly in order to ensure that employees don’t abuse or discriminate against gay colleagues. Such was the case for a good few years after the Equality Act 2010 went live. But then, around 2015, the idea of ‘allyship’ started to enter the discourse, driven by activists working for (often publicly funded) charities, and it was no longer sufficient to be merely accepting of gay colleagues. No, you now had to be an active ‘ally’, often to the embarrassment of those same colleagues. Allyship, believed by many to be the ‘right thing to do’ gets added to the consensus, confirmed by the bubble of peers, while cooler heads are terrified into nodding along.

I can recall working in an HR department in an NHS Trust in 2017. Pride Newcastle was coming up and the Trust was giving staff time off to prepare for it and encouraging employees to attend Pride to show solidarity. I had been out of the corporate HR world for a few years and was quite shocked that it was implied that whilst you were entitled not to attend, if you did not attend then it would be seen as a black mark against you. That such a position by the employer was in direct conflict with its own bullying and harassment policy and also opened it up to religious discrimination claims from employees didn’t seem to have crossed the minds of those driving ‘allyship’, including the HR Director herself; the ‘black mark’ threat was allowed to stand, unchallenged.

Some employers even include ‘allyship’ with ‘minority groups’ as a ‘corporate behaviour’ that needs to be adopted and demonstrated to gain promotion. Again, if any employee can make a link between his not demonstrating ‘allyship’ because it is against his faith and failing to do this costing him a promotion, the employer has a bit of a problem.

This has been going on for years: MeToo, Corporate Environmentalism, Brexit, BLM, even public health policies surrounding Covid. Employers are increasingly taking the position that it is their role to ensure that their employees are ideologically aligned. Confirmation bias bubbles are also driving false consensus over political issues, like Trump or the Tory Government. 

Brexit is a good example. After Brexit, a family member of mine was attending a Global Town Hall via Zoom. Her employer at the time was a large global American corporation with operations around the world. During the Town Hall the CEO expressed hostility towards the Brexit vote, implying that those who voted for Brexit were frightful racists and how fortunate they were that none of them worked for the company. This prompted a bit of a backlash from a disappointingly small number of employees who pointed out to the U.K. HR Team that as a majority of British voters had voted for Brexit it was not beyond the grounds of imagination to consider that some British employees also voted for Brexit and that the big boss, an American who knew little about the nuances of the arguments around Brexit, effectively accused them all of racism. An embarrassed U.K. HR Director raised this to the American CEO who was “genuinely shocked” that he may have upset employees and apologised. (There were some who thought that he was actually shocked that he had such people working for his business, but we will leave that for conjecture.) My point is that here was an American CEO, so fixed in his confirmation bias thinking that he thought it was appropriate to opine on the Brexit result, not in the “how will this impact our business moving forward and what do we need to do to manage any risk or take any opportunities” kind of way, but to personally attack those who voted for Brexit. This would never have happened even 10 years ago.

The answer to why this happened is complex but it has a lot to do with groupthink confirmation bias bubbles. “It must be right because 99% of people who agree with me think it is right” is the logic. Those of us in the world of management theory call this the Abilene Paradox, more on that below. So that CEO was so convinced by his confirmation bias bubble that (1) Brexit voters were racists and (2) his business, of course, would never employ anyone like that that he felt confident enough to add it into his annual speech to his global employees. And, here’s the thing: nobody pointed this out to him before he spoke! And this was because his entire U.K. management team, who unironically have been inflicting Unconscious Bias Training on their staff, either agreed with him (“Oh yes, Your Imperial Highness, those clothes have such a wonderful cut!”) or were too intimidated to challenge him.

None of this is new. The dangers of ‘groupthink’ have been known to the management world for at least 50 years and were outlined and defined by Jerry B. Hartley in his article ‘The Abilene Paradox: The Management of Agreement (1974 Organizational Dynamics)‘. The Abilene Paradox is a collective fallacy in which a group of people collectively decide on a course of action that is counter to the preferences of most or all individuals in the group, while each individual believes it to be aligned with the preferences of most of the others. It is becoming increasingly obvious that manufactured consensus, driven by what I’ve described above, is creating the conditions for the Abilene Paradox.

In 2008 this was further explored in ‘The Abilene Paradox After 30 Years: A Global Perspective’, published in IEEE Engineering Management Review. The conclusions  warned organisational leaders of the dangers of the paradox and how to spot it. It identified five components, as summarised on Wikipedia:

  1.  The first component refers to mutual agreement of a group that the current situation is not acceptable. However, on the individual level, the members may be satisfied with the existing setting after they have compared it with proposed alternatives.
  2. The second component stands for ineffective communication within the group when several members express considerable support for a decision because they assume that is the desire of others. This process of communication reinforces assumptions that individual thoughts are a minority in the group.
  3. The third component of the Abilene Paradox is the vocalisation of group sentiment which arose from inaccurate assumptions or incorrect interpretation of the ‘signals’ given by other members.
  4. The fourth component refers to the decision-maker’s reflections on the actions taken, usually in the form of questions as follows: “Why did we do this?”, “How can we justify our decision to others?”
  5. The fifth component refers to the defeat of the group leader to poor decision making in order to avoid making similar decisions in the future. 

There are several factors that may indicate the presence of the Abilene Paradox in the decision-making process:

  • Leaders who publicly do not fear the unknown. Such arrogance leads them to go along as they do not possess sufficient understanding of complex problems. Rather, they stick to the “that sounds good to me” attitude.
  • A group with no-conflict or no-debate type of decision-making. When such views are supported in the cohort, the lack of diverse opinions becomes the foundation for mismanagement of agreement. This can be visible by the emergence of the “I will go along with that” attitude.
  • Overriding leaders and a strong organisation culture. A strong leader and solid organisation may become a powerful asset, but it may also intimidate other members of subordinates to the point of submission. This results in the inclination of supporting more dominant ideas.
  • Lack of diversity and pluralistic perspective in a group. Homogeneous groups tend to be conformal. Such groups tend to achieve consensus rather than searching for the ‘right’ decision.
  • Recognition of a dysfunctional decision-making environment. Management in this environment has lost control, as the directional prerogative of management has succumbed to wanting to be liked by avoiding conflict.
  • The feeling of a ‘messiah’ in the organisation and action anxiety on the part of management. When the group handles complex tasks, there is usually one person or a small cohort within the group which has the required expertise to manage in this situation. As a result, there is a tendency to acquiesce to this person or group.
  • The development of a ‘spiral of silence‘ in the organisation. The spiral of silence occurs when one’s perception of the majority opinion in the organisation suppresses one’s willingness to express any challenging opinion against the most visible point of view.

There are ample examples of where the Abilene Paradox has played havoc from the Watergate Scandal to the Hillsborough Tragedy and subsequent cover up. Yet there are countless examples playing out in the workplace today. So why, given we know the Abilene Paradox is a real issue, have organisations been ignoring it? Well, firstly it isn’t taught to HR people unless they have been to an excellent business school. Therefore, they may be disquieted and have concerns but lack the knowledge to escalate the issue to the level of ‘risk’: concerns are easily dismissed, risks – not so much. Secondly, the idea of the Abilene Paradox has been somewhat replaced by the Orwellian idea of ‘groupthink’. This is because the majority of people pointing out that we have the Abilene Paradox in our society are not trained in management theories; they are cultural commentators writing for the general public and therefore apply the more easily understandable and Orwellian-sounding word to describe it. Indeed, ‘groupthink’ is an excellent definition. However, it doesn’t do us any favours in the workplace because all too often those referring to ‘groupthink’ as a concept are dismissed as conspiracy theorists.

The Abilene Paradox is a far more valuable and powerful definition of the phenomenon as it manifests in organisations because it specifically breaks down how it happens and most importantly, what to watch out for.

This is why CEOs and directors are asking for direct support outside their own HR Teams. How do you know your policies and training, implemented by management enthralled to the Abilene Paradox, don’t inadvertently directly or indirectly discriminate against employees?

This is why Fair Job U.K. has set up its corporate services, a confidential support service for boards of large employers to ensure that their HR policies and training courses are both lawful and do not discriminate or isolate any employees. In an era where we all sit in confirmation bias bubbles it has never been more important for business leaders and employers to constantly check that the Abilene Paradox does not exist in their organisational decision making and if it does, remove it. How does the Emperor know whether he is actually wearing any clothes if there is no one there to tell him, especially if the tailors gaslight him?

C.J. Strachan is the pseudonym of a concerned Scot who worked for 30 years as a Human Resources executive in some of the U.K.’s leading organisations. Subscribe to his Substack. He is a founder of Fair Job, an accreditation and support service for small businesses to help them navigate the minefields of EDI and HR.

Tags: Abilene ParadoxDEIFair Job U.K.GroupthinkHRUnconscious Bias TrainingWoke capitalismWoke CorporationWorkplaces

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9 Comments
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

Well said

I think what happened during “Covid” shows us that our democracy is weak because the populace are too trusting and not sufficiently vigilant and not prepared to push back against state overreach

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Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

We don’t have, and have never had, a democracy.

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ebygum
ebygum
1 year ago

I suppose, firstly..let me say that for once I agree in principle..there is no excuse for what is happening to Farage…

…but ironically isn’t he just being sanctioned by more powerful people..in the same way that countries that the USA disagrees with, and wants to damage and punish are sanctioned? Isn’t that how the West does business? Why should it be any different for ‘errant’ individuals (in their mind)?

..that’s how it seems to me..so let’s all take a look at the sanctions placed on different countries because they don’t follow the West’s agenda..what..in principle..is the difference? It’s still a minority view subjecting ‘whoever’ to punishment in a purely personal way….because they can?!!

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-41
sskinner
sskinner
1 year ago
Reply to  ebygum

I see. So it’s the West’s fault again, and not that it has been infected with an ideology that is rooted in Marxism? This behaviour was/is the norm in Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, Syria, Eritrea, Iran or any number of Theocratic/Autocratic dictatorships.
Marxists subverting uses projecting – blaming the west for all the things the Marxist do and will do.

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ebygum
ebygum
1 year ago
Reply to  sskinner

No, I’m sure you are right it’s Russia’s China’s..(name of state you don’t like here) fault that Farage has been ‘sanctioned!!? I mean these things don’t happen in a democracy..right!?

….who is the biggest exporter of sanctions? I’ll give you a clue it begins with U and ends in A with an S in the middle…! Millions of people are currently suffering under US sanctions…
Sanctions are essentially the imposition of arbitrary measures of economic and inhumane hardship on a country. US sanctions particularly affect a third of humanity with more than 8,000 measures impacting more than 40 countries…..……

So just apply the same theory to individuals….

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stewart
stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  ebygum

I agree with you.

Sanctions are the same but on a larger scale.

The state should limit itself to protecting its population from violence. That’s it. But it doesn’t.

Unfortunately states have grown so big and powerful that they aspire to do everything and wield power over everything.

The size of national budgets gives an idea of the behemoths they’ve grown into. They collect more taxes than they ever have, and still have the largest deficits they have ever had and grow a debt they already can never pay.

The power they wield so arbitrarily all comes from the money they collect from us which is more and more and more every day.

Until it all collapses. Which it will.

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ebygum
ebygum
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

..yes Stewart…I agree..it’s the same set of (arbitrary) principles applied..whether it’s a person, business or country….
There is a massive economic collapse coming though I’m not sure how we can protect ourselves from the banks…

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stewart
stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  ebygum

Nor do I other than use cash in every possible occasion

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Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
1 year ago
Reply to  ebygum

Not being in debt is the best protection.

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David101
David101
1 year ago
Reply to  ebygum

OK, so the “West” has always had an agenda, namely of the economic colonization of developing nations. But there is a FUNDAMENTAL difference between the sanctioning of developing nations by wealthier nations, and what is going on with Nigel’s bank account! A nation, say in the middle east, that does not align with American ideals and is harbouring precious resources that are just waiting for US exploitation, may be restricted in its access to international trade and it’s economy might just suffer a blow to the gonads.. But it’s citizen’s don’t have their bank accounts frozen, their savings made irrelevant – it’s much more personal than that in Mr Farage’s case.

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StickyWicket
StickyWicket
1 year ago

Most of us who read the Daily Sceptic are probably on some list or other.

If we don’t draw a line in the sand and fight this now to nip it in the bud, then we’re next.

Farage previously said he banked with Coutts. Coutts is part of the Nat West Group that includes RBS.

Nat West is still 39% owned by the Government and Coutts is chaired by Lord Waldegrave. Effectively, Farage has been made an unperson by the state blob.

Time to boycott Nat West and its affiliates. Oh and YBS for closing the account of that vicar.

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stewart
stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  StickyWicket

It’s not one bank. It’s all of them. They’re all going to do the same thing. It’s a cartel.

People just don’t get it. All the doors are shut. We’re locked in now. We either do as they say or they cast us out like they’re doing with him.

The technology is very basic, but good enough to target a few individuals. Once they have CDBCs, technically it will be even easier for them.

But contrary to what people think, CDBCs are no the innovation, CBDCs are a refinement.

The innovation started after 9/11 and expanded further after the financial crisis when banks became essentially quasi-state entities and were punished brutally for doing business the state bureaucracy considered inappropriate.

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AllMouthAndTrousers
AllMouthAndTrousers
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

No absolutely not. We can leave banks and move to Buidling societies where the account holders are the owners and Blackrock etc cannot buy influence. We can also use cash which cannot be tracked or controlled.

Just by doing those two simple things we can make a massive difference to the world.

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0
Smudger
Smudger
1 year ago
Reply to  StickyWicket

The liberty loving people of the UK need to take a woke scalp. We don’t know for sure who Farage banked with but those who are disgusted with Yorkshire BS and hold an account there may consider playing their part. The biggest and most symbolic woke scalp that millions could play a part in taking is the BBC one. Until the corporations fear the wrath of their consumers of their products more than the promoters of the woke agenda they will not stop their evil ways.

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Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

Robert Malone covers it also. Up your’s, 77th Brigade b’stards!!!

”And now we have the abrupt, arbitrary and capricious actions of the British/WEF banking system against a single politically active individual, Mr. Nigel Farage. This is yet another boundary event in the creeping deployment and normalization of the weaponization of the global financial system to enforce compliance with social and political objectives. If you are not yet sufficiently alarmed about the likely consequences of national and global deployment of Central Bank Digital Currency, this is yet another wake up call, yet another “Ontological Shock” event.

What we are seeing is the usual gradual, stepwise normalization of the erosion of human rights and government norms that we had all come to take for granted. This is the face of creeping weaponization of the banking system to advance the political interests of both WEF-affiliated/infiltrated governments and the financial interests that back them. This is what happens when a citizenry allows “public-private partnerships” to transmutate into corporatism/fascism. And it clearly demonstrates that there is no line that our opponents will not cross. They recognize no ethical boundaries. Access to what you think you own can be restricted and appropriated at a moments notice, and the deployment of Central Bank Digital Currency will accelerate and operationalize this as a routine practice, just as is the case in Communist China.
The willingness of what were formerly considered “Western Democracies” to deploy advanced military-grade psychological operations technologies, developed for offshore PsyWar combat, on their own citizens is well documented. Mr. Farage’s Twitter post is deluged by attack tweets originating from the UK government troll farm known as the 77th brigade.”

https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/uk-is-weaponizing-banking-now

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Smudger
Smudger
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

(Targeting politically active figures) Didn’t they first come for Tommy Robinson, not Nigel Farage?

Last edited 1 year ago by Smudger
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sskinner
sskinner
1 year ago

Trudeau did the same with the Canadian truckers, or rather anyone that disagreed with him. Kostantin Kisin also had his bank account frozen.

142
0
stewart
stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  sskinner

When I’ve tried to warn people of what’s coming with this, the number of times I’ve heard back: “if you’ve done nothing wrong, you should have nothing to worry about.”, or “”I’m nobody, they’re not interested in me.”

Living in that frame of mind is not unlike walking around holding a hand grenade with the pin pulled out. Basically it’s spectacularly dumb and dangerous.

146
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Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago

The ability to have a bank account is about as necessary for modern life as electricity or running water.

It’s worse. You can buy a diesel generator, or dig a well. But you need money to do both, and neither employers nor pension funds are going to send cash in an envelope to keep under your mattress, you increasingly can’t park a car with cash, and pubs and restaurants will only take cards … or worse still insist that you download an app on to the mobile phone you can neither buy nor operate.

115
0
Epi
Epi
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

I don’t use establishments that don’t take cash. Car parking, agreed is a big worry, our council has blocked the cash slot on all their parking meters – outrageous.

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0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  Epi

…and adding more and more roadside parking restrictions which can only be paid by card.

12
0
AllMouthAndTrousers
AllMouthAndTrousers
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

Yes you’re right about employers and pension funds, however the other things you mention are different. You can refuse to do all those things. Don’t use them and use people who do take cash, insist on it. Small businesses love cash, you’ll become a favourite customer with them

0
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stewart
stewart
1 year ago

In my view, this “cancellation” is a political attack that signals the left-wing/woke blob’s capture of the banking system

Incorrect.

It is the capture of the banking system by the state by holding banks responsible for the behaviour of their customers. Initially they said it was to stop money laundering and criminal activity.

Subsequently, the state bureaucracy has expanded its use to use that power to sanction other behaviour it considers undesirable.

There is no left or right. There is a state bureaucracy that has expanded its surveillance and control of the population both through tis own means and surrogates it regulates, like banks or online giants.

This doesn’t begin with banks deciding to be political. It starts with a state bureaucracy, which is highly political even though it shouldn’t be, capturing the banks and using them to push a political agenda.

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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

You make good points though I have personally observed a strange enthusiasm from top bosses for ESG crap that I can’t see would benefit them financially and seems to go way beyond simple compliance with state regulations or guidance- this is in a B2B context so general public consumers don’t play a part. I suspect at least some of the bosses actually believe the nonsense they spout.

40
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richardw53
richardw53
1 year ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

They support the ESG crap because the Blackrocks of this world are instrumental in changing the world from free enterprise capitalism to stakeholder capitalism, where if you don’t get a good ESG score you are off the investment list and don’t get government or corporate business.

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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  richardw53

Probably. Not sure if that’s always the case, but I am not close enough to these people to know. I think a lot of it is that it’s just the way the wind is blowing.

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AllMouthAndTrousers
AllMouthAndTrousers
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

How did the state force the bank to kick Farage out? What evidence do you have of this happening?

0
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MTF
MTF
1 year ago

With all the paranoia around this worth remembering that Farage himself says that he can have personal account – just not a business account. There are many reasons for refusing someone a business account which are highly confidential and banks would rightly not disclose why.

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StickyWicket
StickyWicket
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

He didn’t say that at all. He was refused both personal and business accounts. He did say he might be able to access some sort of payment service through a FinTech co, but that’s not a bank account.

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MTF
MTF
1 year ago
Reply to  StickyWicket

That’s what he said in his initial Twitter outburst but apparently on Thursday on GB News (I didn’t see it) he said the bank had offered him a personal account. The problem is that the bank cannot give its account of what happened for reasons of client confidentiality so we only have NF’s story.

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Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

“Client confidentiality”

You’re saying Farage has told them not to contradict his claims?

25
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MTF
MTF
1 year ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

You are right – client confidentiality is the wrong phrase. For reasons of confidentiality generality. For example, one theory is that his name has (quite possibly wrongly) got on to some fraud or bad risk database. The bank would certainly not tell the world about that and terms of use of the database might not allow them to even tell Farage. There are loads of reasons why someone may be refused a bank account.

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Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

That seems very parallel to being imprisoned indefinitely for breaches of national security that are so secret you can’t even be told what the accusation is. That happened under Stalin, and no doubt in other dictatorial regimes, too.

T&Cs for databases are less important than the fundamental human right to economic activity.

16
0
MTF
MTF
1 year ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

I am not saying it is a good thing but the fact is your credit rating and other such markers are maintained without you being told. I believe you can demand the data under data protection legislation but you have to know it exists and who holds it.

1
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Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Partly hidden credit ratings have been an injustice for years. When such injustices are extended to the ability even to make a living or eat, then they are revealed as the thin end of a proverbial wedge.

The right response is to condemn and seek to overturn both, I think, rather than use one to justify the other.

4
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AllMouthAndTrousers
AllMouthAndTrousers
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

There are two main companies in the UK : Experian and Equifax. I believe both have to give you your data if you believe it may be wrong and that is affecting your credit rating.

0
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Name and shame these bastards, the next step involves lampposts and piano wire.

0
0
Smudger
Smudger
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

We don’t seem to hear of left wing organisations being refused banking facilities or I am sure questions would be heard in Westminster or the MSM.

Last edited 1 year ago by Smudger
1
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Nearhorburian
Nearhorburian
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Is there a single establishment arsehole you don’t rim?

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0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
1 year ago
Reply to  Nearhorburian

I have to say that I can’t fathom MTF’s view of the world.

0
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Yep. True to form. Here you are.

32
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MTF
MTF
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Why does it concern you so much that I should participate? You don’t have to read my comments and several regulars have welcomed having an alternative voice even though they disagree with me. One even offered to pay my sub when commenting first became chargeable (I declined).

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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Just a coincidence that a prominent conservative populist politician who represents a threat to the establishment has his account frozen or closed. Him and the others…. I bet Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion have had their accounts closed too.

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WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Um, sorry folks, I know MTF says some rather inflammatory things to the annoyance of many here on DS but what he reports Farage saying is correct: he did say, both in his blue bird clip and his first TV announcement, that he had been offered a personal account but not a business account, further saying that that option was ‘of no use’ to him. Having worked in banking (not the retail side), if proper due diligence is carried out (and we all know that process itself is riddled with issues) and the client found wanting, reasons for refusal are NOT shared with the client although usually handled in a much more oleaginous manner. Neither are they usually shared with other banking organisations – the banks themselves are notoriously secretive about their IP and operations, particularly in the ‘no questions asked’ private banking system. London has been the centre for dodgy money laundering for bloody years.

Thus this is clearly a case of political persecution not just of Farage but of many others, both known and anonymous, by a financial industry in clear lockstep with the Deep State/Blob and their destructive globalist agenda. If they can get away with a ‘face’ such as Farage, you know damn well they’ll come for the rest of us eventually.

10
-1
MTF
MTF
1 year ago
Reply to  WyrdWoman

Thank you for confirming what I wrote. I agree with the whole of your first paragraph but I can’t see how you jump from that to the conclusion in the second paragraph. How do you get from “We don’t know why his account was refused” to “it is clearly a case of political persecution”?

0
-4
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

Because several other banks also refused to accept him. Previously, that would have been a very unusual occurrence: there would have been some UK bank somewhere that would have taken on someone who had been refused elsewhere, whether through a less risk-averse approach or a more profit-driven one. The fact that Farage hasn’t yet indicates to me, at least, that there is something far more malevolent going on. I should point out that I detest Farage and am in no way attempting to offer any kind of excuse for the man but I agree with the writer of this article that this sets a dangerous precedent for all of us.

8
0
MTF
MTF
1 year ago
Reply to  WyrdWoman

We only have Farage’s story – there is no other evidence. We don’t know which banks he tried or what it was that was causing them to refuse him a business account or even whether he was describing what happened accurately. I wouldn’t jump to conclusions.

0
-5
Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

But if you’re correct that the banks are forbidden to talk about it, then such evidence can never be found apart from old women eavesdropping on Farage trying to open an account.

Compare whistle-blowers on US war-crimes whose stories cannot be refuted by the Intelligence agencies, but who can still be imprisoned for life (or held indefinitely in UK solitary confinement).

5
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
1 year ago
Reply to  MTF

I would say, that if it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it’s a duck.

1
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

Woke on woke action: Just Stop Oil attack ‘Pride’ event …Got to laugh!

56
0
GrouchoMarques
GrouchoMarques
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

And the same for Farage. Was happy to jump on the compliance travellator with the jab plandemic but doesn’t like it now he’s on the receiving end.

5
-3
GrouchoMarques
GrouchoMarques
1 year ago
Reply to  GrouchoMarques

For anyone who doesn’t know what the compliance travellator is, just think of the Monty Python sketch where John Cleese’s architect misunderstands the brief for transporting the unaware thoughtless commuters into the modernity city and creates an abbatoir just after the entrance. But hasn’t in fact misunderstood the brief.

9
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

Well I’ve never heard of ”data pillaging” but for those of us wondering what changed with Twitter yesterday, and not being able to access it unless you had an account, this article explains it. I note Twitter went down earlier too so don’t know if that’s related.

”On Friday, Twitter implemented a temporary change in its access policy so that you must be signed into an account to view the content on the platform in an attempt to block companies from “Data Scraping.” 
Twitter owner Elon Musk announced new changes to the system in a Tweet. He said, “To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits: Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day, Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day, and New unverified accounts to 300/day.” 

According to the Verge, before the change, anyone could view public tweets without being signed into the platform but had limited functionality. 
The Washington post noted that Musk has made previous statements complaining about other organizations using Twitter data to “train” their artificial intelligence without authorization.”

https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-elon-musk-temporarily-limits-number-of-tweets-users-can-read-to-prevent-data-pillaging

Last edited 1 year ago by Mogwai
11
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago

Well, looks like ”coincidence” strikes yet again. Unfortunately only people with accounts can see this short 4min video, which is very revealing, of a bodybuilder talking about how he had 4 death jabs and what happened subsequently. This was filmed a couple weeks ago and he died today. 🙁

”Listen to this interview from Joesthetics just a couple of weeks ago.
He took 4 jabs and found heavy metals in his blood.
Then died of aneurysm today!”

https://twitter.com/_aussie17/status/1675168212005326848

Here’s the verification. No doubt steroids will get the blame, but the above vid describes 100% causation imo;

”Jo Lindner, better known as the bodybuilding influencer “Joesthetics,” has died. He was 30.
The German fitness guru had built an impressive Instagram following of 8.4 million by posting often about his gym workouts and training regimen.
His girlfriend, Nicha, known as @immapeaches online, shared a bittersweet tribute to the late bodybuilder Saturday on Instagram, reporting an aneurysm caused his death.”

https://nypost.com/2023/07/01/bodybuilder-jo-lindner-known-as-joesthetics-dead-at-30/

16
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Here’s the vid, due to probs with Twitter atm;

https://odysee.com/@bambaferko:7/Joesthetics-the-cattle:4

11
0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Interesting – thanks for posting. The fact that he had plasmapheresis TWICE as well as all the other blood work yet still referred to the data as ‘conspiracy theories’ is just mind boggling.

3
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

“Woke on woke action: Just Stop Oil attack ‘Pride’ event …Got to laugh!”

“And the protestors were arrested. They can stop traffic and Ambulances where the plod will protect them. But a pride march ooooh nooo. My opinion of the plod has hit a new low. I like to listen to Tamla Motown and reflect on happy days before mobile phones and gay parades.”

A combination of two posts found over at TCW.

Pride tops Net Zero then.

49
0
Mogwai
Mogwai
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Saw this on Twitter today, posted by the Pride in London people;

”Same sex attracted” is just another name for Nazis. We don’t need you here.”

So they’ve nailed their colours to the mast then. Not that this should come as a surprise to anyone paying attention. A bunch of deluded, hostile, narcissistic, indoctrinating, aggressive, mentally ill perverts. They can all go and choke on a bag of dicks!

28
0
Steven Robinson
Steven Robinson
1 year ago

Why cannot the banks’ refusal to do business with individuals who disagree with LGBTQ, membership of the European Union etc be challenged under the 2010 Equalities Act, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of ‘religion or belief’ – presumably including political belief?

47
0
GrouchoMarques
GrouchoMarques
1 year ago
Reply to  Steven Robinson

Don’t presume any way in which a law can be interpreted to suit the righteous.

8
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
1 year ago
Reply to  Steven Robinson

Oh no, the point of the EA is not for the benefit of ordinary people.

1
0
djmwright
djmwright
1 year ago

I’m pleased that Ian Rons has acknowledged his pro-Ukraine obsession. He’s entitled to his views. His views are in line with MSM views. Counter-establishment views on Ukraine are cancelled everywhere in the MSM. And I haven’t seen any on the pages of Daily Sceptic either. That is surprising as Ukraine could easily spark WW3 and the end of life as we know it. For example, I thought I might read about the peace treaty brokered by Turkey and others in March of last year. The document was initialled by Ukraine. Then Toby’s friend Boris shot over to Kiev to insist that the treaty must not be signed. Nothing in the MSM about that. And nothing on the Daily Sceptic either. Did I miss it? Does make wonder.

28
0
GrouchoMarques
GrouchoMarques
1 year ago
Reply to  djmwright

Poor Ian has become impervious to reality with his obsession. He is totally in a world of confirmation bias. Subject case “101”.

Last edited 1 year ago by GrouchoMarques
9
-1
Adrisha
Adrisha
1 year ago
Reply to  djmwright

Spot on, I couldn’t believe my eyes reading Ian Ron’s soppy words about Ukraine, stopped reading the article at that point. How gullible can anyone get?

0
0
Epi
Epi
1 year ago

Well said Ian completely disagree with you on Ukraine. I think you have a very blinkered view but you have every right to say it especially here in the bastion of free speech. Taking away what is effectively people’s livelihoods for expressing their opinions that don’t agree with the narrative is a very very dangerous path to tread.

19
-1
Robert Liddell
Robert Liddell
1 year ago

I’ve emailed RBS (which apparently owns Couts), complaining about this behaviour.
email below. I’ll post the reply if I get one.

Dear Mr McEwan
I have been an RBS customer since 1974. 
I have stayed with the bank despite its part in the 2008 crash, and the closures of local branches, including my own. The egregious cancellation of Nigel Farage’s account by Coutts, which I understand to be part of the RBS group, is a stage too far. 
To attempt to deprive someone of banking services because of a disagreement with his politics is utterly unacceptable. 
The start of a very slippery slope of social control, worthy of the CCP. 
Yours sincerely 

Dr Robert W Liddell

23
0
thelightcavalry
thelightcavalry
1 year ago

I’ve criticized your Ukraine views, so I’m happy to write ‘Well done!’ for this.
One quibble – so what if he had been paid by RT? How is that a reason to shut his bank account?

7
0
Ian Rons
Author
Ian Rons
1 year ago
Reply to  thelightcavalry

Well it isn’t a reason — perhaps I should have mentioned that. I’d defend NF even if he had been paid that much by RT, just as Toby (and me in spirit) defended Graham Phillips in the Speccie (not that I’m suggesting NF is in the same category, but still). I disagree with NF’s views on Ukraine, but if some idiot thinks they’re standing up for Ukraine by debanking NF, they’re dead wrong and I don’t want them on my side.

2
0
Kornea112
Kornea112
1 year ago

Farage is obviously a threat to the WEF globalists that control the UK government. He has been threatening to form a real conservative party that would represent the population rather than the globalist. Maybe they are trying to force him out to US Trump camp.

5
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago

From what I understand, Farage has actually been told he is a PEP as a reason for not getting a bank account. So laws designed to stop foreign dictators using the UK banking system are now being turned against British subjects.

A bigger issue for all of us in an era of CBDCs will be that, in the long run, the state could effectively run a computer search for everyone who subscribes to something like The Daily Sceptic, Daily Wire, Free Speech Union or even look at what sort of books people buy on Amazon (my Roger Scruton, Ayn Rand and classical literature collections, which include Aristotle, would probably raise flags at once in the postmodern era) and immediately downgrade us!

Don’t agree about Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine are both corrupt countries and things are way more complicated than any binary Russia=villainous aggressor/Ukraine=poor innocent little victim crock we’re being sold in the West. Much of this goes back to the bungled handling of the collapse of the Soviet Union by the international community in the 1990s. Our own behaviour in that era – massive exploitation of vulnerable countries and consequent empowerment of the ‘oligarchs’ – makes us culpable too, so the responsible, grown up reaction is should be that the international community does everything possible to get these two parties to the negotiating table and to declare an immediate ceasefire.

Still, good article by the boss of the Free Speech Union. God knows, we need the FSU more than ever now!

3
0
Ian Rons
Author
Ian Rons
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

Just a point of order, I’m not the boss of the FSU, I just have an honorary role.

1
0
DomH75
DomH75
1 year ago
Reply to  Ian Rons

Fair enough. Good article, though. 🙂

0
0
Ian Rons
Author
Ian Rons
1 year ago
Reply to  DomH75

Thanks.

0
0
thelightcavalry
thelightcavalry
1 year ago

When they came for Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage remained silent. In fact he joined in the cancellation by keeping him off GBNews.
https://twitter.com/BobJSweeney/status/1675026203802054658?s=20

Last edited 1 year ago by thelightcavalry
5
0
Adrisha
Adrisha
1 year ago
Reply to  thelightcavalry

I think because Farage is focused on issues other than criticism of Islam which would probably have ended his career years ago, perhaps with a slit throat. Would you stand up in public and criticise Islam? You don’t even use your name on on this blog.

0
0
thelightcavalry
thelightcavalry
1 year ago
Reply to  Adrisha

My name is Mark Adams. The nom de plume was because of some initial mess up with registration and passwords. As a matter of principle I deplore anonymity on the internet. Yes I’m critical of Islam, tho I see good points as well and my personal experience with Moslems in business and football is excellent.
That’s all beside the point. Farage and others did nothing about the persecution of Tommy Robinson and now they’re bleating.
So what’s your name since you challenge me?

0
0
bfbf334
bfbf334
1 year ago

“it probably won’t surprise readers to know that (besides writing articles on the topic) I wear a pro-Ukraine lapel pin, have a set of “Russian warship, go f— yourself” stamps and other pro-Ukraine artwork framed on my walls, sometimes wear a Zelenskyy-style trident sweater, teach English to Ukrainian soldiers and veterans and support other pro-Ukrainian charities. From the comfort of my own home, I’m pretty much all-in when it comes to Ukraine. If they were a football team, I’d have a season ticket.”

That’s right Ian…..just ignore all the documented historical facts and support the neo-con agenda as it destroyers Ukraine (including the useful idiot Bandera Nasties who are “running” the SHOW).

7
0
AllMouthAndTrousers
AllMouthAndTrousers
1 year ago

“On this point, it probably won’t surprise readers to know that (besides writing articles on the topic) I wear a pro-Ukraine lapel pin, have a set of “Russian warship, go f— yourself” stamps and other pro-Ukraine artwork framed on my walls, sometimes wear a Zelenskyy-style trident sweater, teach English to Ukrainian soldiers and veterans and support other pro-Ukrainian charities. From the comfort of my own home, I’m pretty much all-in when it comes to Ukraine. If they were a football team, I’d have a season ticket. So I’m predisposed to have deep suspicions about anyone who has appeared on RT”

I don’t care and neither should anyone else. Your virtue signalling doesn’t make your views any more or less valid. All press and media organisations in the UK, including the BBC, have lied and deceived the public during Covid and during the Ukraine conflict. That’s the only relevant point here and one you, unfortunately, haven’t made.

0
0
Adrisha
Adrisha
1 year ago

More than 43,000 extremists are being watched by Mi5, I wonder how many of them have had their bank accounts closed?

0
0

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