Oh, so that’s why my bank charges are so high…
…it is still a matter of pride that, in Britain, one is never required to discuss one’s political beliefs. Unless, that is, you want to do a certain type of business with the state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland.
Damn it, there it was a lovely clear blue morning and the warm spring day spread out before me. Then I read this by Fraser Nash in the Spectator,and the grey blanket of clouds over Noord-Holland redescended.
It’s bad enough for some of us RBS customers, what with the trillion pound RBS Labour-licensed theft from the taxpayers and sterling’s virtual parity (93p today)with the euro, which is affecting anyone on a fixed income who lives abroad pretty drastically.
Now it appears that the great clunking fist is using his shares in the bank to meddle politically in people’s intimate financial affairs – and he, via RBS, may also be giving enhanced bank services to his political friends and fellow travellers.
Geoff Robbins, a Cheshire-based computer consultant, recently approached RBS to ask for a credit-card processing facility for his business. After the usual bankers’ inquisition, he was asked a question that knocked him for six: did he have any political affiliation? Did he know any MPs, councillors or mayors? It was a new question, the lady explained to him, which had been introduced soon after the government took control of RBS. She said, in his paraphrase, that ‘political influences may be used for corrupt purposes’.
Might’n’t they just.
NB: this is the Spectator and Nelson so consider the source. But I’m inclined to believe every word; as Nelson himself says:
When I first heard Mr Robbins’s story, it seemed hard to believe. But the more I considered the context of this government’s apparently irrepressible desire to pry into every aspect of out lives, the more it had the awful ring of truth. I decided to investigate further and called RBS, who issued an outright denial. ‘We would never ask such a question, nor would we dream of doing so,’ said its spokeswoman. So Mr Robbins had concocted his story? Unconvinced, I called RBS Streamline, posing as an employee for my mother-in-law’s (real) company and asking for the same service.
Sure enough, the chilling question came at the end: ‘Is she a member of any political party?’ I asked why this was relevant. ‘I presume we ask because there is a high volume of fraud in that sector. Because people who are of that sort of [party political] nature, maybe, are inclined to commit fraud.’ The question, I was told, is ‘thrust upon us by the Financial Services Authority’. The FSA says this is untrue. Banks can check clients’ backgrounds, but no one is required to talk politics.
That the bank is being so open about its political intimidation is what’ss truly scary; it’s yet another in-your-face move by Labour to douse potential opposition and is all of a piece with ACPO’s shrill warning of a ‘summer of rage’ and recent clampdowns on peaceful protest.
But what can you do? Unfortunately I’m in the same invidious position as so many other RBS customers: disgusted and scared but unable to move because we need banking services. Try changing banks in the current financial climate, particularly if your income is low or fixed and your credit history not all it might be.
The personal is indeed political, but expressing political disgust? Not affordable.
