Nigel Farage cries persecution, nobody wants to be his banker after ties to Russia

SupaCat95

Yes he does and a massive one as a former Member of the European Parliament.

Be careful about looking into the abyss lest it look back into you.

Hoop66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120784828#Comment_120784828

And then they came for Farage, and I was all "he's over there, get the cunt".

pixelburp

Wait now; I hadn't realised how many we're talking about here. We're now up to nine rich-people Banks having turned away Farage, and we're still to entertain the idea this is some grand conspiracy? As opposed to Farage simply being a potential risky investment? These wealth management companies, all hurt 'cos Brexit ... did something they didn't like (still waiting on some solid theories on what "something" a rich-people's would object to, WRT Brexit? If any class of people were most insulated from Brexit, it'd be the type of person who can afford a Wealth Management company. In fact the whole concept of "disaster capitalism" ensured many people made a LOT of money from Brexit)

Bwahahaha. Infamy!

Smell tests, Ockham's Razor, however you spin it. If there was a whiff of truth to this and as I've said before and repeatedly, Cameron, Truss, Sunak, Johnson and allllll the other actual architects of Brexit would be keeping their money under the sofa for the banking options left to them. A little wrinkle in the theory of perecution I note keeps going completely unaddressed. Funny that.

But yeah. Sure. It's Nigel Farage enemy number one here, he's the real reason Brexit happened, single-handedly and 'dem banks are píssed at St Farage of the Cultural Coat for some nebulous reasons nobody out to bat for Nigel can actually offer. Instead merely tutting about speculation, wailing about accusing poor Nigel of lying, or making idiotic pejoratives about us all hating the English.

I shall revert to my original reaction to this manufactured controversy: snort.

https://youtu.be/cLJrQj-ClMk?t=99

Hoop66

The idea that Farage is having his bank account closed, if that is even actually happening (let's face it, he is a massive liar), for political reasons is ludicrous. The notoriously left-wing banks are coming after him because he holds right wing views? Sure.

Banks are, rightly, very sensitive about their customers being seen to be dodgy these days. The fines for connections to money laundering etc, are astronomical.

What he is doing here is what is called "getting out in front of a story". It's very likely that the bank has serious concerns of the many "donations" that he accrued via paypal to his Brexit party, among many other dodgy sources of funding. Something is likely going to come out soon. It will be pretty funny when it does.

Peregrinus

You mean Guinness and Mahon whose business collapses because of these activities, and was wound down to nil by 2000? You have an odd definition of "thrive".

The HSBC fine was $1.92 billion. If you think that was "barely a day's earnings" for HSBC, well, you don't know much about HSBC.

Worth pointing out that both of these scandals occurred before the rollout of the FATF/OECD money-laundering regime that is giving Farage his problems. Citing them as evidence that the money-laundering regime is ineffective doesn't make a huge amount of sense. Still, it's much easier to cling to conspiracy theories if you don't require them to make any sense.

brickster69

A number of serving MP's and family members have also had accounts closed and are finding it difficult to open new accounts and get loans.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jul/03/banks-accused-of-closing-accounts-such-as-nigel-farages-on-political-grounds?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The J Stands for Jay

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120784401#Comment_120784401

Accepting money to express support for terrorist organisations.

ancapailldorcha

I don't think the squawking classes thought this all the way through:

https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/status/1675988431296397314

https://twitter.com/DmitryOpines/status/1675990763547574273

Hoop66

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120794726#Comment_120794726

Gerald Ratner was most certainly not bust in a month. The directors of Ratners formed a new company, Signet, and bought out his two main high st. competitors, H. Samuel & Ernest Jones. Mr. Ratner was, in the mid-90s, taking a 6-figure sum *per month* as a pensioner of that company. I know because one of the first jobs my company did when we worked on their systems was to increase the size of the "amount" field on the payslip to accommodate it.

Some might suspect you have a tendency to believe what you want to hear.

gmisk

I am surprised more bank accounts haven't been shut down given the amount of Russian cash that came into political parties in the past (and still does). I'd say these are just the tip of the iceberg.

https://goodlawproject.org/revealed-the-tories-are-still-receiving-funds-from-russia-linked-donors/

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/23/oligarchs-funding-tories

Annasopra

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120796103#Comment_120796103

To be fair though as has been said a few times he has lied many times before.

brickster69

Looks like Chris Bryant has some explaining to do according to the Spectator about this 550K from Russia he claimed in parliament.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/fact-check-did-farage-get-548-000-from-russia/

pjohnson

"According to Spectator"

Thats all thats needed tbf.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802421#Comment_120802421

No, it isn't.

Chris Bryant has refused to publicly make the same statement because he understands perfectly well it would constitute defamation.

Bryant didn't supply a shred of evidence for his claim whilst hiding behind parliamentary privilege to get away with it.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802392#Comment_120802392

Can you give some examples?

Peregrinus

Examples of Farage lies? Seriously?

Remember 350 million a week? Even Farage now admits that it was false. In fact he admitted it pretty much the day after the referendum.

He claimed that 70% of UK's laws were made in the EU. A lie.

He said that the EU Commission was the sole arbiter of legislation in the EU. A lie. A lied that an MEP would certainly have known was a lie.

He lies constantly about refugees. For example, he said that Saudi Arabia hadn't taken a single refugee from Syria; in fact SA has hosted several hundred thousand. He constantly describes asylum seekers in the UK as "illegal" when, as he well knows, in reality they have broken no laws.

Farage claimed in 2016 that Turkey was set to join the EU by 2020. That was a lie - the 2020 figure was pure invention, and Turkey accession talks had already stalled when Farage made his claim.

Fortunately for Farage, banks don't turn away your custom merely because you are an inveterate liar. (Unless you lie to the bank, but I have no reason to think Farage has done this.)

Flaneur OBrien

I posted a link to an article describing Farages lies. I’m not surprised it wasn’t read.

Beta Ray Bill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802463#Comment_120802463

Can you give some examples?

Sorry, but this is a genuine question now...

"Have you been been living in a cave on Mars for the last 8 years with your hands over your ears and eyes shut?"

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802561#Comment_120802561

You see, that's where we differ.

To lie is to deliberately say something untrue when you are aware of the actual truth.

It's possible for someone to be mistaken in their reporting of what they believe at the time to be true, without deliberately trying to mislead other people. For some bizarre reason, this has caught on -- that everything a politician says is a deliberate untruth, when other factors may be at play.

To take one example: you mentioned Turkey accession. For all you know, Farage believed this at the time, in which case he wasn't "lying". He may have been mistaken about the year of accession, but everyone knew at the time that there were tentative discussions about whether Turkey could become an EU member in the future.

Finally, on the 350 million pounds for the NHS -- this was a claim made by Leave EU and Boris Johnson / Gove, which Farage was not a party to. Farage had no say over that figure, nor was he involved in the campaign discussions, nor did he use that figure when campaigning on his own.

So you see, just listing things is not good enough. You would have to demonstrate that Farage deliberately set out to tell untruths at a time when his knowledge and beliefs were counter to that.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802658#Comment_120802658

It defies common sense to suggest that Nigel Farage had an honest belief, in 2016, that Turkey was set to join in 2020. Literally nobody who was interested in the matter thought that at the time, and if Farage wants anyone to believe that he did think that, he really needs to offer some account of how he could come to hold such a bizarre belief.

Similarly his claims about "illegal immigrants" — he has been told the truth many times; I have seen people explaining it to him. So, again, it's not credible that he genuinely believes the things he says about this. Likewise his claims about Saudi Arabia's record with refugees; how on earth would he form the belief that SA had taken no refugees from Syria? And he has form here - he has made similar claims, equally false, about other Gulf states.

You're asking me to believe that he has an honest belief that all the things he says are true? I don't believe that and, to be honest, I struggle to think that you do either. But even if we assume that he does believe that, it's not much of a defence of Farage to say that he's not a liar, just a deeply delusional man who works hard to protect his ignorance so that his fans can pretend to think he's not actually a liar.

Quin_Dub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802658#Comment_120802658

So he's not a liar , just cripplingly mis-informed and utterly inept at his job?

Well that alright then , as you were everyone "He'd not a liar , he's just a f*ckwit"

Leroy42

Rapid, by your own post you admit that Farage is a person that gets things wrong quite a lot, but presents himself as knowing.

Yet on this occasion, you are still firmly in the camp that yet again he is fully on top of everything and that his simply saying something means that everyone has to disprove him rather than him looking to prove what he said.

Given his past, being unaware of the actual truth, don't you think you should hold your fire on taking his side until such time as he actually produces some evidence to back up his claim?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802687#Comment_120802687

If you want to talk about deliberate untruths, perhaps you should start with Chris Bryant and his false allegations that Farage received £500,000 from the Kremlin?

Because if we're going to ascend the proverbial high horse about lies and morality, condemning Bryant's defamatory comments toward Farage would be an appropriate first move.

Or is it a case that untruths matter only when your political opponents allegedly utter them?

I.R.Y.E.D

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802572#Comment_120802572

Some people have recurring problems opening links according to themselves, especially when the link debunks their búllshit.

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802572#Comment_120802572

We're supposed to treat the Spectator as the arbiter of all truth by the same people who spent years trotting out the "MSM" trope. Can't have it both ways.

If Chris Bryant lied, I'll believe the evidence (which, let's face it doesn't exist because Bryant didn't lie). Not right wing scutter from a rag like the Spectator but actual evidence.

brickster69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802709#Comment_120802709

He is a strange one that MP, just last week he was telling the government they should break international law as well. Can you imagine that, he obviously he does not have a clue and was promptly corrected.

https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1673359135063040000

ancapailldorcha

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802758#Comment_120802758

What has this got to do with Nigel Farage and his panoply of proven lies?

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802244#Comment_120802244

I personally have PEP status through a family member in the HoL and it is a major pain in the arse. People don't realise for those in our situation the default position is to have accounts refused/closed, and so far it has taken me almost three months to open a business account.

breezy1985

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120799830#Comment_120799830

"At the time"

How come you are no longer using the Eskimohunt account btw ?

HalloweenJack

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-eu-referendum-nigel-farage-nhs-350-million-pounds-live-health-service-u-turn-a7102831.html

This was Nigel's spin on those NHS numbers.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120802411#Comment_120802411

The sheer hypocrisy that Chris Bryant himself appeared on Russia Today (albeit without receiving a fee), from the same article that debunked Bryant's false allegations against Farage:

Bryant incidentally has also appeared on Russia Today, though without receiving a fee: clearly he was happy to do it for free. Will the Labour MP now be offering any further evidence about his claims under privilege? Or failing that, an apology?