Following the Nigel Farage and Coutts case, the Brexit leader being debanked for his political views, certain analysts have mentioned the concept of decoupling: the ability to separate an idea from its context.
Great writing, very helpful. I've not actually come across the term "decoupling" before, but it seems familiar to me in the form of two concepts:
1. Being ethically consistent and fair is desirable even when it's personally unpalatable
2. You can separate the "art" from the "artist".
I've noticed the second one in particular has become not just passé, but used as evidence of normal failing in recent years. "You can't like that song, the singer did/said/thought X". It's all very worrying, to put it mildly.
With the Farage/Coutts story I was always willing to exercise caution before taking "sides", not because I disbelieved Farage but because I've acted for PEPs and the AML checks are INSANE. And remember I retired from full-time practice in 2016--it's only become worse since then.
But as soon as Farage disclosed the results of his Subject Access Request & it became clear he'd been debanked for his political views (and that the Coutts dossier on him had been compiled by a bunch of diversity hires who would misspell "cat"), I started to get properly annoyed.
This was made worse when--in the SAME WEEK--my partner & I were shunted into "premier banking" ourselves without being asked--on the strength of holding a single NatWest product!
I note Starmer's reaction was exactly right--but then, he's a lawyer. We have to "high decouple" every day.
My partner wrote a spiky email setting out our concerns (and wondering at NatWest's timing!). We pointed out that we only have a single product with NatWest, and quite properly wanted to know how they'd worked out we were eligible for "premier banking" (and Coutts, for that matter).
"Did this involve assessing our social media activity?" was one question we asked. Obviously banks can look up property registers, or search for each of us individually on the Companies' House website.
Premier banking/being invited to bank with Coutts was traditionally a compliment on one's ability to keep one's financial affairs in order -- and also a very British way to indicate poshness without bragging. Since the Farage business, this is no longer the case. We don't know where we stand.
The ability of a business to exclude anyone from crossing the ‘threshold to the shop’ for any reason together with the freedom to discuss customers internally in a frank and open manner (say in internal reports) is one obvious benefit to the business (e.g. any particular customer may be more trouble than they are worth and that is stated openly in the internal reports of the business) but it must be balanced with any customer’s civic rights to shop or use a service. . . In the United States it was found that a religious group were not prevented from going door to door in a company’s private town on the company’s private land (to tell the residents all about Jesus and his love for them) as the right to religious freedom to talk about Christ is more important than the company’s rights in private property . . So there must be a balance struck between the right of Farage to exercise his political beliefs (out of his mouth on television and radio and out of his pen in the newspapers) and the right of a private company to control access to its prestigious banking services and the right of the same company to discuss the customers in a frank manner
Not sure ‘bout that. . As an employee then, yes, but as a shop owner the customer is a mere licensee who can be ejected. .same with a pub . . ‘You’re barred’. . Gonna need a bit more chewy stuff than the bald phrase, ‘UK law is clear’. . . People get thrown off websites all the time for tin foil hat opinions screaming, ‘Political Opinion!!’ on their way out the cyber front door and the website is a ‘firm’. . Is public nudity a political view on the Fall From Grace ?? . . Surely we can go shopping in our birthday suits. . But nyuk nyuks aside the matter is complicated. .
Yet banking is a quasi-public utility. In a modern society, one can't live without a bank account. Not sure it's the same as throwing someone off a website...
Great writing, very helpful. I've not actually come across the term "decoupling" before, but it seems familiar to me in the form of two concepts:
1. Being ethically consistent and fair is desirable even when it's personally unpalatable
2. You can separate the "art" from the "artist".
I've noticed the second one in particular has become not just passé, but used as evidence of normal failing in recent years. "You can't like that song, the singer did/said/thought X". It's all very worrying, to put it mildly.
Thanks Georgia - very kind of you :-)
*moral failing, not "normal failing"
With the Farage/Coutts story I was always willing to exercise caution before taking "sides", not because I disbelieved Farage but because I've acted for PEPs and the AML checks are INSANE. And remember I retired from full-time practice in 2016--it's only become worse since then.
But as soon as Farage disclosed the results of his Subject Access Request & it became clear he'd been debanked for his political views (and that the Coutts dossier on him had been compiled by a bunch of diversity hires who would misspell "cat"), I started to get properly annoyed.
This was made worse when--in the SAME WEEK--my partner & I were shunted into "premier banking" ourselves without being asked--on the strength of holding a single NatWest product!
I note Starmer's reaction was exactly right--but then, he's a lawyer. We have to "high decouple" every day.
I wish all the liberal Twitter lawyers were so good at decoupling :-S
Hope you got your issues with NatWest sorted!
My partner wrote a spiky email setting out our concerns (and wondering at NatWest's timing!). We pointed out that we only have a single product with NatWest, and quite properly wanted to know how they'd worked out we were eligible for "premier banking" (and Coutts, for that matter).
"Did this involve assessing our social media activity?" was one question we asked. Obviously banks can look up property registers, or search for each of us individually on the Companies' House website.
Premier banking/being invited to bank with Coutts was traditionally a compliment on one's ability to keep one's financial affairs in order -- and also a very British way to indicate poshness without bragging. Since the Farage business, this is no longer the case. We don't know where we stand.
Was it exactly right? It seems he and Labour in general were very reluctant to condemn what happened even after fully confirmed.
Great article, just subscribed!
Thanks Ethan, just subscribed to yours :-)
Thanks so much!
The ability of a business to exclude anyone from crossing the ‘threshold to the shop’ for any reason together with the freedom to discuss customers internally in a frank and open manner (say in internal reports) is one obvious benefit to the business (e.g. any particular customer may be more trouble than they are worth and that is stated openly in the internal reports of the business) but it must be balanced with any customer’s civic rights to shop or use a service. . . In the United States it was found that a religious group were not prevented from going door to door in a company’s private town on the company’s private land (to tell the residents all about Jesus and his love for them) as the right to religious freedom to talk about Christ is more important than the company’s rights in private property . . So there must be a balance struck between the right of Farage to exercise his political beliefs (out of his mouth on television and radio and out of his pen in the newspapers) and the right of a private company to control access to its prestigious banking services and the right of the same company to discuss the customers in a frank manner
Thanks for the comment and that's an interesting case in the US; of course, some cases are difficult and there must be a balance.
But in this case? UK law is clear; firms can't discriminate against customers/workers on the basis of their political views.
Not sure ‘bout that. . As an employee then, yes, but as a shop owner the customer is a mere licensee who can be ejected. .same with a pub . . ‘You’re barred’. . Gonna need a bit more chewy stuff than the bald phrase, ‘UK law is clear’. . . People get thrown off websites all the time for tin foil hat opinions screaming, ‘Political Opinion!!’ on their way out the cyber front door and the website is a ‘firm’. . Is public nudity a political view on the Fall From Grace ?? . . Surely we can go shopping in our birthday suits. . But nyuk nyuks aside the matter is complicated. .
Yet banking is a quasi-public utility. In a modern society, one can't live without a bank account. Not sure it's the same as throwing someone off a website...
The “liberal” elites are leftists, not liberals.
Yes, we're stretching the concept of liberalism!
Thanks for introducing this concept. I'll add it to the list of things that make me despair of post-Twitter civic society.