The Coutts scandal shows the trouble with going cashless

The outrage over the cancelling of Nigel Farage’s bank account has uncovered the lengths to which elements of the British establishment will go to mould society in their ideological image. Those who speak out publicly in support of unfashionable causes – whether Brexit, gender self-identification, Israel or abortion – now face being cancelled not just on social media but on an institutional level as well. 

It is eerily evocative of China’s notorious ‘social credit system’, a state-sponsored credit rating and blacklist that awards greater freedoms to those citizens and businesses who behave themselves and fall in line with their rulers. There but for the grace of God?

Questions remain, however, over just how far the banks would go to deprive their ideological opponents of their liberty. Just imagine Farage’s disenfranchisement if Coutts had been backed up by the other big financial institutions.