Ruth Dudley Edwards: Nigel Farage is in his element now that the woke banking sector has lost its marbles

The photographs in their literature now gave the impression that there were almost no white people except for the occasional token white parent in a mixed-race family. Black faces were in the majority by far.

A visitor from Mars would have been baffed to learn that 80% of the population of England and Wales were in fact white, with Asians coming second with 9% and blacks third with 4%.

If he dropped in during Pride Month he’d have found bank buildings and staff festooned with rainbow colours and had he been assiduous enough to go through the latest literature, he’d have gleaned the impression that an enormous proportion of the population are gay or lesbian.

He would have been confused once more to discover that actually the correct figure is under 3%.

Investigating further, he would have found that the bank’s enthusiastic embrace of transgenderism extended to replacing rows of toilets for men and women by gender neutral equivalents, although in the last census only 0.5% did not identify with their registered sex.

That's when our Mars friend concluded that earthlings were bonkers and therefore he’d look for a planet in touch with reality where banks thought people’s sexual preferences were none of their business and just looked after their money, their customers and their staff.

I’ve been a student of Wokery for a few years now and am all too aware that senior staff in many of our institutions have been bullied by pressure groups and lobbyists determined to remake our society through indoctrination and intimidation.

I wasn’t amazed that Coutts and its parent company NatWest so hated Nigel Farage for having opinions they disliked (aka not aligned with their values) that although he had been a model customer, they wanted rid of him.

But you might have thought that bankers well known to deal with many Middle Eastern ruling families would grasp that taking a high moral line on diversity was fraught with danger. But no. Their brains were so frazzled by groupthink they didn’t realise that most people would think what was done was idiotic.

Since Farage has now been rejected by ten banks, it’s obvious that the entire banking industry has lost its marbles.

We, the public, know that it is well-nigh impossible to function without a bank account, not least because banks and financial institutions in general are trying to get rid of cash.

I’m so delighted that in treating their contented, well-heeled customer abominably, they unwittingly provided a gifted campaigner with a platform.

It turns out that he is not the only customer who has been sacked without cause or explanation. In 2016 the number of bank accounts closed was under 50,000: last year it was 350,000. Thousands of respectable people can’t open an account: people running ordinary businesses have been ruined; the government is furious.

Gina Miller, the Remainer and leader of the True and Fair Party, who has been a litigious enemy of Brexit for years, had her party’s account closed by Monzo. Farage rushed to her support.

"Either we want to live in a free, democratic society or we head towards a model of a Chinese Communist social credit system,” he said. "And I would absolutely support Gina Miller's right to have a bank account, as I would Jeremy Corbyn or anybody on the extreme left.”

Farage is in his element. He’s already set up Accountclosed.org, a campaign group “advocating for the consumer rights of individuals and small medium businesses who have faced unjust treatment”. He’s in his element. Senior bank officials who have just seen the furore claim two NatWest scalps, should be very very worried.