Nit Wits, Nat West and Trans Baloney
Nat West is all over the news these days - and for all the wrong reasons after a bonkers decision to cancel certain customers - if the bank's big wigs disapproved of their views.
Coincidentally, I wrote to Howard Davies, Chair of the NatWest group, to complain about customers' money being used to promote gender ideology and maintain the bank's ludicrous association with the controversial lobbying group, Stonewall.
I don't have a problem with people paying for private healthcare, but I do think they should do so with their own money - I also objected to Nat West using my money to promote self-ID and other such trans baloney.
I didn't get a reply from Mr Davies so I closed my NatWest account which I'd had for over 30 years and took my business elsewhere.
Howard Davies
NatWest Group
By email
Dear Mr Davies
NatWest, Customers Money and Stonewall
I was disturbed to read this report in The Times that NatWest is using its customers money to pay for staff to access private health care treatment.
In my view if NatWest staff want private healthcare, they should be paying for this themselves.
I was even more disturbed to read that NatWest is part of Stonewall's equality index which promotes gender ideology and absurd policies such as Self-ID - to men simply declaring themselves to be women.
Stonewall recently persuaded Scottish Ministers to drop the word 'mother' from the Scottish Government's maternity policy and as NatWest customer or over 30 years I am very uneasy with customers' funds being used to maintain an association with Stonewall.
I am actively considering whether I should move my business elsewhere and would be grateful if you can explain the reasons for NatWest pursuing a relationship with Stonewall's workplace equality index which has attracted a great deal of well-deserved criticism.
Kind regards
Mark Irvine
By Charlie Parker - The Times
Supporting LGBT rights helps firms to secure a spot on Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index - GUY SMALLMAN/GETTY IMAGES
Stonewall has been scoring employers on whether they pay for their staff to have gender reassignment treatments.
Hundreds of organisations — including banks, universities, government departments, NHS bodies and police forces — are scrutinised by the LGBT charity every year as they contend to be featured on its “top 100 employers” league table.
To secure a spot on Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index (WEI), employers must complete a 32-page form, answering questions about inclusivity which are marked by the charity and used to generate a ranking score.
The Times view on Stonewall and corporate diversity guidelines
One question on the form for the 2023 index — seen by The Times — asks employers whether their private healthcare insurance includes “transition-related treatments”.
Guidance accompanying the question says Stonewall is “looking for . . . provision beyond mental health treatment”, which can include hormone treatment and surgical procedures.
It also asks whether the insurance covers “LGBTQ-inclusive mental health treatments” as well as healthcare for “spouses/partners and children” regardless of whether they have transitioned.
Those with health plans that include one or more of these provisions are awarded marks by the charity. HSBC confirmed last week that it would pay for staff and their dependents to undergo gender reassignment treatments from the start of next year.
The bank, which ranks at 32 on the WEI, said employees’ partners and children, if over 18, could also have their treatment funded as part of its new “gender dysphoria benefit”, which is designed to help people “be their true authentic self”.
NatWest, which sits 49th on the index, announced that it would pay for staff to receive hormone treatment, gender identity support and counselling. This came into effect in September.
Stonewall considers the WEI to be the “definitive benchmarking tool” for an employer’s progress on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans inclusion.
It drew criticism this year when Oxford University was forced to reveal its correspondence with the charity, after the information commissioner ruled that participation in the index allowed Stonewall to “exercise a significant degree of influence” over the policies of public organisations.
Employers are also encouraged to let staff have two email addresses to swap gender identities on different days.
The Times has been told that neither HSBC nor NatWest consulted Stonewall when devising its health plans.
