For the third day in a row, Barclays customers have been unable to access their money due to a “technical glitch” that has left them without salaries or access to their accounts. The usual corporate platitudes about “working hard to resolve the issue” have been rolled out, but that’s little comfort to those who can’t pay for food. And what is Barclays’ solution to the problem they caused? Their staff have reportedly been advising desperate customers to visit food banks. It’s a stunning indictment of both Barclays and the fragile financial system we are being forced to rely on.
Banks Are Businesses—So Stop Pretending Otherwise
There’s nothing wrong with banks existing to make money. That is, after all, their purpose. What is irritating is the way they pretend to be something else. Barclays spends millions on advertising to convince us that they are part of our “community,” that they “support” us, and that they exist to “help” people. But when their systems collapse, leaving customers unable to access their own wages, their response is to push the problem elsewhere.
If Barclays actually cared, they wouldn’t be directing customers to food banks. They would be offering immediate compensation, interest-free emergency funds, or anything else to fix the damage they have caused. But that would cost them money. Far easier to pretend that handing out a leaflet for a food bank is an adequate response.
A Cashless Disaster Waiting to Happen
This fiasco highlights just how dangerous the push towards a cashless society has become. We are constantly told that digital payments are “more convenient,” that cash is “outdated,” and that we should embrace the future by going fully electronic. But what happens when the system fails? What happens when you need your money, but a banking glitch means that your card declines and your account balance is showing as zero?
This is not just a temporary inconvenience. It is a glimpse into the future. When all money is digital, your access to it will depend entirely on whether the financial system is functioning properly. And if banks can lose track of customers’ wages for days at a time due to a “glitch,” what happens when something more serious goes wrong?
Governments Will Use Cashless Banking to Control You
If this fiasco has shown us how vulnerable we are to financial disruption, it has also hinted at something even worse: the power that digital banking gives to those in charge. Right now, the disruption is an accident. But in the near future, it will be deliberate.
Governments around the world have already started using financial blacklisting as a tool of political punishment. In Canada, bank accounts were frozen to punish truckers who protested against vaccine mandates. In the UK, we’ve already seen debanking used against people whose views are considered “unacceptable” by the Establishment. When all money is digital, the state won’t even need to pass new laws to silence dissent—it will simply press a button and cut people off from their own funds.
Right now, Barclays’ customers are locked out of their accounts because of a technical failure. But how long before people are locked out for questioning government policy? When banks, governments, and regulators are all working together to “protect democracy” by silencing critics, don’t expect to get your money back.
Food Banks: Not an Overdraft Facility
Of all the tone-deaf responses Barclays could have given, suggesting that affected customers go to food banks is perhaps the worst. Food banks are for people in genuine poverty—people who are struggling with long-term hardship, not customers of a bank that has misplaced their money. That Barclays thinks this is an appropriate suggestion says everything about modern Britain. The financial sector makes its profits in good times, but when things go wrong, it’s ordinary people who are expected to bear the consequences.
Less Preaching, More Accountability
Yes, Barclays and the rest of the banking sector should drop the pretence of being a warm, caring presence in our lives. They are businesses that exist to make money, and that’s fine—so long as they stop insulting our intelligence by pretending otherwise.
More importantly, we need to wake up to the dangers of the financial system we are sleepwalking into. A world without cash means total dependence on banks and governments that have already shown they cannot be trusted. Right now, I’ll repeat, it’s just a glitch. One day, it will be deliberate.
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