{"id":3741,"date":"2012-07-21T10:31:17","date_gmt":"2012-07-21T09:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=3741"},"modified":"2012-08-03T20:48:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-03T19:48:03","slug":"sorry-is-the-hardest-word-for-nationwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/sorry-is-the-hardest-word-for-nationwide\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sorry’ is the hardest word for Nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Nationwide AGM was held on Thursday 19th July at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A leading building society is finding it impossible to apologise to five people insulted at a dinner it bankrolled last November.<\/p>\n

The Nationwide Building Society sponsored the Stonewall homosexual lobby group’s awards dinner on 3rd November 2011.\u00a0 See the Stonewall report on the event here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The awards were mainly to applaud people who had advanced the homosexual cause in some way.<\/p>\n

Among the awards was an anti-award called ‘Bigot of the Year’ intended to insult and vilify a number of people particularly opposed to the gay rights agenda. Those shortlisted were the respected Sir Brian Souter, Bishop Arthur Roche, Bill Walker MSP, journalist Melanie Phillips, who was the eventual ‘winner’, and Stephen Green, National Director of Christian Voice.<\/p>\n

Stonewall did not even have the courtesy to invite any of those shortlisted for this ‘Bigot of the Year’ award to the dinner.\u00a0 Perhaps they were afraid someone might answer back – bullies never like it when someone stands up to them.\u00a0 Or perhaps social intercourse is just not one of their strong points.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Christian Voice members gave out leaflets about Nationwide’s involvement with Stonewall to the society’s members attending the AGM<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Nationwide’s position is that they are ‘not supportive of the vilification of individuals’ and that they ‘have made this clear to Stonewall’. They have pulled out of sponsoring future events of this kind. However, the Society remains as a member of Stonewall’s ‘Diversity Champions’ programme in which they go a lot further than merely treating all of\u00a0their employees equally, to which no-one could object.\u00a0 Click ‘Sexual Orientation’ on the Nationwide link here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Stephen Green is a Nationwide member and went along to the AGM in Manchester on 19th July 2012 to ask the Nationwide Board of Directors the following questions:<\/p>\n

(1) How much of your members’ money did you vote to the Stonewall awards dinner?<\/p>\n

(2) Did you know the nature of the event you were sponsoring, and were the names of all the awards disclosed to you in advance?<\/p>\n

(3) Which Nationwide Board members attended the Stonewall awards dinner?<\/p>\n

(4) Whether Nationwide support Stonewall’s aim of the redefinition of marriage?<\/p>\n

(5) When will you apologise for bank-rolling an event which insulted and humiliated not just a humble Nationwide member like me, but respected public figures? and<\/p>\n

(6) When will you be big enough simply to say sorry to the individuals concerned?<\/p>\n

Graham Beale, Nationwide Chief Executive, supplied the answers:<\/p>\n

(1) They gave \u00a360,000 to Stonewall for the dinner (which did not stop the greedy lobby group from charging \u00a3180 a ticket) and they gave \u00a35,000 as a prize to the ‘Community Group of the Year’ which turned out to be ‘UK Black Pride’.<\/p>\n

(2) They didn’t find out the names of the awards until afterwards (which seems rather inept – and they must have known the name of the Community Group award in order to provide the prize).<\/p>\n

(3) No Nationwide board members attended (very wise).<\/p>\n

(4) Nationwide has no corporate position on the redefinition of marriage (unlike Starbucks and Ben & Jerry’s – but more of them at another time).<\/p>\n

(5) No, they won’t apologise.<\/p>\n

(6) Ditto.<\/p>\n

Find here the text of the leaflet we gave out to Nationwide members outside the AGM<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Earlier posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n

14th July 2012: Nationwide in \u2018Bigot\u2019 award challenge<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n

4th November 2011: Stonewall \u2018cowards\u2019 call Melanie Phillips \u2018Bigot of the Year\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Email contact for Nationwide Chief Executive, Graham Beale: gjbeale2@nationwide.co.uk<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Land Address for Stephen Green and the Christian Voice office:
\nWernlwyd, Pen-y-bont, CARMARTHEN, SA33 6QN
\n01994 484544 \/ 07931 490050<\/strong><\/p>\n

Join Christian Voice today and stand up for righteousness in the land:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A leading building society is finding it impossible to apologise to five people insulted at a dinner it bankrolled last November. The Nationwide Building Society sponsored the Stonewall homosexual lobby group’s awards dinner on 3rd November 2011.\u00a0 See the Stonewall report on the event here. The awards were mainly to applaud people who had advanced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,11,82,86],"tags":[234,15,61,104,18,47,9,59,1539,215,54,43,217],"class_list":["post-3741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-freedom","category-homosexuality-trans","category-politics","category-secularism","tag-gay-marriage","tag-christian-voice","tag-civil-partnerships","tag-gay-pride","tag-gay-rights","tag-gays","tag-homosexuality","tag-mardi-gras","tag-marriage","tag-nationwide-building-society","tag-persecution-of-christians","tag-stephen-green","tag-stonewall"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t