{"id":6633,"date":"2013-11-18T16:26:21","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T16:26:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=6633"},"modified":"2013-11-18T16:49:11","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T16:49:11","slug":"2013nov18co-op","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/2013nov18co-op\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief of pro-gay Coop Bank caught doing drugs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"'Smug':<\/a>
‘Smug’: Paul Flowers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The former Co-op Bank chairman, who oversaw the organisation\u2019s near collapse, has been caught using hard drugs.<\/p>\n

The Rev Paul Flowers, 63, who it appears is also a Methodist minister,\u00a0was filmed buying\u00a0<\/span>crack cocaine, crystal meth and ketamine, counting out hundreds of pounds in \u00a320 notes\u00a0days after appearing in front of MPs on the Treasury Select Committee to be questioned about the Co-operative Bank\u2019s financial problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this year the Co-op was forced to pull out of its proposed takeover of the TSB branches of Lloyds-TSB because of a near \u00a31bn hole in its accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an additional irony, Paul Flowers is himself homosexual and was outed as a drug user by a man he met on a\u00a0gay dating site disgustingly called ‘Grindr’ in October. \u00a0The man apparently objected to Flowers using drugs to take advantage of younger men at his parties.<\/p>\n

According to the Daily Telegraph<\/a><\/strong>, Rev Flowers, who resigned from the bank in June after the disastrous state of its finances were revealed, texted: \u201cI was “grilled” by the Treasury Select Committee yesterday and afterwards came to Manchester to get wasted with friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another message he apparently boasted that his plans were ‘turning into a two day, drug fuelled gay orgy!!!’<\/p>\n

Paul Flowers boasted about the success of the Co-op Bank, saying it would be ‘easy to be smug’ in 2011, two years after it took over the Brittania Building Society and its toxic debts and two years before its financial problems came to light.<\/span><\/p>\n

He has been suspended by the Methodist Church for three weeks and by the Labour Party<\/a><\/strong>, for whom he was a local councillor.<\/p>\n

In 2005 the Co-op Bank <\/span>terminated the bank account of Christian Voice<\/a><\/strong> as part of its ‘diversity’ policy objecting to ‘discriminatory pronouncements on grounds of sexual orientation’. The Co-op said the group was ‘incompatible with the position of the Co-operative Bank, which publicly supports diversity and dignity’.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Co-op Bank’s self-styled and\u00a0much-trumpeted ‘ethical’ stance has now come back to haunt it, with even the Daily Mirror putting the word in inverted commas\u00a0in its report on the Flowers scandal<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0Both the Telegraph and the Mirror claim that Flowers’ drug habit was well known by Labour MPs at Westnminster, prompting the question: ‘How much did his colleagues at the Co-op know about his lifestyle – and did they care?’<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Previous stories:<\/strong><\/p>\n

11th July 2013: Co-op Bank Investors slam Regulator<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

25th July 2012: Anti-Christian Co-op grabs bank accounts<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/p>\n

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

The former Co-op Bank chairman, who oversaw the organisation\u2019s near collapse, has been caught using hard drugs. The Rev Paul Flowers, 63, who it appears is also a Methodist minister,\u00a0was filmed buying\u00a0crack cocaine, crystal meth and ketamine, counting out hundreds of pounds in \u00a320 notes\u00a0days after appearing in front of MPs on the Treasury Select […]<\/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":[11,184],"tags":[15,379,9,956],"class_list":["post-6633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homosexuality-trans","category-uk-christian-constitution","tag-christian-voice","tag-co-op-bank","tag-homosexuality","tag-paul-flowers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Stephen","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/stephen\/"},"rttpg_comment":8,"rttpg_category":"Homosexuality & Trans<\/a> UK Christian Constitution<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"The former Co-op Bank chairman, who oversaw the organisation\u2019s near collapse, has been caught using hard drugs. The Rev Paul Flowers, 63, who it appears is also a Methodist minister,\u00a0was filmed buying\u00a0crack cocaine, crystal meth and ketamine, counting out hundreds of pounds in \u00a320 notes\u00a0days after appearing in front of MPs on the Treasury Select…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6633\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}