For a long time I have been very frustrated with the Guardian’s lack of coverage, and particularly investigation, into HSBC crimes. The reasons are obvious – the Guardian is a bigger recipient of advertising revenue from HSBC than all other online papers. What I find even more frustrating is the dishonesty of its contributors in admitting that, or that their income from HSBC has any bearing on their editorial policy. If so, that would be the first time in the history of newspapers.

Of particular importance at the moment is the Tory suppression of a government commissioned report into terrorist funding, particularly as it relates to terrorist attacks in the UK. The usual media outrage is because we sell arms to Saudi Arabia, and that is why the report is not being published. As explained in this blog, I do not believe that is the reason at all, it is do with HSBC business deals concerning the state oil company Saudi Aramco and the London Stock Exchange.

True to form, Owen Jones wrote an article about the government report, published on 4 July with no mention of HSBC. I challenged him on twitter about this, and his response was effectively to call me a conspiracy theorist:

More recently I referred again to the lack of the Guardian coverage of HSBC in relation to Saudi Arabia and Owen Jones responded with reference to an article he wrote in February 2015, ironically about Peter Oborne’s resignation from the Telegraph for their lack of reporting HSBC, because of commercial considerations. Oborne called this a fraud on the British public. This was presumably to show that Owen was fearless when it came to HSBC.

Except of course it doesn’t. Owen Jones’s article was published on 20 February 2015

On 18 February 2015 it was reported in the Press Gazette that HSBC had stopped advertising in the Guardian because of the their coverage of the Swiss Leaks scandal. So Owen was free to write about HSBC, although his article wasn’t really about HSBC.

I find this arrogant, supercilious dismissal of a 14 year campaign typical of establishment figures. Happily the Guardian and HSBC are best friends again. HSBC is advertising, as is Fisher Investments, the biggest shareholder in HSBC. The bank’s involvement in business deals in Saudi Arabia will not be reported; the government report will not be published and terrorist attacks will continue in the UK. It’s called status quo, and costs lives.