Gerald Ratner, eat your heart out. The decision by Coutts to ‘de-bank’ Nigel Farage over reputational concerns and then brief the BBC that it was due to financial requirements will go down as one of the worst corporate own goals in recent history. After two days of media fury, whipped up by the former Ukip leader, Coutts have now thrown in the towel and issued a grovelling apology to Farage for comments made about him during a meeting of the bank’s wealth reputational risk committee.