Ian Fraser
@Ian_Fraser
Journalist and author of Shredded: Inside RBS The Bank That Broke Britain. ‘Read it & weep,’ Martin Wolf.
The latest edition of my book Shredded: Inside RBS, The Bank That Broke Britain (@BirlinnBooks, May 2019) is now available in paperback and Kindle. This fully revised and updated edition includes four new chapters. #NatWest amazon.co.uk/Shredded-Insid…
Redemption of the reputation of Fred Goodwin, hmm?Hoping the producers will grant a gratis prime seat through the run to Ian Fraser, author of the ground-breaking, excoriating, ‘Shredded - Inside RBS the bank that broke Britain’. BTW Brian Cox as Adam Smith, what a cracker!
The name Fred Goodwin will go down in Edinburgh’s history books as the man who led the Royal Bank of Scotland to become the biggest bank in the world & then the brink of collapse. Now he is about to be portrayed on stage for the first time. heraldscotland.com/life_style/252…
Play will include Brian Cox as Adam Smith, a Scottish duo smasher. Not forgetting the ground-breaking, 'Shredded: Inside The RBS The Bank That Broke Britain' by Edinburgh's Ian Fraser.
Nice to appear in Weekend FT with my essay on the rise and fall of Fred Goodwin, banks and Scotland. Hubris in action. James Graham’s upcoming play Make It Happen should be a treat at the Edinburgh Festival on.ft.com/3Uibq3I
What subsidies does the oil and gas sector receive exactly? More than you think Depending on measurement, the sector benefits from up to £55bn year of effective subsidies This comes from three sources 🧵
Alex denounces any job that relies on public subsidy as “fake” Meanwhile the oil and gas sector — which he portrays as an exemplar of “real jobs” — relies on billions in subsidies each year
Talking of Criminal ‘Misconduct at Work’ at RBS GRG @NatWestGroup Stuart Holloway Trial off to 5th Jan Word is that not fit to stand trial is going to be their next get out RBS - lawyers pressurising their former Senior employee to make play that he is not fit to stand trial
Honoured to see ‘Shredded’ placed between @JeffreyToobin’s ‘A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President’ and Mark Greengrass’s ‘Christendom Destroyed: Europe 1517-1648’!
And as I have closed the door, here are some new fave raves and collections of books I really have enjoyed and rated with authors like @pd_smith @Ian_Fraser @Iain_MacGregor1 @rorycarroll72 @RobBurl and the son of @WritingFactory (no slouch himself at ye olde wordsmithing)
Documents reveal that H.M. Treasury, under former chancellor George Osborne, exerted “pervasive” influence over NatWest’s global restructuring group amid the systematic abuse of small business customers. #RBS #ICYMI
documents reveal @hmtreasury under George Osborne exerted "pervasive" influence over RBS's global restructuring group #GRG amid the systematic trashing of small business customers moneymarketing.co.uk/treasury-links…
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Revealed: the FCA is now so “captured” by the finance sector, it no longer bothers to protect consumers. Damning report by cross-party group of MPs and Lords accuses UK financial regulator of being “incompetent at best, dishonest at worst”. @josiahmortimer bylinetimes.com/2024/11/28/fra…
MPs’ report concludes that financial regulator FCA is “incompetent at best, dishonest at worst,” that its actions are “slow and inadequate,” that its leaders are “opaque and unaccountable,” and that too often it fails to perform its functions.
Talk about embellishing a CV: Rachel Reeves and the five false claims she has made about her career, including that she was “an economist” at Bank of Scotland. @TomWitherow thetimes.com/article/231794…
RFKJr 2014: “You have to be hypervigilant...as soon as you take your eye off the ball, people like Donald Trump are going to move in to corrupt democracy, twisting it so it serves their private economic interests rather than the public interest or interests of future generations”
Jeremy Clarkson doesn’t come out of this well. He denies having bought 1,000 acres of Oxfordshire farmland as a tax dodge (to avoid inheritance tax - which is what he told The Sunday Times in 2021) claiming instead: “I wanted to shoot. That’s even worse to the BBC”.
“So it’s not about you, it’s not about your farm and the fact you bought a farm to avoid inheritance tax?” @vicderbyshire speaks to Jeremy Clarkson at the farmers’ protest in Westminster where thousands of farmers are protesting the government’s inheritance tax plans.
Tax expert Dan Neidle: “Most of the cost of [the partial removal of agricultural property relief from inheritance tax] will be borne by a few very large estates. So let’s drop the hyperbolic fake statistics.” #FarmersProtest
And the data shows that most of the cost of the tax increase will be borne by a few very large estates. In 2022 2% of agricultural estates - just 37 - claimed an average of £6m. That's what this is really about - not 70,000 farms. So let's drop the hyperbolic fake stats.
The Fire Brigades Union has written to the Israeli ambassador @TzipiHotovely, demanding that Israel releases a fire engine donated by Scottish firefighters to Palestine.
Israeli authorities have impounded a fire engine donated by Scottish firefighters to aid Palestinian firefighters. Yesterday, we went to the Israeli Assembly to deliver a letter demanding the fire engine is released. Firefighters must be able to protect and save lives.