Ian Fraser
@ianfraser.bsky.social
Author and journalist. Latest edition of my book ‘Shredded: Inside RBS The Bank That Broke Britain’, about the pivotal role of what's now called NatWest in the global banking crash, was reissued in 2024. Recovering financial editor.
Pinned
Updated edition of my book ‘Shredded: Inside RBS The Bank That Broke Britain’—about why the world’s largest bank by assets collapsed in 2008 and took more than a decade to recover—available here:
www.amazon.co.uk/Shredded-Ins...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shre...
www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ian-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Shredded-Ins...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shre...
www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ian-...
"The central character in this is Robbie Gibb [whose] supporters say he is trying to save the BBC from itself; he was also heard last year to say that if he didn’t get his way, he would “blow the place up”.
Informed Monday evening @observeruk.bsky.social leader on the crisis at the BBC.
Informed Monday evening @observeruk.bsky.social leader on the crisis at the BBC.
The Observer view: political interference at the BBC | The Observer
observer.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 10:35 PM
"The central character in this is Robbie Gibb [whose] supporters say he is trying to save the BBC from itself; he was also heard last year to say that if he didn’t get his way, he would “blow the place up”.
Informed Monday evening @observeruk.bsky.social leader on the crisis at the BBC.
Informed Monday evening @observeruk.bsky.social leader on the crisis at the BBC.
Visit the Scottish Gallery to see the fruits of Lachlan Goudie’s industrial pilgrimage. Exhibition ends 22 November scottish-gallery.co.uk/artists/lach...
I’ve made a short film ‘The Forge’ with @scottishgallery about the industrial locations that inspired my new exhibition, From the Forest to the Forge. youtube.com/watch?v=DfaC...
Lachlan Goudie | The Forge
YouTube video by The Scottish Gallery
youtube.com
November 10, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Visit the Scottish Gallery to see the fruits of Lachlan Goudie’s industrial pilgrimage. Exhibition ends 22 November scottish-gallery.co.uk/artists/lach...
Reposted by Ian Fraser
Remember—if you gather an armed mob blocks from the seat of your government at a time it's closed to the public, a crime to trespass on, and accessible only by overwhelming cops, then tell them that unless they "fight like hell" at that building they'll lose their country, it's not inciting violence
Maybe the BBC can learn a thing or two about fake news from Trump | John Crace
The broadcaster didn’t make a very good job of its untruth – possibly because it hasn’t had as much practice
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Remember—if you gather an armed mob blocks from the seat of your government at a time it's closed to the public, a crime to trespass on, and accessible only by overwhelming cops, then tell them that unless they "fight like hell" at that building they'll lose their country, it's not inciting violence
Sir Robbie Gibb’s £43k-a-year role as BBC board director now “untenable”, says Scotland’s first minister @johnswinney.bsky.social
Gibb position on BBC board ‘untenable’, says Swinney
The comments come amid a bias row at the broadcaster which has seen two of its top bosses resign.
news.stv.tv
November 10, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Sir Robbie Gibb’s £43k-a-year role as BBC board director now “untenable”, says Scotland’s first minister @johnswinney.bsky.social
The BBC’s board of directors includes:-
ex management onsultant at Booz, Allen, Hamilton; Shumeet Banerji
ex chair of private equity group Permira; Damon Buffini
ex communications director to Theresa May; Robbie Gibb
ex partner at PwC; Chris Jones
ex partner at Clifford Chance; Michael Smyth
ex management onsultant at Booz, Allen, Hamilton; Shumeet Banerji
ex chair of private equity group Permira; Damon Buffini
ex communications director to Theresa May; Robbie Gibb
ex partner at PwC; Chris Jones
ex partner at Clifford Chance; Michael Smyth
Sir Robbie Gibb
Non-executive director; Member for England
www.bbc.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:02 PM
The BBC’s board of directors includes:-
ex management onsultant at Booz, Allen, Hamilton; Shumeet Banerji
ex chair of private equity group Permira; Damon Buffini
ex communications director to Theresa May; Robbie Gibb
ex partner at PwC; Chris Jones
ex partner at Clifford Chance; Michael Smyth
ex management onsultant at Booz, Allen, Hamilton; Shumeet Banerji
ex chair of private equity group Permira; Damon Buffini
ex communications director to Theresa May; Robbie Gibb
ex partner at PwC; Chris Jones
ex partner at Clifford Chance; Michael Smyth
Lawyers for Donald Trump say the BBC must retract the Panorama documentary Trump: A Second Chance? by Friday (i.e. remove it from iPlayer etc) or face a $1bn lawsuit. I hope the BBC doesn't cave in to this legal sabre-rattling.
Trump threatens BBC with legal action over edit of speech in documentary
Leaked BBC report said film had ‘completely misled’ viewers by splicing two parts of January 6 speech together
www.theguardian.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Lawyers for Donald Trump say the BBC must retract the Panorama documentary Trump: A Second Chance? by Friday (i.e. remove it from iPlayer etc) or face a $1bn lawsuit. I hope the BBC doesn't cave in to this legal sabre-rattling.
“Andrew is going to be charged with various public offences and misconduct in public office. He’ll probably go to jail,” says Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, published by HarperCollins in August.
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Fergie being probed and could face jail time, be forced out of UK: ‘He’s toast’
The disgraced Duke of York Prince Andrew is under investigation by London police and may face jail time.
nypost.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:45 PM
“Andrew is going to be charged with various public offences and misconduct in public office. He’ll probably go to jail,” says Andrew Lownie, author of Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the House of York, published by HarperCollins in August.
ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy let out of jail after serving three weeks of a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy. Paris court ruled he will remain under judicial supervision pending an appeal.
Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy released from prison pending appeal
Sarkozy was found guilty of criminal conspiracy for his role in securing funding for his 2007 presidential campaign.
www.aljazeera.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:39 PM
ex-French president Nicolas Sarkozy let out of jail after serving three weeks of a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy. Paris court ruled he will remain under judicial supervision pending an appeal.
Reposted by Ian Fraser
Should Gibb be sacked? yes, obviously. He's an abomination of basic journalistic standards. His GB News channel spreads conspiracy theory & disinformation. His Jewish Chronicle newspaper spreads invented stories. He is plainly trying to undermine the BBC so it's as bad as everything else he touches.
November 10, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Should Gibb be sacked? yes, obviously. He's an abomination of basic journalistic standards. His GB News channel spreads conspiracy theory & disinformation. His Jewish Chronicle newspaper spreads invented stories. He is plainly trying to undermine the BBC so it's as bad as everything else he touches.
Turnaround king "Drastic" Dave Lewis to take over as Diageo chief executive on New Year's day.
Diageo 'plays a blinder' by hiring Sir Dave Lewis - the man who saved Tesco
Shares in FTSE 100 drinks giant Diageo have rocketed after the appointment of a new chief executive with an impressive turnaround record.
www.cityam.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Turnaround king "Drastic" Dave Lewis to take over as Diageo chief executive on New Year's day.
Names in the frame for Tim Davie's successor as BBC director general include Charlotte Moore, the BBC's ex chief content officer, Jay Hunt, an experienced TV executive who now chairs the BFI, and James Harding, a former Times editor who co-founded Tortoise Media in 2018.
Why has Tim Davie resigned and what was the Trump documentary edit?
The BBC has come under fire over a Panorama documentary that was accused of misleadingly editing a speech by Donald Trump.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 9, 2025 at 10:52 PM
Names in the frame for Tim Davie's successor as BBC director general include Charlotte Moore, the BBC's ex chief content officer, Jay Hunt, an experienced TV executive who now chairs the BFI, and James Harding, a former Times editor who co-founded Tortoise Media in 2018.
The BBC is facing a coordinated, politically-motivated attack. With the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness, Auntie has given in. @janemartinson.bsky.social
The BBC is facing a coordinated, politically motivated attack. With these resignations, it has given in | Jane Martinson
The corporation should have stood up to the Telegraph, Trump and the Tories. Now, its enemies know how little it takes for it to fold, says Jane Martinson, professor of financial journalism
www.theguardian.com
November 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM
The BBC is facing a coordinated, politically-motivated attack. With the resignations of director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness, Auntie has given in. @janemartinson.bsky.social
Would recommend this interview Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s biographer Andrew Lownie gave to @petergeoghegan.bsky.social on how power and secrecy work in modern Britain.
Particularly interesting on the censoring of history and how the Prince was championed by Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair...
Particularly interesting on the censoring of history and how the Prince was championed by Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair...
Inside the Cover-up: How Prince Andrew was exposed
Behind the headlines lies a deeper story of privilege, protection and a public kept in the dark
democracyforsale.substack.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Would recommend this interview Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’s biographer Andrew Lownie gave to @petergeoghegan.bsky.social on how power and secrecy work in modern Britain.
Particularly interesting on the censoring of history and how the Prince was championed by Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair...
Particularly interesting on the censoring of history and how the Prince was championed by Peter Mandelson and Tony Blair...
If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle in it.
November 8, 2025 at 11:26 PM
If you see this, post an album cover with a motor vehicle in it.
Updated edition of my book ‘Shredded: Inside RBS The Bank That Broke Britain’—about why the world’s largest bank by assets collapsed in 2008 and took more than a decade to recover—available here:
www.amazon.co.uk/Shredded-Ins...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shre...
www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ian-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Shredded-Ins...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shre...
www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ian-...
November 8, 2025 at 10:58 PM
Updated edition of my book ‘Shredded: Inside RBS The Bank That Broke Britain’—about why the world’s largest bank by assets collapsed in 2008 and took more than a decade to recover—available here:
www.amazon.co.uk/Shredded-Ins...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shre...
www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ian-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Shredded-Ins...
uk.bookshop.org/p/books/shre...
www.hive.co.uk/Product/Ian-...
Reposted by Ian Fraser
Out now on A Long Time in Finance: our first live gig - in partnership with The Library of Mistakes in Edinburgh! We discuss Fred Goodwin, RBS and "The Art of The Shred" with Ian Fraser, author of Shredded, the seminal account of the fall of RBS. pod.fo/e/332216
A Long Time In Finance: The Art of the Shred: ALTIF Live!
Fred Goodwin led Royal Bank of Scotland to ruin and Britain to the brink of financial disaster. But who was the man they called Fred the Shred and how did he build RBS into (briefly) the world's la...
pod.fo
September 29, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Out now on A Long Time in Finance: our first live gig - in partnership with The Library of Mistakes in Edinburgh! We discuss Fred Goodwin, RBS and "The Art of The Shred" with Ian Fraser, author of Shredded, the seminal account of the fall of RBS. pod.fo/e/332216
Reposted by Ian Fraser
March 2024: We launch a complaint against the IEA
12 days later: Charity Commission dismisses our complaint
May 2024: We complain about that decision
1 year later: The regulator opens an investigation into the IEA
This week: The Charity Commission says the IEA must change
https://goodlaw.social/8vmm
12 days later: Charity Commission dismisses our complaint
May 2024: We complain about that decision
1 year later: The regulator opens an investigation into the IEA
This week: The Charity Commission says the IEA must change
https://goodlaw.social/8vmm
Charity Commission: IEA must change to address political bias | Good Law Project
After a formal complaint from Good Law Project, the charities regulator has told a radical rightwing think-tank to act on transparency and balance.
goodlaw.social
November 8, 2025 at 7:02 PM
March 2024: We launch a complaint against the IEA
12 days later: Charity Commission dismisses our complaint
May 2024: We complain about that decision
1 year later: The regulator opens an investigation into the IEA
This week: The Charity Commission says the IEA must change
https://goodlaw.social/8vmm
12 days later: Charity Commission dismisses our complaint
May 2024: We complain about that decision
1 year later: The regulator opens an investigation into the IEA
This week: The Charity Commission says the IEA must change
https://goodlaw.social/8vmm
Accountancy firm BDO fined £6.5 million after regulator the Financial Reporting Council slams it for faking audit evidence.
BDO fined £6.5m after regulator slams it for faking audit evidence
The regulator has slammed accountancy giant BDO and two former audit partners with major sanctions after they admitted to serious misconduct.
www.cityam.com
November 8, 2025 at 10:01 AM
Accountancy firm BDO fined £6.5 million after regulator the Financial Reporting Council slams it for faking audit evidence.
Reposted by Ian Fraser
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
November 7, 2025 at 7:39 AM
The world’s first trillionaire initiated a move that has left more than half a million people dead, most of whom are children.
Reposted by Ian Fraser
Excellent podcast from the FT in which Martin Wolf patiently explains that populism causes fundamental damage to economies even if they continue to grow (aka the counterfactual) and that such damage is difficult and painful to reverse when it finally becomes apparent open.spotify.com/episode/679f...
Martin Wolf on the economics of populism
open.spotify.com
November 7, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Excellent podcast from the FT in which Martin Wolf patiently explains that populism causes fundamental damage to economies even if they continue to grow (aka the counterfactual) and that such damage is difficult and painful to reverse when it finally becomes apparent open.spotify.com/episode/679f...
City of London lawyer Andrew Milne bought up hundreds of freeholds on homes across Sheffield before advising leaseholders that, if they didn’t pay him exorbitant sums (upwards of £25,000), he’d see them in court. Well done @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social @joshiherrmann.bsky.social for exposing this.
A London lawyer bought hundreds of Sheffield freeholds. Then the ‘very aggressive’ letters arrived
Exclusive: The Tribune can reveal that Andrew Milne has threatened leaseholders with high court action. It ‘broke my heart’ one woman says
www.sheffieldtribune.co.uk
November 7, 2025 at 5:25 PM
City of London lawyer Andrew Milne bought up hundreds of freeholds on homes across Sheffield before advising leaseholders that, if they didn’t pay him exorbitant sums (upwards of £25,000), he’d see them in court. Well done @sheffieldtribune.bsky.social @joshiherrmann.bsky.social for exposing this.
We still don’t know where Laure Ferrari, 46, got the £885,000 that she used to purchase her and Nigel Farage’s constituency home near Clacton-on-Sea. 🤔
Two donors to Nigel Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari convicted of fraud, money-laundering and forgery. Belgian court rules that Daniel Pawlowiec and Marian Szolucha illegally funnelled over £100,000—largely in public funds—to the think tank she ran.
Two donors to think tank of Nigel Farage’s partner convicted of fraud
Laure Ferrari served as executive director of the organisation, which went into liquidation after a European Commission anti-fraud investigation
www.thetimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:08 PM
We still don’t know where Laure Ferrari, 46, got the £885,000 that she used to purchase her and Nigel Farage’s constituency home near Clacton-on-Sea. 🤔
Two donors to Nigel Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari convicted of fraud, money-laundering and forgery. Belgian court rules that Daniel Pawlowiec and Marian Szolucha illegally funnelled over £100,000—largely in public funds—to the think tank she ran.
Two donors to think tank of Nigel Farage’s partner convicted of fraud
Laure Ferrari served as executive director of the organisation, which went into liquidation after a European Commission anti-fraud investigation
www.thetimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Two donors to Nigel Farage’s partner Laure Ferrari convicted of fraud, money-laundering and forgery. Belgian court rules that Daniel Pawlowiec and Marian Szolucha illegally funnelled over £100,000—largely in public funds—to the think tank she ran.
Wow. As a boy, film director Duncan Jones, formerly known as Zowie Bowie, used to flit between his nanny Marion Skene's family home in 1970s tower block Cornhill Court in Aberdeen and his father David Bowie's house near Lausanne, Switzerland!
When i was a little boy I bounced around between two homes. One full of snooker on the telly noise, sharing a bed with coats on-top to keep warm, mince & tatties every night, and the other, empty, full of echoes and me with a room on my own on the top floor.
You can guess where a kid felt safer.
You can guess where a kid felt safer.
November 7, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Wow. As a boy, film director Duncan Jones, formerly known as Zowie Bowie, used to flit between his nanny Marion Skene's family home in 1970s tower block Cornhill Court in Aberdeen and his father David Bowie's house near Lausanne, Switzerland!