Ian Fraser
@ianfraser
Award-winning journalist and author. 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. www.ianfraser.org
In ‘It’s a PC World’ Stourton revealed a conversation with the Queen Mother in which she vilified the EU as a bunch of “Huns, wops and dagos”. “The words were delivered with maximum tiara-strength twinkle, but I'm afraid I froze. The nation’s favourite grandmother was in fact a ghastly old bigot”
Bertrand Russell on fascism. From Freedom and Government (1940) russell.humanities.mcmaster.ca/wp-content/u...
#ICYMI Shredded, my bestselling book on the pivotal role of Royal Bank of Scotland / NatWest in the global financial crash of 2008, was named as a Book of the Year by the Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Week, and Huffington Post. More info: www.ianfraser.org/shredded-ins...
Know a man by the company he keeps? Farage celebrates Brexit, flanked by Nathan Gill (jailed for 10½ years for bribery) and George Cottrell (who faced 20 years in jail for money laundering, fraud, blackmail and extortion but served eight months after a plea deal) and a Leave Means Leave activist.
Farage’s mask has slipped. He’s rattled and losing control The Reform UK leader’s attempts to bat away questions about the £5m he received from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne (aka Chakrit Sakunkrit or จักรฤษณ์ สกุลกฤต) backfired spectacularly last week. liveapp.inews.co.uk/category/449...
Clear genocidal intent from Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir in this call for “all of Lebanon [to] burn” in response to the killing of four Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah, hours before Israel and Hezbollah announced a ceasefire.
Two East Midlands Railway trains involved in collision near Bedford, as Thameslink spokesperson urges people not to travel until later today. www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/new...
Resounding victory for Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by election. The main populist / far-right candidates — Robert Kenyon and Rebecca Shepherd — got 18,807 votes between them, 6,165 short of Burnham’s total. Still no room for complacency?
Former Special Forces soldier Ant Middleton — a ‘patriot’ who now lives in Dubai — was, in March 2025, banned from serving as a company director, following the failure of his company Sway and Starting to pay over £1 million in tax.
Why is the UK government still using this reckless, delusional, ketamine-fuelled racist’s social-media platform?
Yes, several leading investors, economists and central bankers were issuing severe warnings from 2003 onwards, but Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Ed Balls totally ignored them and continued to vaunt “light touch, limited touch” financial regulation. Fully covered in my book ‘Shredded’.
yes and Daniel Johnson has already used his column in the German-owned “outrage factory” the Telegraph to vent his spleen over this! btw: Daniel is brother of ardent libertarian Luke Johnson, who was chair of Patisserie Valerie when it collapsed as a result of a £94m accounting fraud.
So, instead of looking under the hood and probing banks for hidden risks or asking questions about over-leverage, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown preferred to champion “light touch, limited touch” regulation and congratulate themselves for abolishing “boom and bust”. www.ianfraser.org/bankings-jou...
In 10 years in power, Tony Blair’s government was almost entirely captured by the banking sector, letting banks do as they chose, irrespective of the risks to customers, the economy, or taxpayers. Jamie Dimon’s JPMorgan rewarded Blair with a £3.2m-a-year part-time role 6 months after he left No 10
Among the items purchased by former SNP CEO Peter Murrell with funds embezzled from the party and its members was this £1,475 Beatles special edition fountain pen.
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty by Patrick Radden Keefe.
Putting former Barclays bankers in charge of financial regulators usually ends in disaster. Worth remembering the role of ex Barclays investment banker Sir Callum McCarthy, a man who didn't actually believe in financial regulation, as chair of the FSA from September 2003 to September 2008.
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves is playing with fire. Not only is she handing the reins of the Prudential Regulation Authority to ex-Barclays banker Katharine Braddick. She’s also kowtowing to the finance sector’s demands for weaker regulation. @privateeyenews.bsky.social
Introducing Scameo. Just pay Farage £5 million and he’ll say whatever you want, including: “Isn't crypto wonderful?”
Turbinia held the world record for five years but her speed was surpassed by the twin-screw steam yacht Arrow in 1902. Designed by Charles D. Mosher and owned by the IBM founder Charles R. Flint, Arrow reached 39.13 knots (45 mph and 72.5 km/h) on the Hudson River on 12 July 1902.
“The Russians have not adjusted as quickly. They’re still fighting a very manpower intensive war. Because of that, they’re suffering enormous casualties,” said Professor Phillips O'Brien “Ukraine is arguably in a better situation in 2026 than it was in 2025.”
Newly elected Reform UK councillor Glenn Gibbins, who said Nigerians should be “melted down” to “fill in the pot holes!!” HAS NOT been suspended by the Farage-led party, though he is being “investigated” days after winning his Hylton Castle Ward seat in Sunderland. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
INSIDE RBS: A REPORTER’S VIEW: I discussed the toxic culture inside RBS/NatWest, how this fuelled the bank’s 2008 collapse and stymied subsequent ‘normalisation’ efforts, with organisational psychologist Dr Susan Hetrick on her ‘Not In The Handbook’ podcast. 🎙️ www.listennotes.com/podcasts/not...
With 55 of the 129 seats declared, this is the current state of the parties in the Scottish parliamentary elections.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar defeated in his own constituency of Glasgow Cathcart and Pollok by 24-year-old Glasgow city councillor Zen Ghani of the SNP.
Excellent column by @jamesdhurley.bsky.social NatWest’s position that the Holloway case is unrelated to the GRG scandal is risible, given he took bribes to cut customers’ debts to the disgraced unit, and has said he needed to give money to “colleagues who assisted” www.thetimes.com/business/com...