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Ian Fraser Profile picture
Ian Fraser
@Ian_Fraser
Journalist and author of Shredded: Inside RBS The Bank That Broke Britain.‘Read it & weep’ (Martin Wolf). Comms lead @FutureEconScot.
3 subscribers
Mar 5 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Surely this is a resigning matter? Science secretary Michelle Donelan apologises and pays damages to @HeriotWattUni Professor Kate Sang after falsely accusing her of being a Hamas supporter. mirror.co.uk/news/politics/… Background on science secretary Michelle Donelan's deranged behaviour and eventual climbdown vis-a-vis Professor Kate Sang and Dr Kamna Patel from @BindmansLLP bindmans.com/knowledge-hub/…
Aug 11, 2023 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s plan to get British pension schemes to invest more heavily in illiquid/private equity style assets has been dismissed as “pure snake oil” by pensions expert @JohnRalfe1 Image @JohnRalfe1 The article is in the current issue of @PrivateEyeNews. You can subscribe for £38 a year here: https://t.co/fEKE5kBPvPprivate-eye.co.uk
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Jun 11, 2023 • 13 tweets • 5 min read
Does anyone know why Boris Johnson made his former parliamentary assistant Charlotte Owen, 29, a life peer? Image Worth mentioning that Boris Johnson’s desire to ennoble former advisers Ross Kempsell, 30, and Charlotte Owen, 29, caused less of a furore when he nominated them for peerages on 8 November 2022.

Jun 8, 2023 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
High Court judge Mr Justice [Jonathan] Swift, who today rejected Julian Assange’s appeal against the order to extradite him on all grounds, is increasingly seen as “government-friendly”. In December 2022, Swift declared Britain’s plan to send migrants to Rwanda lawful. Image Reporters Without Borders (@RSF_inter) today said: “It’s absurd that a single judge can issue a three-page decision that could land Julian Assange in prison for the rest of his life and permanently impact the climate for journalism around the world.” rsf.org/en/uk-julian-a…
Jun 8, 2023 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
“Many female staff at Odey Asset Management learnt to avoid Crispin Odey by ducking into the storage room or toilets when they heard him approaching. They developed a nickname for their boss: The Octopus”

Must-read exposé of a sex pest by @miss_marriage ft.com/content/e5d143… This is how “odious” Crispin Odey treated one Odey Asset Management receptionist Emily. The details of his sexual assaults of, and inappropriate behaviour towards, female staff members and other women in his orbit are shocking. Excellent journalism by @miss_marriage. ImageImage
Jun 7, 2023 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Fantastic presentation on the Ulster Bank scandal from ex RBS/NatWest treasury executive @ianhtyler. He finds it astonishing that John Swift KC was paid £7m-£8m to review the FCA’s swaps redress scheme when he didn’t really understand swaps. Image It was “completely fraudulent” of Ulster Bank to book hidden liabilities against business customers in order to take hidden margin from swap sales, and the failure of regulators to take action is worse — ex RBS/NatWest Treasury manager @ianhtyler at #TTF Ulster Bank scandal event Image
May 22, 2023 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Gordon Brown’s government and the Bank of England pressured, even coerced, banks to falsify Libor—rates at which they could borrow from other banks—during the 2008 crisis, yet it was individual traders who took the rap, according to new evidence outlined in @andyverity’s «Rigged» A new book, exclusively se... ex Brexit secretary David Davis is calling for an inquiry into claims that “British and US authorities covered up state involvement in Libor-rigging and the scapegoating of low and middle-ranking bankers, some of whom have spent years in jail”. thetimes.co.uk/article/riggin…
Nov 4, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Truly shocking that @TheSpectator is using this sort of imagery. Things I find surprising about the Spectator’s use of this disgusting image

(1) ex Henry Jackson Society director of studies Sam Ashworth Hayes seems relaxed about it.

(2) only 2/7 of people responding to Sam’s tweet featuring the image have complained.

Sep 28, 2022 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
The pound has rebounded since @bankofengland's market intervention (earlier today it pledged to buy £65bn of long-dated gilts and curtail quantitative tightening ). Image After the Bank of England intervened to calm markets, saying it would buy long-dated bonds at “whatever scale is necessary”, sterling rebounded, and 30-year gilt yields fell to 3.91%. fuelled by the BoE's commitment to postponing quantitative tightening marketwatch.com/story/gilt-yie…
Aug 11, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
The Loire, France’s longest river, has virtually dried up at Pont de Varades in Loire-Atlantique. #drought2022 📷 @DubrayFranck Following more than forty days of drought, the Loire has fallen to its lowest level in 150 years, with the water that remains climbing to a temperature of 27 °C, which can be fatal for aquatic life. ouest-france.fr/meteo/secheres…
Aug 10, 2022 • 13 tweets • 7 min read
Law firm Schillings is trying to prevent the media from publishing photos of the home of Tory donors Anthony and Carole Bamford, who were generous enough to host Carrie and Boris Johnson wedding celebrations last month. Like this, used by @DailyMailUK (source: @PrivateEyeNews) JCB billionaire and Tory über-donor Anthony Bamford bought Daylesford House, Glos in 1986. It was previously the home of former governor-general of India Warren Hastings, Daily Mail proprietor 2nd Viscount Rothermere and Swiss steel tycoon Baron Hans Thyssen-Bornemisza.
May 22, 2022 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
Howard Davies says the turning point for RBS/NatWest came in 2018, when the bank was fined $4.9bn for fuelling the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. Until that point, it had been “scrambling behind the sofa” to find capital, he says. theguardian.com/business/2022/… Former regulator Sir Howard Davies has had a career path comparable to that of a French Énarque — an alumnus of the École nationale d'administration in Paris — and has been chairman of RBS/NatWest since September 2015. How I introduced him in #Shredded:
May 20, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
POLL: After Alyn Smith MP called out right-wing lobby group the IEA over its “non-transparent” funding on #bbcqt, Fiona Brice told its spokeswoman Emily Carver “we’re very happy you’re on the panel”. Are you happy or unhappy Carver was on the panel? [I could have added third choice - would you be happy for Emily Carver to appear on #bbcqt if the right-wing lobbying organisation she represents, the IEA, came clean about who funds it?]
May 19, 2022 • 6 tweets • 4 min read
Alyn Smith should have added the IEA is a lobby group masquerading as a thinktank (and an “educational charity”) which is renowned for dangling access to ministers in front of donors. Emily Carver’s “how boring” response was, frankly, pathetic. #bbcqt Here is footage showing IEA director general Mark Littlewood offering potential donors (actually undercover reporters for @UE) access to government ministers in 2019 (I got his name wrong in the original tweet).
Apr 26, 2022 • 5 tweets • 4 min read
The Post Office Scandal: @BBCPanorama digs deep into the moral turpitude of the Post Office under CEO Paula Vennells, shining new light on the largest miscarriage of justice in UK history. Congrats @dianamartinbbc @MattBardo @TimRobinsonTV @nickwallis+team bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod… NO JUSTICE:“Thus far, no one has been held to account or accepted responsibility. That’s truly astonishing”. @PaulMar72224296 concludes powerful @BBCPanorama on the Post Office Scandal
Apr 3, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Shocking scenes of devastation including the destruction of the world’s largest plane, the Antonov AN-225, affectionately known as “Mriya”. #UkraineRussiaWar The remains of the world’s largest aircraft, the Antonov AN-225 #Mriya, at Hostomel airport near Kyiv. The plane, an icon of Ukrainian engineering prowess, was destroyed by Russian forces on around 27 February.
Jan 8, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
John Swift QC’s report confirms
banks including Lloyds and RBS/NatWest lobbied chancellor George Osborne and @hmtreasury to intervene to limit liabilities arising from the @TheFCA’s IRHP Review, even if it meant hanging customers out to dry. @Carlier_J87 jupiter87.com/2022/01/the-sw… The mandate for the Swift Review was for an independent and comprehensive investigation that would establish all the issues relevant to the FCA’s IRHP Review, and establish what lessons could learned from it.
Jan 7, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
LBC should have sacked @maajidnawaz over a year ago. Instead, they let him continue to spread deranged conspiracy theories, bogus science, factual inaccuracies and disinformation about Covid for another 12 months. He blocked me when I called him out over this in December 2020. By Feb 2021 there was already concern about Maajid Nawaz's state-of-mind, given he seemed to have fallen for dozens of conspiracy theories, including that Covid-19 lockdowns were a “global fraud” orchestrated by China’s CCP in order to impoverish the West theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2…
Jan 7, 2022 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Tory peer Michelle Mone and her husband Douglas Barrowman *were* involved in a PPE business that was awarded more than £200m in government contracts after she referred it to the Cabinet Office, leaked documents suggest.
theguardian.com/world/2022/jan… #MichelleMone #DougBarrowmam story on front page of Friday’s Guardian. The bra tycoon *was* secretly involved in her husband’s company Medpro, which she referred to UK goverment, despite months of denials. It went on to win £203m in PPE contracts h/t @hendopolis
Oct 1, 2021 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Ed Balls was economic secretary to the Treasury, working alongside chancellor Gordon Brown, in 2006-7. In that role he was responsible for banking regulation. He was economic adviser to shadow chancellor Brown in 1994-7 and chief economic adviser to H.M.Treasury in 1997-2004. As economic secretary to the Treasury in 2006-7 Ed Balls’ priorities were (1) champion the right of bankers to do whatever they wanted (he didn't seem to care about potential economic destruction or fraud) (2) ensure that the government and regulators kept off the bankers’ backs
Oct 1, 2021 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
This guy used to be news editor of the Daily Express. I mean it... Mike Parry was news editor of @Daily_Express, before becoming @PA news editor, and then @FAspokesperson. He has also co-presented a show on TalkSPORT with Mike Graham.