September 9th, 2010
When prime minister David Cameron appointed Andy Coulson, former editor of the News of the World, as the Conservatives’ head of spin in June 2007, it was always seen as a bizarre appointment (and this was only partly because Coulson had left the paper under a cloud, resigning because of the phone-tapping scandal [...]
By Ian Fraser
Published: Sunday Herald
Date: August 29th, 2010
Martin Gilbert, chief executive of Aberdeen Asset Management, has declared that big institutions that straddle the investment and mainstream banking divide should be broken up.
Echoing the views of Scots economist and author John Kay, who coined the widely used “casino” and “utility” banking analogy for the divide, and [...]
August 28th, 2010
[Editorial Note: This article was written in June 2010 but has not previously been published in its entirety. An edited version was published in The Sunday Times on June 27th, 2010]
Directors of an aviation business that went bust owing HBOS £113 million in September 2007 were allowed to buy the business back from administrators [...]
August 27th, 2010
The founder and owner of Quayside Corporate Services — a self-styled turnaround consultancy that was pivotal to the Bank of Scotland Reading scandal – has lately been stepping down from a surprising number of boards.
In June David Mills, 53, quit the board of Cardiff-based revolving credit company Clode Group Holdings, as well the boards [...]
By Ian Fraser
Published: The Sunday Times
Date: August 22nd, 2010
The Hebridean island has teamed up with energy giant Scottish Power to tap a reliable source of electricity with underwater turbines
When the MV Eilean Dhiura ferry crosses the Sound of Islay, passengers often think she is heading in the wrong direction. The small roll-on, roll-off vessel has [...]
August 20th, 2010
The Camp for Climate Action, which was set up on parkland behind the Royal Bank of Scotland’s world headquarters at Gogarburn in Edinburgh on Wednesday night, is deploying spectacular tactics to make what in my view is a valid point.
The campers, including my nephew, wrongfooted the police and RBS security by arriving a day earlier than [...]
By Ian Fraser
Published: Sunday Herald
Date: August 15th, 2010
Interview of the week: Angus Macdonald (image from Sunday Herald)
A little over three years ago, Angus MacDonald saw the future… and he decided it was rubbish. This was nothing to do with his outlook on life, though. The Highland entrepreneur, fresh from selling his 25% stake in the [...]
August 12th, 2010
If, in our western capitalist economies, we think of profit-hunting banks as being like a pride of lions hunting, non-financial industry is comparable to lionesses who often do the actual work. The banks are the males who spend all day lazing in the sun, but get the first pickings of any kill, and [...]
By Ian Fraser
Published: Sunday Herald
Date: August 8th, 2010
Three years after the onset of the credit crisis, when several British banks narrowly avoided bankruptcy thanks to Government intervention, it seems the prescribed regime of management clear-outs, capital rebuilding, global retrenchment, cost-cutting and a more considered approach to lending is beginning to bear fruit.
The half-year results for [...]
August 7th, 2010
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph (which is different from the video interview above) Eric Daniels, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, has at last started to talk some sense.
Daniels told the Torygraph’s Damian Reece that Lloyds TSB did us all a tremendous favour by taking over HBOS in September 2008. [...]