By Ian Fraser and Richard Smith Published: Sunday Herald Date: 21 June 2015 How modest homes in some of Scotland’s poorest areas became prolific ‘company factories’. The inside story by Ian Fraser and Richard Smith. (Photo: Google Street View) It’s a humble ground-floor flat in Royston Mains Street in Pilton – the Edinburgh housing estate […]
10th June, 2015 George Osborne has confirmed that the UK government will start selling off its £32bn stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland at a loss, insisting any delay would be bad for the economy, taxpayers and bank. Addressing the annual Mansion House dinner in the City of London, Osborne said: “It’s the right thing […]
7th June, 2015 In this interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, recorded in their Fleet Place studios, I said that RBS still hasn’t shrunk enough and that the bank still lacks transparency. In particular I implied it was being somewhat dishonest in its provisioning for future litigation and the cost of past/current misconduct. The interview, which […]
7th June, 2015 Afshin Rattansi asked me about who was to blame for the Royal Bank of Scotland’s collapse, whether the 2008-09 bailout was mishandled, the scapegoating of Fred Goodwin by former prime minister Gordon Brown, and whether the government has a vested interest in airbrushing the bank’s crimes and misdemeanours, in view of its […]
By Ian Fraser Published: Sunday Herald Date: 7 June 2015 George Osborne’s plan to sell the government’s 80 per cent stake in Royal Bank of Scotland, the expected highlight of this week’s Mansion House speech, looks set to fall short of Treasury expectations as leading investors baulk at buying shares in the state-rescued bank. Sources […]