Jonathan Ford

Did Brown ventilate these suspicions in public?

Why isn't he being sued for negligence by his customers? Does he have some clever wording in contracts to absolve himself of responsibility for any advice he gives?

Odd to write about Britain's costliest mansion without it becoming a piece of property porn. But possible in the case of 2-8A Rutland Gate. Although sold only in 2020 for £210m, it's now an derelict barrack in Knightsbridge, occupied only by a homeless man.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10...

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...

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

Jonathan Ford, Neil Collins and Ian Fraser on a long time in finance The hugely popular podcast A long time in finance is coming under the umbrella of the Library of Mistakes.

It's true! On 25 September we're doing @ALTIFpodcast's first live show with our new friends, The Library of Mistakes. In THE ART OF THE SHRED we'll be discussing Fred Goodwin and RBS's 2008 collapse with author Ian Fraser. Click below for details & tix.. Hope to see you there..

This is adorable!

The perils and promise of our new nuclear age As net zero goals revive the push for atomic power, could it light the way or lead to disaster? Three timely books explore the possibilities

I've written a books essay in the FT about the nuclear age we are entering; one pregnant with old perils and new promise www.ft.com/content/7fec...

My latest post is on Heathrow's big outage, the mysterious wave of British substation fires and what's behind them. Is it enemy action.. or something more mundane? open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Or Bobby Sands St next to the British Embassy in Tehran

Should never have been repealed. Another brilliant idea from Eric Pickles

Coming up on A Long Time in Finance, we look at the history of Scunthorpe and British Steel..

Generals calling for rearmament often talk about the UK facing a "1937 moment". But what actually happened in the late 1930s, are there similarities and what can we learn? We talk to historian Dan Todman about the economic & military parallels. pod.fo/e/2c9967

China has embarrassed Labour over British Steel Imagine the embarrassment: you announce a national steel strategy and jump through all the approved hoops of public consultation to show you are taking a reasonable ministerial decision. Then, just da...

Should the UK nationalise British Steel after Jingye opted for closure rather than take the taxpayer's £500m bung? To my mind, the question is more why the government didn't demand an equity stake in the first place.
unherd.com/newsroom/chi...

Put Not Your Trust in Big Minerals Deals Not Trump's Ukraine effort, but the grandaddy of all carve-ups: post-Ottoman Iraq

My latest on Business Adventures is about mineral deals, and why they're not always what they cracked up to be, even if your concession is sitting on oceans of oil as the British, French and Americans were with the carve up of post-Ottoman Iraq.. open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Maybe the aid sector would have a little more money if people like David Miliband weren't paid $1.2 million a year.

Welcome to Business Adventures Notes on business and financial history

I know, I know.. I have started a substack on financial and business history called Business Adventures. It's just getting going and this is my "manifesto". I'll be posting properly in a day or two. If you want to join up, you would be most welcome
open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

Iraq, Minerals and the Art of the Deal Podcast Episode · A Long Time In Finance · 03/14/2025 · 31m

“So there was nothing Turkish about the Turkish Petroleum Company. I think that’s the first point to make.” @grepsul.bsky.social, Neil Collins and I talked an episode that has some contemporary resonance.

Iraq, Minerals and the Art of the Deal Podcast Episode · A Long Time In Finance · 14/03/2025 · 31m

Podcast! With Jonathan Ford and Neil Collins, on a topic with some contemporary resonances.

Those who live by "beggar thy neighbour" tax schemes also die by them

Coming up this week on @ALTIFpodcast: in the wake of Trump's proposal for a mineral deal in Ukraine, we look at the greatest minerals carve up of all time - in the Middle East - and ask: "how did that all work out"?

Latest post: What's left of British shipbuilding?

After the failure & rescue of H&W, I look at re-shoring, shipbuilding & defence - and the difficulties of rebuilding lost industrial capacity.

There's also a plea for more sane defence procurement!
open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...

So what's the recommendation? Raise taxes, or keep defence spending at an absurdly low level even though Putin and our adversaries are splurging like its out of fashion?

Quite!

Well I sort of take your point but your fact is wrong. The first Spitfire flew in March 1936, while the Battle of Cable Street wasn't until October. But the Spit didn't enter service with the RAF until August 1938..

But the real Mosley never was in charge. And when the chips were down in 1940, he was promptly detained under Defence Regulation 18B. But if in 1934, everyone had said, "Oh no let's not build Spitfires, or Cromwell tanks, because... Mosley," well maybe he would never have been detained..

If I was a Pole or a Lithuanian, where they are spending tons more proportionately than us or the French & Germans, and have even curbed welfare spending to do so, I would greet that concern with a massive eye-roll given where we are, I'm afraid.

True. But last time I looked, Putin was spending close to 10% of Russia's GDP on armaments. And there's hardly much sign of the military industrial complex doing its malign schtick in W Europe atm tbh

Yeah let's not build the spitfire in case Mosley gets to use it. Good plan guys!

What's left of British shipbuilding? As the case of Harland & Wolff shows, industrial capacity, once atrophied, is hard to build back

Latest post on Business Adventures: What's left of British shipbuilding?

After the failure and rescue of H&W, I look at re-shoring, UK shipbuilding, and defence; and consider the difficulty of building back industrial capacity once it's gone.

open.substack.com/pub/jonathan...