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Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
A £600,000-a-year pension, a stunning luxury home and all the time in the world to enjoy it. So is it any wonder Fred the Shred, the man who broke RBS, STILL seems to be laughing all the way to the bank
The smiling figure immediately caught the eye as he enjoyed a rare night out in a cosy Italian bistro. And while the homely charm and authentic cuisine of the Caprese Don Costanza has long drawn the cognoscenti to its basement premises in Glasgow 's smart Park Circus, its discreet attention to its well-heeled clientele of footballers and television personalities might have been equally appealing to this particular diner. Of course, there was a time when Fred Goodwin would have feasted with princes and presidents, prime ministers and captains of industry, at glittering black tie events at 10 Downing Street and the White House. Then, he was Sir Fred Goodwin, chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland and the darling of the City, transformed a once-parsimonious fixture of the Scottish high street into the world's biggest bank. Born into humble beginnings on a Paisley housing scheme, Goodwin rose to become as famous for his ruthless zeal in cutting both costs and jobs - earning him the nickname 'Fred the Shred' - as he was for his jetset lifestyle of grotesque corporate excess which became the stuff of legend. Tales like the complete redecoration of the lobby outside his office with wallpaper costing £1,000 a roll because of one tiny stain, or the fresh fruit flown in daily from Paris; or the £5.3million refurbishment of the RBS's rarely used listed building RBS building in Edinburgh 's St Andrew Square which came to be known as the Pleasure Dome with its £100-a-square-yard carpet which the boss ordered to be changed because he did not care for the shade of amber. He could comfortably afford Costanza's modestly priced menu of classic Italian favourites - and even the most expensive wines on the list, at £310 a bottle, would not have phased a man who has been raking in hundreds of thousands of pounds in pension payouts since presiding over the cataclysmic meltdown of RBS 17 years ago. Doubtless his income has been swollen by the colossal bonuses he squirrelled away during his eight-year tenure as the bank's infamously ruthless and hedonistic chief executive. Such hubris was clipped in October 2008, however, after he steered RBS over a financial precipice towards a £24.1 billion loss, the biggest corporate deficit in UK history, which cost 26,000 employees their jobs and left the taxpayer with a multi-billion-pound bill for bailing the bank out. After the bailout, the man who sank the bank was ousted - and, later, famously stripped of his knighthood. He became a pariah, professionally toxic and publicly loathed in a way that others responsible for the financial crash of 2008 never were. His past indiscretions have cost him personally, too, and hurt his family. His marriage to Joyce, who stood loyally by him through his travails, collapsed amid revelations that he had repaid her faith by having an affair with a colleague. A five-year wait to become a member of the Royal and Ancient in St Andrews, the nation's most prestigious golf club, was politely knocked back. Now 66, divorced, and in a new relationship, Goodwin is something of a recluse these days - understandably, given that his home was vandalised and he was even subjected to death threats at the height of the RBS debacle, which might well have precipitated the domino-style collapse of the entire British banking system but for the intervention of the state and a £45bn cash injection which left taxpayers saddled with an 83 per cent stake in the rapidly unravelling banking giant. Seventeen long years have passed and only now is RBS - now subsumed within the NatWest brand - on the brink of returning to full private ownership as the government prepares to sell its final stake in the business. It may draw a line under the catastrophe - but at a substantial cost to the public purse. Ministers are expected to write down a £10bn loss after recouping just £35bn on its loans. And what of the architect of this disaster? Those who saw him at Costanza's described him as looking 'hale and hearty' as he laughed and joked with friends. 'He looked very relaxed,' observed one fellow customer, 'but then I don't know whether he still gets shouted at in the street like he used to.' Goodwin has long since made it his business to avoid such bouts of public unpleasantness, largely by avoiding the public as much as possible. Less easy to dismiss are the negative headlines which resurfaced last week about his handsome pension arrangements. When he initially walked away from the chaos he had unleashed with a £16 million pension pot that paid out about £700,000 a year, a public backlash eventually forced Goodwin and the bank to halve those payouts to £342,500 a year. After nearly two decades, however, an agreement that linked his payouts to the rate of inflation has pushed that figure ever closer to the original sum. The bank is said to spend around £598,000 annually on Goodwin's pension, according to estimates by the wealth manager Quilter shared with the Guardian newspaper. NatWest Group has declined to comment on the figures while Goodwin remains firmly incommunicado. Others are more forthcoming. John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers bailed out RBS to the tune of £45bn but are now staring down a £10bn loss - while their disgraced ex-boss is raking in a £600,000 pension. 'It's a disgrace that the public is still paying the price for this catastrophic failure, nearly two decades on. Ministers must ensure that this kind of reckless mismanagement is never allowed to happen again, and that taxpayers are never treated as a bottomless pit for failed institutions.' The latest furore is unlikely to bring the press pack to his door in quite the same numbers it once did. Equally, none of it is unlikely to accelerate Goodwin's civic rehabilitation. Things remain much quieter these days in the leafy Edinburgh street where he still lives, hidden in plain sight. Amazon delivery drivers and a painter were the main callers at the gates of his home in the Grange last week. He has plenty of time for his hobbies; a self-confessed car nut, he tinkers with his collection of classic cars, which include a 20-year-old BMW, a Triumph Stag convertible and an elderly Range Rover, and plays golf at the private Archerfield links 40 minutes' drive away on East Lothian's celebrated 'Golf Coast', where members - including Edinburgh's wealthy business elite, and sports stars such as Alan Shearer, Ian Botham and Ryan Giggs - happily stump up the eyewatering debenture of £30,000 in addition to their annual subscription of £2,700. A keen shot, he also goes shooting with his friends Gerard Eadie, boss of glazing firm CR Smith, and Sir Jackie Stewart, the former Formula One racing driver, who have stuck by him while a multi-million-pound bolthole near Cannes offers another escape. Yet friends in high places have not helped him get back into corporate life. A £100,000 a year consultancy with Edinburgh architects RMJM ended unhappily after less than 12 months and when a former colleague ran into his old boss at Edinburgh airport, the former Forbes Global Businessman of the Year was said to have admitted feeling 'intellectually under-occupied'. Those who lost their life's savings when the ship went down, including many bank employees, have little sympathy for a man knighted by Tony Blair who lavished RBS profits on luxuries such as a permanent suite at The Savoy costing £700,000 a year, a fleet of 12 chauffeur-driven Mercedes limousines with RBS emblazoned all over them, and an £18 million Falcon 900EX jet with the personalised registration RBSG (Royal Bank of Scotland Goodwin) which he liked to use for weekend boar hunting jaunts in Spain or following the glamorous F1 circuit around the world. Despite having no formal banking qualifications or technical training, Goodwin led RBS on an aggressive expansion, gobbling up the much larger NatWest and US bank Charter One in quick succession. He ruled his sprawling Gogarburn campus with a rod of iron. In their book on the banking crisis, Masters of Nothing, the Tory MPs Matthew Hancock and Nadhim Zahawi reveal that Goodwin once threatened to discipline catering staff after they sent up a plate containing a Crawford's pink wafer biscuit. 'Fred controlled through fear. There was nobody in the bank who wasn't afraid of him,' says a former director of RBS. But he slipped up when RBS teamed up with a consortium to absorb the troubled Dutch bank ABN Amro in a £49 billion deal in 2007 at what turned out to be the peak of the market. The takeover was later described as one of the worst corporate deals in history. When American banking giant Lehman Brothers collapsed a month before RBS in September 2008, it sparked a full-blown crisis in the markets. By the time it was brought to its knees, on October 13, 2008, RBS had £2.2 trillion of assets - bigger than the British economy - with operations in 53 countries. Yet behind the scenes, the bank was stretched to breaking point. After the bailout, the late Alistair Darling, chancellor at the time, revealed his astonishment when RBS chairman Sir Tom McKillop rang him on October 7 to tell him the bank had just three hours before it would run out of cash. The damage has been long-lasting. In 2017, the bank coughed up a staggering £1bn (including £100 million in legal fees) to settle a lawsuit by 9,000 shareholders at the High Court, in London, who claimed RBS chiefs duped them into investing in a £12bn 'rights issue' in 2008 by portraying the bank in a falsely favourable light, even though they knew that it was teetering on the brink of the abyss. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who oversaw the bank's rescue along with Mr Darling, has condemned Goodwin's failure to 'express real contrition to me - or to anyone else - for his role in the bank's collapse'. Others believe Goodwin's lack of public remorse has prolonged his purdah. One business source said: 'The only time he apologised was at an AGM held, ironically, at the General Assembly building of the Church of Scotland. But it was more him saying, "I'm sorry if you fell", rather than "I'm sorry that I pushed you". It was no kind of apology really.' The source added: 'He is very rarely seen in Scottish society. But he was always very circumspect; he refused to make an effort to engage with media or stakeholders back in the day. Therefore, there was no goodwill in the tank for him when it all went wrong. He was never very clubbable in that sense..' Thos who have spent time with him since his fall from grace insist his image as the arrogant financier who got off scot-free is far from the truth. 'He is charming,' says one. 'He was forever sending me little notes of appreciation for anything I did for him. He was absolutely beyond devastated by what had happened. He was unable for the first six months to be able to even speak properly, he was so devastated. He was like a man on the run - trapped and haunted.' It wasn't always like that. Raised in Paisley's tough working-class scheme of Ferguslie Park with his sister, Dale, and brother Andrew, social ambition ran in the blood. His father, Fred senior's job as an electrical engineer with Balfour Kilpatrick allowed the Goodwins to buy a semi-detached house in a better area nearby. Contemporaries say young Freddy, as he was known locally, was driven by his dad. When he lost a fight with another boy, it is said Freddy's dad came out and held the boy down behind a lilac tree, while Goodwin punched him in the face. Goodwin said later he has no recollection of the incident. Fussed over, partly because he was run down and badly hurt on his way home from school when he was eight, Goodwin's sharp brain saw him do well at Paisley Grammar School before he became the first in his family to go to university. Graduating in law from Glasgow, he joined Touche Ross and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1983. Five years later, at 29, he was made a Touche partner. By 1990, he married Joyce McLean, another go-getting financial whizz who had gained an MBA from Strathclyde University. She forsook her career to become the sort of wife aspiring bankers need, hosting dinners at the elegant Georgian townhouse they acquired, immersing herself in philanthropic work, and caring for their children, John, now 29, and Honor, 26. Goodwin repaid her loyalty by having an affair with a colleague at RBS, then attempted to cover it up by obtaining a court injunction. His wife apparently had no idea her husband was cheating until May 2011, when the matter was revealed by Lord Stoneham of Droxford, who - in the interest of taxpayers, as he put it - used parliamentary privilege to raise the matter in the House of Lords. The Goodwins divorced in 2016 and Mrs Goodwin now lives in the £3.5million home on a gated community in Colinton. When approached for comment last week, a woman answered the door at Goodwin's home. Declining to identify herself, she said: 'He doesn't speak to the press. Thank you very much for asking.' As ever, the legacy of Fred the Shred's recklessness must speak for itself.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Health
- Daily Mail
You're eating pasta wrong! Expert reveals how to enjoy carbs guilt-free - and why you should NEVER eat noodles fresh out the pan
It's the time of year most people are trying to shed a few pounds. But an expert has revealed an easy trick to help enjoy your carbs guilt-free. Their discovery means you could even tuck into pasta salads or sushi while shedding weight. So, what's their secret? It turns out that letting your pasta, rice and potatoes fully cool down before you eat them can help with weight loss. 'When you cook and cool foods like pasta and rice, their starch molecules realign, forming resistant starch,' fitness expert Kevin David Rail said. 'Unlike regular carbohydrates, resistant starch acts more like fibre, meaning it digests more slowly, provides a steady energy release, and helps keep blood sugar levels stable.' He said athletes – including top footballers – have been using the hack for years to help sustain energy levels, improve recovery and manage weight. A cold potato salad, such as this, contains more resistant starch than spuds which are fresh out of the oven 'Footballers don't just think about what they eat—they think about how it's prepared,' Mr Rail said. 'Many will eat cold pasta salads, rice bowls, or overnight oats to get the resistant starch benefits while keeping their digestion efficient and energy steady.' He said incorporating cooled carbs into everyday meals can help people manage weight, boost gut health and prevent energy dips. Even cooled carbs that have been reheated have the same effect, as resistant starch remains intact, he explained. Therefore, it offers the same blood sugar benefits as eating it cold. Another recommendation is to meal prep, so cooled carbs are ready and available in advance. And finally, pairing them with protein and fats can further boost muscle recovery and support weight management. 'As a coach, I see firsthand how the right nutrition strategies can improve not just physical performance but overall well-being,' Mr Rail, from added. 'If elite athletes are doing it, there's definitely something worth paying attention to.' Dr Chris van Tulleken, infectious diseases doctor and author of 'Ultra-Processed People', has previously spoken of the benefits of resistant starch. 'When the normal starch in white bread and pasta is digested, it's turned into sugar almost as fast as if you drank the same amount of sugar in a sweet drink,' he said. 'This is because normal starch is made up of tangled chains of glucose sugar molecules that are broken down into single sugar molecules extremely easily in your gut, and then quickly absorbed. 'If this sugar isn't burned off, it is turned into fat.' He explained the difference with resistant starch is that some of those glucose chains are no longer broken down in your small intestine - where food is normally broken down and the nutrients absorbed – and instead reaches the large intestine. Here, it is broken down more slowly, meaning blood sugar levels don't rise as high and people feel fuller for longer. Once the resistant starch has been fermented by bacteria in the gut, it turns into chemicals called short-chain fatty acids. 'These have a wide range of benefits, such as preventing heart disease and possibly lowering blood pressure,' Dr van Tulleken said. Research published in 2023 found that cooking pasta al dente also helps people lose weight, as it slows the rate at which they eat. In experiments, scientists discovered that soft pasta dishes are eaten 45 per cent faster than dishes which feature less-cooked pasta. WHAT SHOULD A BALANCED DIET LOOK LIKE? • Eat at least 5 portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables every day. All fresh, frozen, dried and canned fruit and vegetables count • Base meals on potatoes, bread, rice, pasta or other starchy carbohydrates, ideally wholegrain • 30 grams of fibre a day: This is the same as eating all of the following: 5 portions of fruit and vegetables, 2 whole-wheat cereal biscuits, 2 thick slices of wholemeal bread and large baked potato with the skin on • Have some dairy or dairy alternatives (such as soya drinks) choosing lower fat and lower sugar options • Eat some beans, pulses, fish, eggs, meat and other proteins (including 2 portions of fish every week, one of which should be oily) • Choose unsaturated oils and spreads and consuming in small amounts • Drink 6-8 cups/glasses of water a day • Adults should have less than 6g of salt and 20g of saturated fat for women or 30g for men a day
The Independent
25-05-2025
- General
- The Independent
Mea Culpa: ‘He gave it 1,188 per cent'
We sometimes use percentages greater than 100, but they do not generally help the reader, unless we are quoting a footballer who says he 'gave it 110 per cent'. We had this headline on Thursday: 'Popular London outdoor swimming spot sees 1,188 per cent increase in bacteria.' We might as well have said 'a huge increase' because no one knows how much 1,188 per cent is. Having thought about it and checked my arithmetic, it is more than a twelvefold increase. We could have said that. In the text of the report, we said that the actual increase in E coli in the Serpentine Lido in Hyde Park, London, was '1,188.8 per cent'. Giving a test-sample figure to five significant figures is an example of another common bamboozlement, that of spurious accuracy. The actual increase was from a count of 45 to 580: rendering that to the nearest tenth of one per cent serves no useful purpose. Go forth and multiply: Another headline on Thursday said: 'Multiple people dead after private jet crashes in San Diego neighbourhood.' I know this is how some Americans speak, and one of them was quoted in the article – the assistant fire chief said there had been 'a direct hit to multiple homes' – but British people would usually say 'several people' if, as in this case, they didn't know how many exactly but knew that it was more than one. Singularly inadequate: We confused our singulars and plurals in Wednesday's editorial: 'It is some months since anything resembling an adequate supply of food and medicines were provided to keep blameless Palestinian civilians alive, and famine, as well as war and pestilence, now stalks the Holy Land in grim biblical fashion.' Thanks to Sue Alexander for reminding us that 'an adequate supply' is a singular noun, so it should be 'was provided'. She suggested a more elegant solution, though, which would be to replace 'an adequate supply of' with 'enough'. Safety break: In a sports report, we said: 'Lewis Hamilton was fortuitous in various safety car interludes but still carried off a typically composed performance on track.' As Roger Thetford pointed out, we meant 'fortunate', meaning lucky. Or we could have said his escapes from the 'safety car interludes' were fortuitous, meaning happening by lucky chance. Gold suspension: We reported an unusual crime story thus: 'A man involved in the plot to steal an 18-carat gold toilet, valued at £4.75m, from Blenheim Palace has avoided prison after being given a suspended sentence.' This implies that there were two events: first, the would-be thief was given a suspended sentence, and later he avoided prison. We could have said 'when he was given'. Murder mystery: Our report of the sale of Abraham Lincoln's gloves began: 'The blood-stained leather gloves that were in Lincoln's pocket the night he was assassinated have been sold for $1.52m at a controversial auction.' That makes it seem as if they were blood-stained before he was killed; we could have said they were the gloves he had when he was assassinated, and come to the pocket later. Semi-mythical star: We quoted Elton John on the subject of protecting copyright material from large language models: 'The government are just being absolute losers and I'm very angry.' We described him as 'the legendary singer'. As John Harrison pointed out, this is like calling him famous: either you have heard of him or not; if not, being told that everyone else has heard of him implies that you are ignorant. As for legendary, though, that strictly means a historical but unverified figure; here it just means 'great'. I mean, I think he was great in the 1970s, but that is my opinion, not a news story. Did you know he had only two solo No 1 hits in the UK: 'Sacrifice' in 1990, and the Diana version of 'Candle in the Wind' in 1997?
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Why Son Heung-min is now a bigger Tottenham legend than Harry Kane, Gareth Bale and Luka Modric, writes RIATH AL-SAMARRAI
We spoke one morning in 2019. That was in the August, in London, so two months after the evening in Madrid when everything went wrong against Liverpool. It had stuck with Son Heung-min, scratching away at his days and nights, and at one point in our chat he made a sound that can best be described as a growl.
Daily Mail
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Brooklyn and Romeo's poisonous rift exposed: 'Baffling' wedding behaviour by Nicola Peltz that drove them apart revealed as friends of Beckhams brand her a 'narcissist' to KATIE HIND
Those who overheard the two young brothers on that flight to the World Cup in Germany back in 2006 couldn't help but be touched by the tender affection between them. Romeo Beckham, then just three, was sobbing as he travelled to watch his father captain England for the tournament.
