Adam Dugdale Fergusson (born 10 July 1932) is a British journalist, author and
Conservative Party politician who served one term in the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
as an
MEP. He has remained involved in the field of
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...
affairs since, as a Special Adviser to Conservative governments and as a business consultant. Among other books, he wrote ''When Money Dies'', a classic account of
hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic
Hyperinflation affected the German Papiermark, the currency of the Weimar Republic, between 1921 and 1923, primarily in 1923. It caused considerable internal political instability in the country, the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, ...
. It deals with not only the economic impacts that hyperinflation had upon society in the Weimar Republic, but also the way that society itself changed. Societal norms were broken down in the wake of hyperinflation, and Fergusson approaches this topic. First published in 1975, ''When Money Dies'' was hailed as a cult classic in the wake of the
Financial crisis of 2007–2008
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fi ...
, with copies changing hands on
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
for up to $1,000. As a result, ''When Money Dies'' was republished in July 2010, becoming an internet sensation after allegedly being commended by financier
Warren Buffett
Warren Edward Buffett ( ; born August 30, 1930) is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is currently the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. He is one of the most successful investors in the world and has a net ...
.
Early career
Fergusson is the second son of
Sir James Fergusson James Fergusson may refer to:
Politics
*Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet (1832–1907), Governor of South Australia, New Zealand and Bombay
*Sir James Fergusson, 8th Baronet (1904–1973), Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire
*Sir James Fergusson, Lord Ki ...
,
8th Baronet of Kilkerran and the younger brother of Sir Charles Fergusson, the present
9th Baronet of Kilkerran. His sister, Alice, is married to
Baron Renton of Mount Harry. He attended
Eton and
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
,
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
where he read History, graduating in 1955. He went into journalism on the ''
Glasgow Herald
''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...
'', working as a Leader-writer in 1957–58 and as Diplomatic Correspondent from 1959 to 1961.
''The Times''
Leaving the ''Herald'', Fergusson moved to ''
The Statist'', a journal for economists and businessmen. He was Foreign Editor of the ''Statist'' from 1964 until it ceased publication in 1967, afterwards joining ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' as a feature-writer specialising on political, economic and environmental matters. He was at the ''Times'' for ten years, also using his time to write fiction, including ''Roman Go Home'' (1969) and ''The Lost Embassy'' (1972), as well as the non-fiction ''
The Sack of Bath'' (1973).
Anti-devolution campaigning
In the late 1970s Fergusson became active in Conservative politics. As a firm opponent of devolution, he spoke at conferences trying to persuade the Conservatives to oppose the Scottish Assembly; after this campaign was successful, he was a member of the "Scotland Says No" campaign for the
devolution referendum. At the
1979 elections to the European Parliament, Fergusson fought the
Strathclyde West constituency, which had seemed safe for Labour; however, a collapse in the Labour vote saw him elected by 1,827 votes.
European Parliament
For three years, Fergusson acted as spokesman for the
European Democratic Group on political affairs. He supported calls for a boycott of the
Moscow Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...
, arguing that the
invasion of Afghanistan and the internal exile of
Andrei Sakharov
Andrei Dmitrievich Sakharov ( rus, Андрей Дмитриевич Сахаров, p=ɐnˈdrʲej ˈdmʲitrʲɪjevʲɪtɕ ˈsaxərəf; 21 May 192114 December 1989) was a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, nobel laureate and activist for n ...
showed the two sides of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
: "Aggression without, and oppression within". When
Barbara Castle
Barbara Anne Castle, Baroness Castle of Blackburn, (''née'' Betts; 6 October 1910 – 3 May 2002), was a British Labour Party politician who was a Member of Parliament from 1945 to 1979, making her one of the longest-serving female MPs in Bri ...
criticised the expenses of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
, he described her as "the single most damaging export the United Kingdom has on its hands today".
When in 1982 the European Union proposed that the electoral system for European Parliament elections be changed to the party list, Fergusson led the Conservative MEPs' opposition. He kept up constant pressure on the government of Poland over its crackdown on
Solidarity, and condemned not only the USSR over the shootdown of
Korean Air Flight 007, but the Greek government (which had failed to issue its own condemnation). He was a rapporteur in late 1983, bringing in a report which called for European co-operation on arms manufacture; and for a proposal to install an
Empty Chair in the parliament, symbolically waiting for Eastern European countries to be liberated and join the
European Community
The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...
.
For 20 years from 1981, Fergusson was a vice-president of the
Pan-European Union.
1984 election campaign
At the
1984 election, Fergusson opted out of defending his seat in Strathclyde, and instead fought London Central where the sitting MEP Sir
David Nicolson was standing down. He found it sad that people could vote for an opponent (
Stan Newens), who had opposed EEC entry, but on election day Newens won the seat by 13,000 votes.
Subsequent career
Fergusson was
Special Adviser on European Affairs to the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1985 to 1989. He then set up as a consultant on European affairs. Fergusson also continued journalism, and contributed to the rebuilding of the City of
Bath (he was honorary Vice-President of the
Bath Preservation Trust
The Bath Preservation Trust is a charity that is based in Bath, Somerset, England, which exists to safeguard for the public benefit the historic character and amenities of the city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its environs. The trust is i ...
from 1997). His polemic, "The Sack of Bath", was first published in 1973 and is a record of how, in the space of a few years, and in the name of modernisation and redevelopment, the city was robbed of its architectural "undergrowth"; and of how ugly new developments wrecked a unique part of the European heritage.
Remaining fully committed to the European ideal, Fergusson derided the Conservative Party's approach to the
1999 European Parliament elections in a joint letter which wished for a manifesto "more like that of the
Pro-Euro Conservative Party
The Pro-Euro Conservative Party was a British political party announced by John Stevens and Brendan Donnelly in February 1999, formed to contest the 1999 European Parliament election. The founders were Members of the European Parliament who had ...
".
["Voter dilemmas in Euro elections" (Letter), ''The Times'', 8 June 1999, p. 21.] His novel ''Scone'', a political satire on the effects of devolution in Scotland, was published in 2005.
Personal life
He was married for 44 years to Penelope Hughes (d.2009), with whom he has four children, James, Petra, Lucy and Marcus, and thirteen grandchildren. He lives
in London.
References
*''Who was Who''
*''The Times''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fergusson, Adam
1932 births
Living people
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Scottish journalists
The Times people
Younger sons of baronets
Scottish novelists
Scottish Conservative Party MEPs
MEPs for Scotland 1979–1984
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature
Politicians of the Pro-Euro Conservative Party