His father, Ronald Fergus Alexander was a teacher and his mother was Doreen Olivia Myfanwy.

Some time after leaving college, in 1960, he applied for a job at Yorkshire Post, where he started writing about economics, despite not having trained in the subject.

[2] He was denounced in the House of Commons by the Labour MP Dennis Canavan as "that prizewinning cynical jackass".

[5] He became the City editor for the Mail in 1984, where he could focus on financial commentary during Margaret Thatcher's time in office.

There he argued against entry into the European Monetary System, which led to Black Wednesday crash.