Salmond: I’m Sticking with the Scandinavians, and I Want HBOS Back Too

Last week we looked at how Alex Salmond was rather bullishly maintaining Scotland’s claim to independence in the face of its banks being taken under England’s wing. Well, he’s been at it again at the SNP annual conference yesterday.

He laid into Gordon Brown for presiding over an unregulated derivatives market that had “almost broken the banking system” before dubbing him “a sub-prime minister”. Bet he’d been saving that one up.

He also said that northern Europe (to which he seems to believe Scotland would somehow be annexed) was set to weather the recession, but that England would “tumble into the economic mire”, according to the IMF. Well, sort of, but the IMF don’t exactly paint the Scandinavians in bright colours. And let’s face it, Scotland’s claim to independence is predicated on them getting top dollar for their oil, which doesn’t look promising for the next couple of years.

One thing Salmond did well to pick up on though is the questionable necessity of the HBOS/Lloyds merger. Of course he wants HBOS to stay, because of the Scottish jobs at stake and the corporation tax income they would lose, but the always-reliable Vince Cable is also saying it’s now a stale, illogical idea that was mooted in very different circumstances. Legally, Lloyds don’t actually need to be involved anymore now that HBOS has enough capital; Scottish business heads are demanding a rethink. But supporters of the merger are arguing that HBOS didn’t and doesn’t have a secure enough business model to be able to stand on its own.

How swayed will Brown be by all this: the likelihood is he’ll carry the merger forward as part of his image rehabilitation as manly and decisive.

Posted by Ben Beaumont-Thomas in Hot Money | October 20, 2008 2:05PM |