How would an independent Scotland have fared during the crash? Given that the liabilities for RBS alone represent 2,500 per cent of Scotland’s economic output, it’s a difficult question for Alex Salmond. He replies that the banks in Scotland would have been better-regulated by wise, old him, so the problems would not have arisen. But Faisal Islam at Channel Four has unearthed a letter that rather explodes this theory, written from the First Minister to Fred the Shred egging him on with the calamitous acquisition of ABN Amro. This, as CoffeeHousers will know, is the acquisition which was so hubristic that it went on to sink the whole banking group.
The letter is here (pdf), and it includes an offer from the First Minister of ‘any assistance my office can provide’. This suggests that if Salmond had been running an independent Scotland it would have behaved as badly — if not even worse — than Ireland and Iceland in cosying up to the banks and stoking their destructive ambitions.
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