Black arts of banking

Published 24 Aug 2010 09:30

WILLIAM Macleod claims “we had no choice bar to bail [the banks] out” (Your Letters, August 17).

Bearing in mind an independent Scotland would represent a sovereign nation state, I can think of a few choices.

A) A Scottish Government could have followed the US example and let them go bust, as they did with Lehman Brothers.

That is you could let the shareholders sort out their own mess.

B) The Scottish Government could follow the UK example and print billions of pounds of money - ‘quantitative easing’ - borrow billions and use assets such as oil as collateral.

Then asset strip the public sector to pay off the debts and liabilities of the private sector.

C) The Scottish Government could go for full nationalisation, form a public Bank of Scotland (assuming RBS and HBOS are ‘Scottish’) and tell the private sector to go and take a powder.

As for the costs Mr Macleod refers to, the Scottish Government could follow the New Labour bankers and high net worth individuals’ example about what to do with debts, liabilities and responsibilities - that is, deny them, write them off, trade them off, go bankrupt or declare off-shore tax haven rules and say “no comment, that’s strictly private and confidential”.

If it is good enough for New Labour and the current UK Government, surely it is good enough for an independent Scottish Government, Mr Macleod?

On the other hand, the representative of the Scottish Government might begin to act like they have got a conscience.

Then we really would be in big trouble.

They might see our political economy for the black art and veil of deception it truly is.

Of course, the New Labour equivalent of the SNP’s ‘Arc of Prosperity’ was its ‘special relationship’ with George W Bush.

I leave your readers to decide who drew the short straw there.

James Graham, address supplied

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This letter appeared in Dumbarton & Vale of Leven Reporter 24 Aug 10

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