It has been said here previously that the Scots 'cost' to the UK is too high and they should be allowed to head off to independence to relieve English taxpayers.
In the Telegraph today there is a leader on how we should all unite now and how silly Alex Salmond looked for saying Scotland could be like Iceland etc. All in all it is better that we are all in it together.
What a specious argument, here are the costs of the bail out so far:
Northern Wreck - At least £40 billion net exposure, maybe as much as £60 billion in the end. Current exposure is £100 billion gross.
Bradford and Bingley - At least £10 billion exposure
RBS - £21 billion
HBOS - £9 billion
LLoyds TSB - £5 billion
Barclays - £3 billion
So that is (rough figures) £78 billion versus £30 billion. But HBOS has Halifax and RBS has Natwest, significant English institutions, as well as many national insurance brands. So a true figure would be much less as even as independent an English Government would want to save its own banks.
There are plenty of reasons to want an end to the union or to keep it. This is not one of them
How I'd love to see Scotland running their own finances and having to bail out their own banks at an exponential cost.
ReplyDeleteit would be great, but as I say, we would still end up helping if only to save ourselves.
ReplyDeleteAll this does though rather undermine Alex Salmond with his comparisons to iceland/ireland etc...