I am off to Edinburgh for the day later as it happens, so its seems fitting to have a Scottish theme for tonight's post.
Readers may or may not have seen some coverage of the collapse of Dunfermline Building Society. What is interesting is that the Chairman says the Government has been heavy handed in the 'takeover' of the organisation. Alistair Darling is being fingered for this.
His interview is quite interesting, he suggests that he only needed about £20 million in loans. Dunfermline is not full of toxic derivatives and sub-prime loans, more that the business suffered stress from the freezing of the credit markets. Not wishing to defend the Government, but Bank chairman are not currently a species who have much credibility and are bound to say for reasons of their own legal defence later that things were not that bad; Dumfermline have a sorry looking bunch of commercial loans to go with their Scottish mortgage book.
However, the thought that a Labour Government would move fast towards the option of nationalisation is also credible. Particularly in Scotland where there is more political support for wild Marxist activity. Let's see whether a buyer comes forward who either has strong Labour links or is perhaps already state-owned?
Apparently we will have the answer later on Monday....
