Diary

20 November 2008

Alex Salmond opens his Parliamentarian diary

And let’s not forget our historic victory in Glasgow East, where our newly- elected MP John Mason achieved an outstanding swing of 22.54 per cent towards the SNP.

We know that the number one concern across Scotland is the rising cost of energy and its impact on household bills. People are seeing banks being propped up and bailed out by the UK government, but little support to help them meet their energy bills this winter.

The SNP in government are taking what action we can: freezing council tax, increasing central heating installations and investing in efforts to tackle fuel poverty. But until we have the full powers of a normal independent nation, the people of Scotland can send a powerful message to Westminster by voting for the SNP.

On Gordon Brown’s watch, Scotland’s biggest company, RBS, has had to be recapitalised and saddled with 12 per cent preference shares. And our oldest bank, the Bank of Scotland, is threatened with disappearing as an independent force. The Bank of Scotland has been around for 300 years and is hard-wired into the social and economic fabric of Scotland. It does not deserve to be cast aside as a consequence of Brown’s age of irresponsibility.

However, the current crisis is affecting all nations around the world, large and small. In the US, the biggest and most powerful economy on the planet, no fewer than 17 banks have been laid low. Size has not afforded immunity from the market maelstrom.

Growth forecasts from the International Monetary Fund published in October show that Ireland is in recession but it is and will remain almost 40 per cent per head more prosperous than the UK. Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland are among the few countries in Europe still forecast to escape recession, yet the UK is expected to tumble into the economic mire. These countries remain a model of how small independent nations can prosper.