So what would have happened to the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS had Scotland been independent? The Scotsman quotes an anonymous Edinburgh banker saying “HBOS would have gone bust and RBS would have followed five days later. The Scottish state simply wouldn’t have enough money to rescue two banks of that size as Iceland has done. As it would have been a Scottish problem rather than a British one – they’d both have gone to the wall.” In The Times, Jenny Hjul seductively argues that Iceland’s bankruptcy and Ireland’s woes expose the dangers of the small country model. Salmond even mentioned Iceland as a lodestar. He floated £100m – yes, million – as a HBOS bailout package, bless. With HBOS and Bank of Scotland about to be nationalised, doesn’t it show that you need a big country as a safety valve?
As a proud unionist, I’m all up for arguments that weaken the cause of Scottish nationalism.
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