The BBC’s financial fraud, Robert Peston, has “predicted” that the Dunfermline Building Society could be bought by the Nationwide. Like most of Peston’s “predictions”, it’s already old news by the time he makes his pronouncement.
It was surprising that the Treasury didn’t bail out the Dunfermline because most of its branches are in El Gordo’s constituency. Not so surprising is the fact that the Treasury is going to take on £1bn of toxic assets, allowing the new owner to take on the profitable part of the business.
The Chairman of the Dunfermline is having a whinge about the Treasury not doing more to keep the building society independent. The SNP, desperate not to lose another one of “oor banks” (yes I know it’s a building society, not a bank), has offered financial aid to the Dunfermline but the Treasury has apparently blocked the offer.
Technorati Tags: Dunfermline, Peston
Although it is the biggest of “oor Building Societies” it is only the 15th biggest nationally
Yeah, but, it might gain Labour 570 votes at the next election. So it’s well worth the cost.
It’s actually a spectacular own Goal by Broon and Darling.
The headquarters of the Dunfermline BS were in the next door constituency to Broon and Alistair Darling’s constituency is just across the river Forth in Edinburgh. The two most powerful men in the UK Government did nothing to help a building society in a neighbouring constituency. It has been noticed in Scotland.
The good part of the Dunfermline has been sold to the Nationwide and us poor taxpayers are lumbered with the liabilities for the “toxic” debt. If the Government had loaned the Dunfermline the money to stay solvent, not “bailed out” as many in the media would have it, the Dunfermline could have continued on with the taxpayer liable for nothing.
The general concensus in Scotland is that Brown is working to a scorched-earth policy which is to sell off as many financial institutions in Scotland as he can in order to remove as much financial power as possible from Scotland before any referendum. Brown doesn’t like anything which is Scottish not British, up to and including the Scottish football team. The HBOS share price collapse driven by Treasury leaks to Peston and then the subsequent rushed sale to Lloyds and now the total refusal to countenance the Dunfermline continuing on as an independent society.
Jim Faulds’ complaint wasn’t that the Treasury didn’t do enough it was that it simply refused to talk to the Dunfermline. If you want to see him interviewed on the Scottish opt-out of the Politics show have a look here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR3SICn4Z58. He is very, very angry with Brown and Darling.
The Labour party line in Scotland has always been that Scotland is too poor, too small and not smart enough to be a proper country and to use that line to try and frighten the voters in Scotland into staying in the Union. It has worked before and it is a very dangerous situation for Scotland to be in when the party in power in London, which controls the economy, benefits electorally from economic failure in Scotland.
Scotland is too poor (maybe), too small(no) and not smart enough (yes, definitely and you think the english education system is a farce?) to be a proper country
doug
and i think the previous labour administrations at holyrood have been in collusion too, there have been too many fucked up decisions that have been made, that serve no real purpose but to weaken us and lull us into a sense of dependence on westminster