Broon's Dunfermline Sacrifice

Just been watch Jim Faulds currently still the Chairman of the Dunfermline Building Society at least for today quite rightly getting angry at the way the Government has dealt with this scenario.

He has accused the Treasury of being economic with the actualité. He said that unlike Northern Rock they did not have a Sub Prime Mortgage issue. That the losses that Dunfermline were going to announce of £26 million were less than the £36 million that the Chelsea Building Society lost in Icelandic institutions alone.

He also said that there was no exposure to the US toxic debt. Stating that KPMG has said they could be supported and sustained as an independent ongoing interest. Something that Jim Murphy then seemed to be very unsure about when challenged that they were.

He also protested at the lack of proportionality, the risk that has been being covered by the government in the banks as opposed to the lack that they have given the the Building Societies such as Brandford and Bingley and now Dunfermline. The mortgage book of Building Societies is back by bricks and mortar, at the end of this recession those assets will still exist and start to recover, unlike many of the risky investments that the Government has been bailing out for over £1 trillion of protection. When challenged on those with a worst situation Murphy only said that each situation was different (possible some of the others exist in Labour held seats).

Faulds also complained that he and the rest of the board were getting their news from the press before the FSA, the Treasury and the Scottish Office.

It appears that the Government is not prepared to stand by the Building Societies. I've even heard Jim Murphy just say that this is a short term problem. Again blaming it on the international situation, taking no blame for 12 years of UK Government mismanagement that has ended up seeing the country so heavily in debt that the worse offenders ended up at the front of the queue and were helped no questions asked in full and now those that managed to survive that bit longer are being left out to dry or being sold off. Like Mr Faulds said in answer to the first question Dunfermline is a sacrifice not a solution.

Willie Rennie MP for Dunfermline and West Fife then came on later to say it was a disgrace what Jim Murphy was saying. There has been a deal on the table from the UK Building Societies for six months and that the Government has been partially responsible and the FSA's levies are exacerbating it.

Where will it all end? Who will be next to be left out to dry?

Update: Moving unto the Euro debate on Scottish Politics and Labour's David Murray again trying to sidle away from the fact, for fact it is, that while there may have been a US element to our recession we are worse off than the rest of equivalent sized Western Europe countries. Struan Stevenson correctly brought him to task in trying to

Hands Off Our Forsests

You would have thought that a party claiming to speak for the nationalist movement of a nation would understand the mindset of that nation. Not so the SNP when it comes to the nations forests.

Almost three quarters of the respondents to the Scottish Government consultation on the leasing of a quarter of Scotland's forest were opposed to the proposal. In fact while 71% were against only 12% were in support of the SNPs plan. Is this just the latest sign of how out of touch the SNP are with reality and the concerns of its citizens?

Well as Hamish MacDonell wrote in the Steamie yesterday it is not just limited to Scotland that the SNP have lost grasp of reality. Jim Mather the enterprise Minister is still clinging to the Arc or prosperity.

So that would be:

• Ireland where the government support for the banking sector is currently 220% of GDP, it could get worse as the Banks' coverage of loans is still 5 times that amount.
• Iceland whose banking sector almost brought the prospect of the nation going bankrupt into being.
• Norway who like Scotland have oil. With a 7% drop in the price recently that is hardly going to be a stable economic structure.
• Of course Scotland's own two one point five one point two five* Banks are also the pinicles of prosperity.

So the Arc is sinking something that never affected Noah and clearly dodesn't worry Mather either. Man the lifeboats and lets hope there is a helicopter ready to rescue us like the oilworkers before we sink to fast under Nats pilotage of our economy.

*Really depends how much of HBOS you consider Scottish after the second merger.

Nice Cuppa Not Gonna Relieve This Pain

They say that no matter how bad the situation there is nothing better to help you through it than a nice cup of tea. However, I doubt this was the case for the bosses an employees of Whittards who have become the latest High Street victim of the credit crunch as tea is their primary business.

Whittards had been backed by the Icelandic bank Landsbanki and owner by Icelandic investors Baugur. But following the failed Icelandic bank cutting the companies funding lines so Ernst and Young are prepared to step in as administrators for the company who have been the purveyors of fine teas for 122 years.

500 staff across the chains 130 stores will be going home for Christmas tomorrow with one wish; hoping Ernst and Young find an interested party to buy the company. But with Whittards facing a rent bill on Christmas it may be bailiffs and not father Christmas who is taking drinks for the company founded in Chelsea. As Nick Hood predicted the other day as many as 10 chains may be in imminent danger, as many others are owned or financed by Icelandic money it may be worth looking at the states of their financial positions with regards to the immediate future.

Update: Then again it is always hard to resist a fine cup of tea, or for that matter a whole company. Apparently private equity investor Epic have stepped in to buy Whittards apparently in a deal brokered by former Whittards boss Will Hobhouse.

Darling Informed that Barnsley Now Part of Yorkshire

Now before any of my well informed readers run to correct my statement on geographic grounds about the town of Parky, I'd like to state I'm talking fiscally. As the Yorkshire Building Society has taken over the Barnsley Building Society to protect it from the possible loss of up to £10m that was invested by the BBS in Icelandic Banks.

However, it does take us back to the term used by the Chancellor at the start of the Icelandic banking implosion. Then he referred to councils as "informed investors" and therefore was going to exclude them from any protection.

What definition is a building society that had deposits in Iceland, Darling? Surely if even such informed investors as those involved in the financial sector have money tied up in Iceland, how much information does Mr Darling assume that councils had to make them so informed?

Is Darling as informed about this whole crisis as he should be? Before he ruled out protecting "informed investors" had he checked out information on their deposit deals?

We insist that you should inform us Darling.