Sunday 12 October 2008

Arc of non-prosperity

Alex Salmond has been continually giving us the benefit of his dubious advice on the world economic crisis, so let's look back at what he had to say in August 2006. To quote the SNP website:

"SNP Leader Alex Salmond has today called for Scotland to join northern Europe's arc of prosperity, with Ireland to the west, Iceland to the north and Norway to the east all small independent countries in the top six richest nations in the world."

Salmond went on to say:

"Scotland can change to a better future and be part of northern Europe's arc of prosperity. We have three countries ­ Ireland to our west, Iceland to our north and Norway to our east - all in the top six wealthiest countries in the world."

So fast forward a couple of years:

'Iceland's government seized control of Kaupthing Bank hf, the nation's biggest bank, completing the takeover of a financial industry that collapsed under the weight of foreign debt.

"This looks like a total collapse," said Thomas Haugaard Jensen, an economist at Svenska Handelsbanken AB in Copenhagen. "It'll take several years before the economy can start to return to growth."' (Bloomberg News last Thursday)

If that's an arc of prosperity Alex, you can keep it. Seriously, the SNP's claim that Scotland would do better economically as an isolated, separate nation can now clearly be seen for the total rubbish that it is.