Something stinks about the takeover of HBOS. And at the heart of the smell lie Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.
Darling has said quite openly that he has sought assurances from Lloyds TSB about jobs - Scottish jobs. Nothing about the English ones. In Halifax alone, 6,500 people are employed by HBOS. But Halifax is in England, and I can't find anything about the Chancellor lobbying to save jobs there. Instead, with seemingly indecent haste, Lloyds TSB has said that the new headquarters will be in Edinburgh.
We know that the government has been very closely involved in this. So, what have we got ? We've got a Scottish Prime Minister - representing a constituency commuting distance of Edinburgh - and a Scottish Chancellor, whose constituency is in Edinburgh. We've got a key by-election coming up, in Scotland. We've got competition rules being waived by the government. And we've got a deal that prioritises Scottish jobs ahead of English ones.
This is government interference of the very worst order. It is a gross and outrageous abuse of power.
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