Alex Salmond admits he was wrong to encourage Fred Goodwin deal
Fred Goodwin is back in the spotlight. Picture: PA
ALEX Salmond has for the first time signalled that he regrets encouraging Fred Goodwin when the former RBS chief executive was driving forward the disastrous takeover of the Dutch bank ABN Amro.
The First Minister admitted yesterday that, in retrospect, he would have taken a different course at the time of the deal, as he reflected on the decision to strip Mr Goodwin of his knighthood.
Mr Salmond wrote to Mr Goodwin at the time of the takeover to support the deal, which led to the downfall of one of Scotland’s most respected financial institutions and the humiliation of its subsequent £45 billion bail-out by the UK taxpayer.
When Mr Goodwin’s star was at its zenith back in May 2007, Mr Salmond, a former RBS economist, wrote to him signing off the letter with his customary “Yours for Scotland, Alex” valediction.
The letter said: “I wanted you to know that I am watching events closely on the ABN front. It is in Scottish interests for RBS to be successful, and I would like to offer any assistance my office can provide.
“Good luck on the bid.”
When asked yesterday about the support he gave to Mr Goodwin when he led the bank, Mr Salmond said he would done “things differently”.
The First Minister said: “If we all had our time again we’d look at things differently. I think there are very few people who can justifiably say that they anticipated the full extent of the financial collapse – the financial crisis.
“I mean, I know some people claim they did, but I think if you examine the record you’ll find there’s very few people on the planet – and I am certainly not one of them – who anticipated it.”
Mr Salmond added: “So, yeah, of course, if we had the benefit of hindsight we’d do things differently and I am sure that is true of lots and lots of people.”
The SNP leader joined with the heads of other political parties in support of the decision to strip Mr Goodwin of his knighthood, although the decision came in for criticism elsewhere – most notably from Alistair Darling.
The Queen cancelled and annulled Mr Goodwin’s title on the advice of the forfeiture committee – whose members include top civil servants and the head Treasury lawyer.
Mr Salmond contended that, while the decision to remove the knighthood was correct, he suspected the UK government had used the news to divert from the serious issues with the economy.
He also suggested that there should be some reform of the House of Lords, pointing out that some people had remained peers despite being guilty of a criminal activity – a charge that has never been made against Mr Goodwin.
The Conservative peer Lord Archer remains a member of the House of Lords, despite his conviction for perjury.
Lord Watson of Invergowrie, a Labour peer, is still in the upper chamber after his conviction for fire-raising.
Mr Salmond also wondered why similar questions were not being asked about other key figures in the financial community, who had been honoured yet had not emerged blameless from the financial crisis.
“While the decision [to strip Mr Goodwin of his knighthood] is correct, let’s have a statement of what are the criteria for people in the financial sector, first, keeping honours – if they were involved in the financial collapse. Secondly, how about wider across society?
“I mean, what are the criteria by which people retain seats in the House of Lords who have got serious criminal convictions?
“Now, if you start down this road, and this road has now been started down, then there are a lot of folk who want reasonable answers to these questions.
“I don’t see any consistency of approach coming from the Westminster government, and in particular that gives me the great suspicion that what we have here is a dreamt-up, convenient, media diversion.”
Mr Salmond added: “What is the diversion from?
“The serious issues in the economy and secondly, of course, the question of how you justify in the public sector the mass of workers being offered one settlement and people in the financial sector, who are in the public sector, being offered quite different circumstances.”
However, the forfeiture of Mr Goodwin’s knighthood was criticised by the man who played a key role in rescuing the bank.
Mr Darling, the former Labour chancellor, described Mr Goodwin’s treatment as “tawdry” and some Tory MPs expressed concern about the extent of political influence on the City.
Mr Darling voiced distaste at the way Mr Goodwin had been singled out by the government, while other senior figures escaped punishment.
Mr Darling insisted: “There is something tawdry about the government directing its fire at Fred Goodwin alone; if it’s right to annul his knighthood, what about the honours of others who were involved in RBS and HBoS?”
Mr Goodwin received his knighthood for services to banking under the Labour government, before guiding RBS to the brink of collapse in 2008.
The Cabinet Office said the scale of the RBS disaster – necessitating a £45bn bailout – made the case exceptional.
Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement: “The proper process has been followed and I think we’ve ended up with the right decision.”
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Edinburgh
Monday 28 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 10 C to 16 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Comments
There are 103 comments to this article
Page 1 of 7
occupylink
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 09:26 PMThe Occupy Movement is sick of the Scotsman and others scapegoating Fred Goodwin and Alex Salmond in order to ensure the other banking bonuses go through. Note the vilification of Scottish people by the newspaper. We know it full well. We in Occupy Movement know that this nrewspaper is diametrically opposed to our viewed, and have attacked us continually.
Tartancult
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 06:57 PM97 Simonsaid Very difficult to read--------------------------and even more difficult to understand, like most of his posts.
Jolly
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 06:41 PM97 Simonsaid Very difficult to read.
Jolly
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 06:40 PMTime to strip wee Eck of his new big hoose!
Tam O'Banter
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:46 PMWho needs a pal like wee Eck, eh?
Family guy
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:43 PM55 - Ah, colonial is the magic word, eh? What does the word colonial mean? Yes, I have phoned RBS before. I phone my local branch. They are very good and very attentive and know me by name and by sight if I happen to meet them outside the branch. Every local branch has a direct number (it will have the same area code as your own home) and no, they do not direct it through a call centre. I reckon you must be doing something wrong. Perhaps you are not outward looking and people orientated. Or you are a liar since someone like you that seems to despise RBS but requires to phone them, meaning you still have an account with them, somehow doesn't ring true.
Simonsaid
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 04:03 PM#80= baggy troosers - Jack McConnell (Labour)was the man who nominated one of Gordon Broons (Labour) economic advisors, Fred Goodwin,for a knighthood. It's good to know that ================================================== Mibees ye could expand on whit ye think is gid aboot whit Jack whit’s his face did in the past thit is gonny be ony benefit tae the defence o oor Great Leader’s cringinly grovelling love letter tae Sheddy Freddy? On second thought s mibees it isnae a gid idea if yer next post is gonny be as mingin as the wan ye jist posted
wpd
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 03:23 PM#87 Mr Charley...................."The aspiration of the people of Scotland to decide their own future ........ SNP...... independence...." .......I think you make a hugely unmerited assumption. It has been the settled will of the Scottish people to be part of the UK for generations now, and in election after election they have refused to give a majority vote in favour of separation. Even in the so called "landslide" in May last year a majority of the votes cast went to non-separatist parties. The SNP got 45% of a very low turnout which reulted in less than 30% (22.5%?) of the Scottish electorate voting SNP on that occasion. Separatists have never, even on one occasion, managed to get above 30% of the Scottish electorate to vote for them. Therefore, separatists do not represent and never have represented the aspirations of the Scottish people. If they did we'd have had a referendum by now. The Goebbels technique of endlessly repeating the big lie until somebody believes it aint going to work. Sorry.
Buford Van Stomm
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 03:03 PMDon't be so restrained, Buffy, Tell 'em what you REALLY think. ==================================================== History will remember them as the cowards who allowed dweebs running banks to bully them with empty threats about moving abroad and who despite the unimpeachable fact that they were at the political berating heart of this cataclysmic foul up they have taken no responsibility and in fact contrary to the experiential evidence that shows they did not and do not have the capacity to oversee a prudent financial sector they continue to pride themselves as being the solution.
Blantyre Bill
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 02:59 PMSalmond will tell us tomorrow that he was wrong when he thought that he had made a mistake because he now believes that he was right all the time.
Cynicus
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 02:43 PM"82 Cynicus ...........Shady double glazing companies are better run and have a firmer grasp on balancing books. ==================================================== ..... they are financially dyslexic and lack the testicular fortitude to doanything about it. Spineless cretins.......r absolute incompetence."-#85, Buford Van Stomm ===================================================== Don't be so restrained, Buffy, Tell 'em what you REALLY think.
A Friend of Fernando Poo
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 01:12 PMImpossible to predict eh? ................"This time around it's being done by the GSE's Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae in the form of mortgage-backed CDO's. They're regarded as government-backed because of the special arrangements for the GSE's and trade as so akin to US Treasury bonds that Greenspan has proposed using them in Federal Reserve operations and may already have done so. The tech-wreck tended to look more like the railroads and canals bubbles, not least in the levels of fraud now being uncovered. Needless to say, at a record two-thirds of households, we have a planetary record for the proportion of the population participating. The debt involved, as a percentage of GDP similarly dwarves any previous bubble. Historically the rule of thumb seems to be that the damage to the wider economy caused by the aftermath is roughly dependent on those two variables."....-- Yours Truly (May 2003 writing in uk.finance)
neoloon
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 12:35 PMThe knighthood was awarded to Goodwin by UNIONISTS.
Engineer
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 12:12 PM#74 samcoldstream I agree with every word up to the last sentence. It seems lop-sided that there's been a media witch-hunt against FG with little to no recriminations for Andy Hornby or the powers who put Lloyds under pressure to merge with HBOS. The whole affair is a national disaster and I'm very uncomfortable with the idea that people actively involved in decision making at the highest levels of the public and private worlds might not be held to account and possibly be allowed to make similar errors in the future.
Buford Van Stomm
Thursday, February 2, 2012 at 12:07 PM87 Charlie McFarley -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Show me an evidenced devolution dividend.
Page 1 of 7
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.