A very special relationship: Examining the ties between Scotland and the United States

PRESIDENT Barack Obama sent the bust of Winston Churchill packing from the White House’s Oval Office, but the image of Britain’s wartime prime minister still dominates the office of his ambassador in London. Overlooking Louis Susman’s desk, the portrait is a reminder of the powerful relationship that still exists between the United States and United Kingdom.

Susman is preparing to visit Scotland, on his third trip north of the Border this year, it is clear that recent history has knocked a dent the relationship between the US and Scotland at least

Even though Colonel Gaddafi is now dead, the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has not been forgotten nor forgiven.

A former banker and a senior member of the Democratic Party, Susman looks every inch the career diplomat. He is efficient with his words and careful not to tread on internal political sensibilities. However, his arrival in 2008 coincided with the release of Megrahi, convicted of the murder of 270 people, mostly Americans, when Pan Am flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie on 21 December 1988. The release was on compassionate grounds because Megrahi, suffering from prostate cancer, was expected to have just three months to live.

Asked if this is now in the past, the Ambassador’s impassive face hardens. “The answer is no,” he says firmly, unusually portraying some strength of feeling.

When he meets First Minister Alex Salmond this week the decision will still over hang the meeting, even if both men wish to move on. He says the decision “didn’t help” in maintaining good relations between the US and Scotland.

“We have maintained from the moment this issue arose that it would be wrong to release Megrahi, it was contrary to what we believed was our agreement and we continue to feel it was wrong.

“Megrahi is still living two and a half, almost three years, which contradicts the medical analysis which created the compassionate release, so that was wrong too.

“That being said we are not in a position to get him back into prison in Scotland, and we have made our points and I think we have to move forward from there but it is certainly nothing that has been forgotten.”

The ambassador says he loves Scotland, though, not least for the traditional attractions which have drawn Americans over the years – golf and whisky.

He smiles as he remembers the rounds he has played: “Well I’ve played Turnberry, I’ve played St Andrews, I mean it is a golfing heaven.”

And whisky: is he an Islay or Speyside man?

“They’re all too good. I’m an all man.”

He describes Scotland as being very important to the embassy, highlighting trade and students.But there is another reason for Susman – who has been vice chairman of Citigroup Global Markets in Chicago – having an interest in Scotland in a time of huge economic uncertainty.

Though he diplomatically answers, staying out of internal politics, especially the independence referendum – “we’re well aware of it. We’re not in that particular fight” – he is interested in the debate on about how to turn around the economy.

Recently Salmond and Finance Secretary John Swinney have made much of their “plan MacB” for growth, as opposed to the UK Tory/Lib Dem coalition’s “cut first and fast” approach, and it has caught America’s eye.

“One of the things I’d be interested on this trip is to see how the Scottish Government is approaching the aspects on the economy. So I’ll be meeting with the Finance Minister and the First Minister about that.”

The model argued for north of the Border is closer to the one being pursued by the Obama administration, using stimulus spending, which is opposed by Republicans.

“We feel we have to cut and I think we will cut. But I also think we have to have a growth plan and to do that this administration feels we have to have some form of stimulus.”

With the US’s credit rating recently being downgraded by the agency Standard & Poor’s the need for economic answers is an important one. The downgrading gave some the feeling it might be a country at the beginning of decline, an impression perhaps reflected by the ambassador’s office. One of the pictures in the office is of the new embassy building where they plan to move in 2017. It offers a bright gleaming future in contrast to the current building which, while beautifully kept, gives an impression that it’s past its best.

But for Susman there are reasons to be optimistic, not least in his view, because the time for indecision is over – both in Europe between arguing states in the eurozone and in America where the entrenched views of Democrats and Republicans led to S&P’s credit rating decision.

“I’ve just spent some time in Europe and Brussels and other places on this issue as well as here in the UK and it’s a serious crisis in the eurozone. I think though that it is important to note that everyone knows what the solution is. The solution is that you have to create a firewall of support to stop the contagion, especially in Italy and in Spain which means you have to provide more than the E440 million in the stability fund.

“Point two is that you have to recapitalise your banks that appropriately mark the value of the sovereign debt. But the bottom line is you have got to deal with Greece.

“The question is whether France and Germany will be able to create this in the necessary time frame. But they have to come up with a solution.”

He does not hold back on America too, where he points out a decision on finding $1.3 trillion (£815 billion) of cuts has to be made by 23 November by a committee of senior members of Congress.

If it fails then $1.5tn (£940bn) will be cut from various budgets automatically.

“It’s very hard in America to do that today with partisanship between the two parties. The president has recently proposed a jobs bill which in the US senate they didn’t have enough votes to break a filibuster, so it killed the bill.

“I think that is an incentive for these legislators to come up with something. What they’ll come up with I don’t know.”

It is rare for senior figures from the banks at the heart of the crisis in 2008 to make themselves available for interview these days. But Susman appears to be relaxed about discussing the crisis that happened at the end of a long and distinguished career. But he is careful to point out that when the system finally broke he was heavily involved in the election campaign for Barack Obama at the time, and that he retired in January 2009.

“As you can see I flunked retirement,” he jokes. “But you know there are lessons to be learned from that. There was no playbook on how to do this. I don’t think the world will ever know how close we came to a 1929 depression, people like Goldman Sachs thought they might go bankrupt.”

While Gordon Brown claimed to have helped save the world, Susman, perhaps not surprisingly puts the credit elsewhere.

“I really also believe President Obama’s administration hasn’t got enough credit from saving us from that financial crisis, but that being said $700bn in that [bailout fund], barely passed, we only used $450m. It’s all been paid back but $80m, at a profit.

“The point was that by having $700bn it sent a message to the markets we are going to protect our financial institutions and economy and that is what has got to happen with the eurozone. They have got to say, ‘We are going to protect Italy, we are going to protect Spain, we are going to protect the euro.’ Those are the lessons I took away from this.”

But like others involved at the time, he says that he had been unable to predict what happened, and recalls his first conversation with the Queen when he met her as ambassador.

“I think it was very interesting when I came here and had a discussion with the Queen and how incredibly perceptive she was to ask why with the government and all the smart people in the world, how come no-one predicted this. It was a pretty astute comment.”