A parcel of rogues

When you arrive at Edinburgh airport there are dozens of posters and signs proclaiming it to be “the home of RBS”.

It’s a bit of a surprise they want to boast about an organisation which received a £45 billion bailout but there you go. The Act of Union was only signed in the first place because the Scots made such a hash of trying to create their own little overseas empire in Panama and had to be bailed out by the English. As Robbie Burns said:

We're bought and sold for English Gold,

Sic a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation.

So, as the nationalists launch their marathon campaign to win independence, we must remind them they will immediately become responsible for their own debts – starting with the £45 billion owed to the British taxpayer by the Royal Bank of Scotland.