We should all urge Scots to stay in Scotland

[scooterscot]

There is no reason why the NW for example couldn't become a financial services centre to rival edinburgh.

That made me giggle.

I think you'll find there's one or two reasons stopping that from happening.

[doodab]

That made me giggle.

I think you'll find there's one or two reasons stopping that from happening.

Do expand.

[scooterscot]

Do expand.

It's a bit like saying there is no reason why Birmingham for example couldn't become a financial services centre to rival London, were it to become an independent state.

Birmingham is a bankrupt dump. The best people are not going to live there for love nor money.

[stek]

They'd have to have their own entry for Eurovision, now that IS scary...

[scooterscot]

They'd have to have their own entry for Eurovision, now that IS scary...

Tragic

[doodab]

It's a bit like saying there is no reason why Birmingham for example couldn't become a financial services centre to rival London, were it to become an independent state.

Birmingham is a bankrupt dump. The best people are not going to live there for love nor money.

So no critique to offer of the NW at all then?

You don't need "the best people" when you're outsourcing back office stuff and telephone sales.

[Ticktock]

It's a bit like saying there is no reason why Birmingham for example couldn't become a financial services centre to rival London, were it to become an independent state.

Birmingham is a bankrupt dump. The best people are not going to live there for love nor money.

Glasgow was always a shining beacon before major investment was made there, wasn't it?

It's not too bad now on the whole, and attracted some major companies (e.g. HP and Dell) but of course that has nothing to do with money being pumped into the area.

[scooterscot]

So no critique to offer of the NW at all then?

You don't need "the best people" when you're outsourcing back office stuff and telephone sales.

Ah, I think you might be confused when I say the best people...

[Zero Liability]

Go on, spread the good word to the Swedes why not?

English, you have some pretty screwed up impressions of what it means to enrich a community.

I think you should look deeper into Sweden. They are not 'socialist' by any measure of the word. They just have very high tax rates. Their welfare system had a crisis in the 1990s so the country has shifted right-wards ever since. They didn't even bail out their banks, unlike 'socialist' Britain and the 'socialist' RBS, that feeds off the taxpayer's teat. Or the socialist US and its massive bailouts and subsidies to the banks and other interest parties. In a few years the Swedes will probably look upon the US and laugh, for they were once where it is. Sweden is scaling down, not up, which isn't what Scotland would do. I would be happy if Scotland did liberalise its economy, but it's unlikely to happen.

The Scandinavian countries are not hugely dissimilar from the Anglo-saxon model but they do less to punish entrepreneurship than we do. Even though their overall tax burden is high, so is that in the UK and US, and so is the level of (rather futile) regulation here. Britain in its current form has a better shot of being called socialist than Sweden, because of the level of planning that goes on in the economy.

[minestrone]

Glasgow was always a shining beacon before major investment was made there, wasn't it?

It's not too bad now on the whole, and attracted some major companies (e.g. HP and Dell) but of course that has nothing to do with money being pumped into the area.

Dell don't have a place and HP are there on account of an old Compaq office which was there 20 years ago and probably for a while before that so nothing to do with cash incentives. Glasgow has quite a lot of lower end banking stuff and some back end stuff but nothing and I mean nothing to boast about.

The banking sector in Edinburgh is on a completely different level, large head offices of major players to many specialist smaller firms, these places go there because of the skills of the workforce, because a lot of people work in finance in Edinburgh and because it is a good place to run your business, it looks good and has history. These places don't need or look for cash incentives to locate there.

The think that all this can be taken of them by some place in the north of England by using some bribes is quite frankly ludicrous.