Alex Salmond regrets backing Goodwin

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland-blog/2012/feb/01/alex-salmond-regrets-backing-goodwin

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Alex Salmond has become the latest political figure to publicly regret supporting the disgraced RBS head Fred Goodwin, stripped on Tuesday of his knighthood for services to banking.

In a BBC Scotland interview, the first minister – once a champion of the Royal Bank of Scotland's buccaneering and all-conquering style – said he would've "done things differently" if he could have foreseen what then happened to RBS, which collapsed in 2008.

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.

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.

<br />Salmond also told the BBC he believes the Goodwin knighthood row throws up questions about the secrecy surrounding the honours system.

Yet Salmond's mea culpa is more significant than most: he was once an energy economist for RBS, and the first minister is keen to show he is comfortable and knowledgeable on banking. He cites Sir George Mathewson, the former chief executive of the RBS, as one of his mentors and allies; Mathewson is now on Salmond's financial services advisory board.

His supporters will argue this is a brave step: Salmond is a proud man. Scottish Labour disagrees: that was simply a half apology, they argue. They have been brandished the letter Salmond wrote days after winning the Scottish election in 2007 urging on the then Sir Fred Goodwin to take over the Dutch bank ABN Amro.

He offered Goodwin "any assistance my office can provide", for a take-over which toppled RBS and forced then Chancellor Alistair Darling to spend £46bn saving it from disintegration.

Johann Lamont, the Scottish Labour leader, said Salmond's regrets were welcomed, but then came the sting:

His infamous letter to Fred Goodwin offering him the services of the government to help with the disastrous takeover of ABN Amro was ill-judged.

Apologising for that is one thing, but what Alex Salmond should really apologise for is supporting even lighter bank regulations.

Labour has already apologised for not being tough enough on the banks, and it is time the SNP did the same

Labour took great delight in quoting back Salmond's words from an article in the Times on 7 April 2007:

We are pledging a light-touch regulation suitable to a Scottish financial sector with its outstanding reputation for probity, as opposed to one like that in the UK, which absorbs huge amounts of management time in 'gold-plated' regulation.

Salmond will recall he won the Scottish parliament election less than four weeks after that remark and did so again last year; Labour is now facing at least nine years in opposition at Holyrood.

His supporters will likewise recall Labour was in charge of the UK's financial regulatory system. They might also point out that Labour, under Jack, now Lord McConnell, was running the then Scottish executive when it recommended Goodwin for a knighthood in 2004.

Yet Salmond's change in demeanour as he expressed that regret is worth watching in the BBC video. Normally one of British politics' most confident performers in front a camera, he seemed to find it less easy making eye contact with his interviewer on the Goodwin question.