It’s a tough time to be a Scottish nationalist

One interesting consequence of the U.K.’s massive bank bailouts is that the British government is now the largest stakeholder in Scotland’s two largest banks. Scottish nationalists are none too pleased about this, and their opponents are relishing the opportunity to rub it in their faces: They now look pretty silly," Brian Wilson, a Scot and ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

One interesting consequence of the U.K.'s massive bank bailouts is that the British government is now the largest stakeholder in Scotland's two largest banks. Scottish nationalists are none too pleased about this, and their opponents are relishing the opportunity to rub it in their faces:

One interesting consequence of the U.K.’s massive bank bailouts is that the British government is now the largest stakeholder in Scotland’s two largest banks. Scottish nationalists are none too pleased about this, and their opponents are relishing the opportunity to rub it in their faces:

They now look pretty silly," Brian Wilson, a Scot and former Labor Party member of Parliament, said of independence campaigners. "In the long term, when a mature judgment has to be made about independence, this episode will be remembered."

Independence from the United Kingdom is the driving force behind the political party currently in power in Scotland, the Scottish National Party, or SNP. Polls show that perhaps 25 to 30 percent of Scots support the idea.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a native Scot but an outspoken advocate of keeping Scotland in the U.K. fold, seemed to go out of his way Tuesday to tweak advocates of independence, especially the SNP […]

"We were able to act decisively with 37 billion pounds; that would not have been possible for a Scottish administration," said Brown, whose own political fortunes have been boosted by his handling of the crisis.

The fact that the SNP’s Web site offered up now-bankrupt Iceland as a model of prosperity is also a bit embarassing.

(Hat tip: Marginal Revolution)

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

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