Tom Griffin (London, OK): Could victory in the Glenrothes by-election set the seal on Gordon Brown's political comeback? Labour pollsters have told the Prime Minister that they will win on the back of his handling of the banking crisis, according to the BBC.
As the Sunday Times noted at the weekend, the credit crunch has prompted a reassessment of the viability of Scottish independence. Brown himself has not been afraid to make the argument, citing the UK bailout of HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland:
"We were able to act decisively with £37bn. That would not have been possible for a Scottish administration.
"We've seen the problems in Iceland, we've seen the problems in Ireland, we were able to put the whole strength of the United Kingdom's resources behind these two banks and I think it's important because I value the Scottish banking tradition, I think that everybody does."
Whether it is Brown's interests to preserve the Scottish banking tradition is open to question. Many now believe that the Downing Street-arranged merger of HBOS with Lloyds-TSB is unnecessary. The deal will inevitably weaken Edinburgh's status as a financial centre, and thereby, incidentally, the case for Scottish independence. One cannot help but wonder whether this was a factor in Brown's pursuit of this option.
The perception that there was no alternative to a merger was one reason why Alex Salmond initially appeared discomfited by the credit crisis, silenced by the need to negotiate with the merged entity on the future of Scottish jobs.
However, as the case for the deal has begun to unravel, the First Minister appears to have found his voice:
First Minister Alex Salmond told the SNP conference on Sunday that the £37 billion capital injection for three of Britain's biggest banks had thrown up the question of whether this funding was available to Lloyds TSB and HBOS separately.
"Before they put our money into this bail-out, we want to be sure that it is in the public interest and in the interests of jobs and decision-making in Scotland," he said.
Against the backdrop of the battle over HBOS, the Glenrothes by-election now looks finely poised. This is a fateful moment for Scotland's economy as well as it's politics.
