Tom Griffin (London, OK): Today's Scotsman reports on the dramatic impact which the credit crunch is having in Edinburgh:
Morale is said to have fallen to an "all-time low" among the city's 31,000 finance workers as they wait to find out whether their jobs will survive the upheaval.
And as house prices fall, and the dole queue lengthens, there were fresh warnings today that the city council will have to deal with a rise in homelessness in the near future. One reason for the gloomy outlook is the expected merger of HBOS with London-based Lloyds.That move is now being questioned by the Liberal Democrats in the light of today's huge bailout of the entire banking sector.
Commenting on the rescue package, Scottish Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott urged the government to help keep HBOS as an independent bank.
He added: "This is a massive package of money for banks. Market and banking circumstances have changed enormously since the proposed Lloyds/HBOS merger was announced.
"The government are now in direct negotiations with banks so they could make this happen.
"Keeping HBOS as an independent bank while strengthening RBS through this package would be positive economic news for Scotland. I urge the government to make this happen."
