In an interview with Holyrood magazine, Alex Salmond, says that the SNP Government will deal with the current economic situation using the strength of a ministerial team which has “total cohesions and self-discipline” and he says that despite media speculation, there will be no reshuffle.

“We have total cohesion and self-discipline which will hold this Government in good stead,” he says. “Partly that is because of the nature of minority government because as a minority you are assailed from all sides and what comes from that is a real camaraderie, a real solidarity and a very real strength. We have a totally solid Cabinet.” Asked if he has plans to change the Cabinet, he says, “There will be no reshuffle.”

On the current economic crisis, he points to Scotland’s need to diversify and not have all its ‘economic eggs in one basket’. He says renewable energy “is an industry of the future and one where Scotland has a telling comparative advantage”. He says that Scotland’s financial services industry is by no means finished and points to expertise in the insurance sectors that have so far not been damaged by the current situation and adds that Scotland’s skill in long-term fund management will be at a premium as people look for more strategic, low risk, investment vehicles. A return, perhaps to the good old days when financiers knew their customers and customers knew their limits?

“I think that it’s important that financial institutions are directed at what they are best at. I have never been comfortable with clearing banks becoming investment banks, for instance. Investment banks are high return, highrisk businesses. Clearing banking should be a steady return, low-risk business, that’s what it is. Many businesses that have combined a range of activities maybe should not have done so and I have never been comfortable with this banking conglomerate idea and a long time ago, informally, and off the record at the time because I was working for the Royal Bank, I did my best to oppose the privatisation of the Trustee Savings Bank. I thought it was a bad idea then and a bad idea now. Obviously, the TSB did not thrive as a privatised bank and it made some difficult and bad decisions, in terms of what it paid for various investments which, traditionally, it wouldn’t have been in. There was nothing wrong with the TSB as a banking model. It was a good banking model. It was a savings bank; it wasn’t a highflying merchant bank, it wasn’t an investment bank, it wasn’t a high risk, high return bank. It was a savings bank and what is wrong with having a savings bank? Big is not always better.”

Interview page 17