Alex Salmond blames Gordon Brown for credit crisis

Oct 19 2008 By Mark Aitken Political Editor

ALEX SALMOND will today blame Gordon Brown for bringing Britain to the brink of recession.

The First Minister is to claim the Labour leader has led the country through an "age of irresponsibility".

And he will use his leader's speech at the SNP conference in Perth to accuse the Prime Minister of squandering billions of pounds.

He will say Brown wasted a fortune on updating Trident nuclear missiles, private finance initiative (PFI) projects and the Iraq war.

Salmond will also paraphrase former Chancellor Brown's phrase that the banks had contributed to an "age of irresponsibility".

He is set to ask: "Where did this age of irresponsibility come from?

"Who broke down the barriers in the financial sector?

"Who presided over the inflation of asset values?

"Who allowed the spivs and speculators of the derivatives market to be totally unregulated?"

And he will add: "It may have had something to do with the occupants of 10 and 11 Downing Street homes of the Prime Minister and Chancellor over the last 11 long years."

Salmond has come under fire after Brown claimed an independent Scotland would not have the financial muscle to bail out our stricken banks.

The SNP call for Scotland to be more like small independent nations such as Iceland and Ireland was also questioned as the credit crunch stormed through their economies this year.

Scottish Labour leader Iain Gray accused Salmond of making "wild claims".

He said: "These are serious times for serious people like Gordon Brown.

"If anyone is irresponsible it is Alex Salmond with his wild claims."

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