Let’s buy local products and help local firms beat worst of any recession

Oct 15 2008 by Alan Rennie, Editor

ONLY time will tell whether the British and American-led bail-out of our banks is just another crock or whether it will turns things around.

Early signs this week is that confidence is being restored to the stock market. Let’s hope that will continue to happen because then all the recriminations can really start.

I’m no expert in these matters. For example, she who must be obeyed is certainly the chancellor in the Rennie household.

However, I know a few people who are well versed in the dark arts of managing other people’s money.

One was telling me on Saturday that there was no way that our local council would have fallen into the same trap as the others who have gambled with their council tax payers’ money by investing it in banks in Iceland.

“We looked at them but ruled it out because it was far too risky,” was my man’s appraisal.

Now, if he can make such a judgment, and let’s not forget that Alf Young of The Herald was banging on about Iceland’s vulnerability back in March of this year, was the action of all the dozens or so councils north and south of the border just stupid or was it criminally irresponsible?

Apparently, quite a few charities also put hard-earned money into Icelandic and other overseas accounts in the search of a quick buck.

Only a handful of these charities have been named so far – financial advisors for others must be quaking in their boots.

Back in February, in the aftermath of the Northern Rock bail-out, I gave a blatant and arguably jingoistic plug for a Scottish building society, the Dunfermline, as a more worthy recipient of our cash.

Right now, people are still genuinely worried about where to safely store their money.

There’s the tale, probably apocryphal, of the man whose cash dispenser displayed “out of funds” when he typed in his number. He went into the branch to ask whether it was him or the bank that was skint!

Unlike banks, building societies like the Dunfermline don’t have shareholders.

“Our equivalent to shareholders is our members and by that I mean we re-invest our profits in meeting and improving our members’ needs,” said Dunfermline BS chief executive Graeme Dalziel.

“Over the last five years, we have returned almost £70 million of ‘mutuality benefits’ to our members, and we invite more people to join us.”.

Great care is going to be required to be taken with our savings and earnings as we approach the start of the traditional big spending period before Christmas.

We are going to have to be prudent but here in Stirling let’s also be supportive of firstly local and then Scottish companies and products as we try to work our way through an inevitably recessionary period.