The lobbying scandal surrounding Lex Greensill’s links to David Cameron should be an advert for Scottish independence.
The former prime minister welcomed the Australian businessman into the heart of government while he was in Downing Street and then went to work for him on leaving office.
He then tried to get Chancellor Rishi Sunak to give Greensill emergency loans as his finance company collapsed into administration.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon should be able to point to it as a perfect illustration of Westminster’s broken culture of cronyism.
Unfortunately it is increasingly difficult to see much difference in the way things operate north of the Border.
Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing met Greensill and steel billionaire Sanjeev Gupta at one of Glasgow’s top restaurants.
Incredibly, Ewing didn’t think it was necessary to bring an official along with him or have any notes taken.
That was despite the fact the Scottish Government had put more than £360million of taxpayers’ money on the line as part of a deal to help Gupta buy up power plants and metalworks.
What scant information that does exist suggests Ewing was keen to impress on the businessmen that he could help in “de-risking” their ventures.
In business, someone always has to take a risk – and in this case it appears to have been all of us.
At least at Westminster, civil servants have been able to block Cameron’s advances and keep the public purse strings firmly shut.
