Scotland's reputation for being 'canny with money' is ill-deserved, it seems

Scots save the least of any part of the UK, and the 10 areas where people are least likely to save regularly are all in Scotland. I'm afraid I put it all down to the policies of the current Labour government, specially those of Chancellor Gordon Brown with all the so-called 'credits' available to people, which make it less and less necessary (or indeed possible, with the various levies placed upon savers) to put money aside for a 'rainy day'.

Gordon Brown has done a few good things (e.g. making the Bank of England independent), but his monetary policy as it affects savers has been almost exclusively negative. It's all very well to encourage people to save by exhortation, but if the economic framework which makes it attractive to do so is removed, then they won't. Simple, really, but socialists never learn, specially when ideology gets in the way.