Santander - Spaniards shake off the Armada's memory.

The Times reports here, that in future the historic names of Abbey, Alliance & Leicester (A&L) and Bradford & Bingley are to be scrapped to be replaced by that of the Spanish bank that now controls them - Santander - through the incompetence and treachery of our own politicians and some unusual quirks in Spanish tax legislation. In earlier times such an obviously directly Spanish name might have been seen as a distinct marketing disadvantage within the communities these ancient mutual Building Societies once (and perhaps will one day again) SERVE. El Clegg, who clearly owes allegiance to none but himself, see his Wikipedia entry from here, believes "Britain [is] a place of tolerance and pluralism" is the one man in Britain outside of the Governing Labour Party who could have ensured that Britain received the referendum on the Lisbon Treaty which all his party's candidates promised at the last General Election. He engaged in the most extraordinarily devious convolutions to avoid so doing. A politician who chooses to christen his children Antonio, Alberto and Miguel and raise them in the Catholic faith of his Spanish wife, will presumably be one person in England to enjoy some quiet satisfaction at the sight of the Santander name appearing in towns across England on old establishments which once stood for probity!