In the late 1600s, there wasn't much productive happening on the home front, the wealthy lords of Scotland were eyeing events south of the border and liked the look of the British East India Company.

They liked it so much that they decided to have a try at overseas adventures themselves. They decided to set up a Scottish colony and trading post in Darien in Central America.

While it looked good on paper, real life turned out to be a bummer. Killer diseases, bad neighbours and English interference meant that the colony folded taking the good lords wealth with it.

The Darien Disaster plunged most of the Scottish nobility deeply into debt.

They were rescued by a most generous English Parliament who advanced a substantial sum of money to pay off the debt. In case that wasn't enough there was some gold coin of the realm floating about for outright bribery if the backdoor approach didn't take care of business.

The business?

The good lords up to their armpits in debt were asked to vote for a union of the Scottish and English Parliaments.

Given the circumstances, the vote was a yes. And we have been beholden to Westminster ever since.

"Bought and sold for English gold" in the words of Robert Burns.

It is instructive to cast an eye over the events of the past week in the light of the Darien Disaster.

A Scottish institution has engaged in a foreign adventure, failed miserably and been rescued by the generosity of the Parliament.

The shareholders will welcome such a generous bribe, will approve the takeover by Lloyds TSB and in return, the Scottish institution will come under English ownership and control will move south of the border.

Its "deja vu all over again" in the words of Yogi Berra, the noted former coach of the New York Yankees baseball team.

We've been screwed again!