The Twitterverse has been treated to a rather tortured Sun King who does not seem to be able to reconcile between his head and heart on Scottish independence despite a lightning visit to Aberdeen, Glasgow and Rosehearty over the weekend.

Early Monday morning Sydney time Murdoch tweeted: Scottish economy may or may not be ready for independence, but country is ready emotionally and politically.  However ... SNP not talking about independence, but more welfarism, expensive greenery, etc and passing sovereignty to Brussels.

With the vote to close to call it has certainly made it harder for Murdoch and his local paper The Scottish Sun to get in front of a clear winner and claim "It's The Sun Wot Won It", as its sister papers did with the conservative election win in 1992.

Murdoch had tweeted earlier about his attempt to quietly converse directly with ordinary Scots to get a feel for the local sentiment.

He tweeted: Tried 24 hours incognito Scottish visit (failed!). No politicians, just street and pub talks. Glasgow, Aberdeen, Rosehearty. Great people.

 

For those who are wondering, there is a connection between the settlement of Rosehearty - with about 1300 residents, a butcher, a hairdresser and three pubs - and the media baron.

His uncle, Sir Walter Murdoch, a prominent Australian academic and essayist, was born there. Murdoch's paternal grandparents emigrated from Aberdeenshire to Australia in the 1800s.

While businesses like Australian Bank NAB have been lining up to say why an independent Scotland will be bad for business, there are potential winners too.

Alcohol is a strong theme, although not in the manner you would expect.

Booze barons Diageo and Pernod Ricard rely on Scottish distillers for an outsized share of profits and both would benefit from a weaker currency lowering their costs.

Money in the bank

Former ANZ boss, John McFarlane, is one canny Scot who is happy to keep his views on independence to himself.

But we can reveal he will be well recompensed as he departs British insurer, Aviva, to take up the chairmanship at Barclays bank.

He will receive an annual fee of 800,000 pounds when he takes up his new role after the Barclays AGM next year.

That equates to $1.44 million in local terms, which isn't bad when you consider his base pay as ANZ's chief teller was $2.2 million.

Wal King strides in

It will surprise no one that former Leighton boss - and occasional pig hunter - Wal King, will take over as chairman at Sundance Resources after the company's November AGM replacing George Jones.

He was appointed to the board just months ago.

While questions remain about what King may have known about bribery and corruption allegations at Leighton, his vast business experience will come in handy at the miner, which lost its entire board in a plane crash in Africa four years ago.

King praised Jones, who took over as chairman at Sundance in the wake of the tragedy. Jones rebuilt the board barely a year after resigning for health reasons.

"He has steered Sundance through its darkest hour, ensuring that it never lost sight of its ultimate destination," says King.

The company's troubled history includes the collapse of a $1.3 billion takeover deal with China's Hanlong Mining.

Life would have certainly been interesting under Hanlong boss, Liu Han, who lost an appeal last month against his death sentence after being found guilty of murder and blackmail.

Queen's air share

A CBD spy reported in that a2 Milk is not the only Kiwi interest of her maj Queen Elizabeth II. Apparently our shared sovereign also owns 70 per cent of Air New Zealand.

Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au