"There has to be some rationalisation," Hodge said.
Neither bank operates many branches on the other side of the border, so rationalisation of the branch network should be limited.For Bank of Scotland, which had formerly tried to take over first NatWest and then link up with Abbey National, a merger also makes much sense.
From the managers' perspective, rationalisation is long overdue in cars.
Companies in Europe have traditionally begun rationalisation farthest from home, by lopping off their branch factories and repatriating production to save domestic jobs.Belgian demonstrators at Renault's French factories are trying to whip up support and sympathy strikes.
She and her editors have done a superb job.There is nothing unique in the story, in these days of rationalisation, downsizing and outplacement; an era, as Ms Davidson puts it, of "disposable work and disposable workers".
Gone will be the state levies on entertainment and gambling, as well as the centre's "additional excise duty", "additional customs duty" and its close relation, "special additional duty", otherwise known as SAD.This rationalisation promises a number of benefits for businesses and taxmen alike.
With huge overcapacity in the European car market, rationalisation and redundancies were inevitable.
Yet these stopgaps allowed Mr Morsi's government to dither, over enacting economic reforms needed to unlock still bigger flows of aid and investment, such as a long-proffered $4.8 billion IMF loan.The long-delayed rationalisation of ruinous energy subsidies was particularly aggravating.
But with cash about to become very tight, such a rationalisation plan will come to the fore again, says Bill Moyes, head of Monitor, the body that regulates foundation trusts.If hospital care is to be reduced, more will have to be done at primary level.
Not that abolition of the article would quickly lead to a unified armaments market; but the fact that governments are not even thinking about scrapping it shows Europe's distance from such a market.The French defence industry has in itself become a major obstacle to cross-border rationalisation.
For the time being, the problem is over-capacity, the solution is rationalisation.
