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It's supposed to be not too difficult to spot the difference between a Scotsman and a ray of sunshine.

Yet the latest findings from Nationwide Building Society's confidence index show Scots to be brimming with optimism - back to the same levels as the start of 2008.

Two cautions though: the comparison is with other parts of the UK, and the numbers need to be treated with a large health warning, as the sample sizes for the breakdown of Britain's nations and regions become rather small.

If the data for the fourth quarter of 2009 is to be trusted, there may be a northerly thing going on.

Second and third ratings for confidence are north-west and north-east England.

Feel gloomy

The grimmer sense of pessimism is to be found at its strongest in the Midlands, both east and west, and Northern Ireland.

Given its proximity to the Irish Republic's economic troubles, it has good reason to feel gloomy.

Nationwide also asks a range of questions on attitudes to savings, and again, Scotland comes out of that as most positive in its attitude to putting some income aside.

But in the last quarter of last year, fewer than half of the small Scots sample said they save regularly, and one in five said they don't squirrel anything away at all.