Northern Cock-up

"This morning's announcement of the half-yearly Northern Rock accounts reminds us again of the most disastrous episodes of British banking. What is new and worrying is the acknowledgment of the scale of the hit the taxpayer has taken following the decision last September to rescue the bank through taxpayer loans and guarantees. We were assured at the time that the £26bn taxpayer loan was secured against good-quality assets. It now, however, appears that £3.4bn of this money enjoys only minimal security and has essentially been converted into equity. Parliament and the public were misled by the chancellor"
That comes from an article in today's Grauniad. I take issue with the bit 'misled by the Chancellor' I do not think he was even aware of what the risks were. The gubmint was under considerable pressure to do something. Anything. Whatever - even if it was just to say goodbye. A short term fix was needed and, even if they are nothing else, NuZANUPFPLabour are experts at short fixes. Just long as the 'short' is long enough for some other disaster to stagger into play.

The City is full of bright young men who know how things work and how to get them to work their way. Skills honed in the market place of Romford are put into play and many of them do very nicely thank you. Selling short on banks earned one stripe shirt £27 million as personal profit plus a like sum for his firm. His wife makes similar profits from knowing what Plan A does to bottom lines. 

Why does our Treasurer not have access to brains such as that? Does he even know they exist? In a way, one hopes not. Just imagine what the personal allowances of MPs would look like with Ronny Romford's input!