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Northern Rock: History Will Vindicate Darling
So says Hopi Sen here. LOL agree 100% with all three predictions. 1. Northern Rock will be a money spinner;
2. Natasha will have time limited effect on Five;
3. Gordon will edge PMQs tomorrow.
Five are going to be on an upward swing anyway because of factors other than the lovely NK so it may be a little difficult to analyse the out turn.
On Nothern Rock old Peston - the former lothario, not short of self-regard - reminded us on Radio 5 Live of this being "his" story, said he agreed with or at least accepted the arguments to be patient until mid January but thought the temporary public ownership should have started then.
So what has changed in the last few weeks for the worse? The share price? Er no. That was already rock bottom. The depositors' lot? Er no. Still sorted. The borrowers' lot? Er no again. The workers' lot? Er no, another few weeks of secure employment before any storms on the horizon.
The Lib Dems? Who cares? The Tories? Well, yes actually, their lot has substantially worsened. They dithered and failed to commit to any coherent stance for longer. Their whining has become more and more nauseating. GOO has got more and more manic, more and more silly, and more and more toff-like.
Clearly the sky has not fallen on anyone's head through the management of events, post cash flow crisis. Clearly households are not really three thousand pounds apiece worse off. We have NR's assets and not just liabilities. Besides it's paper.
The Tories have been crying wolf about this and everything else. The world can now see that. The counter proposal to have let the thing go bump immediately was (a) not what they said at the time and (b) not in the tax payers, depositors, borrowers or workers interests. How would that have benefitted shareholders.
It is George Osborne and David Cameron who have been incompetent. Politically incompetent. And Gordon will punish them tomorrow afternoon for that.
UPDATE: Liam of Cassilis has a different take. Guido has ejaculated prematurely on the same matter.
2 comments:
Factually I wouldn't dispute much of your take (or Hopi's).
I guess my take is essentially saying this might damage the government even if they don't deserve it or if things work out well in the medium term.
We'll have to wait & see...
(but thanks for the plug)
Looks to me like this will end up being a win for Labour in fact. Victory from the jaws of defeat.
Both Osborne and Cameron have been far too manic about this and similar. Their silver spoon reality bypass comes to the fore when they are pretending to be hett up. Gordon's "student union politics" jibe hit the mark I think.
The government have bent over backwards to sort things out for almost all the stakeholders. There is no particular reason why the management team or professional or carpet bagger shareholders should be bailed out.
Other shareholders - the micro ones - are likely to be account holders or workers and can have few complaints overall. This is where de-mutualisation can lead. There is a lot to be said for mutuals and co-operatives IMO - as a Co-Op Party and Co-op member I would say that though wouldn't I?
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