A Bad Week Ahead?
I predict a bad week for the government. This would be a U-Turn, if the whole thing hadn’t been a fudge in the first place. The opposition will have a field day.
I don’t object to the principle of the move. If Northern Rock needs to be saved to prevent a further run on the banks and general economic woe, then the state isn’t a bad answer. It has deep enough pockets, and would at least be stabilising the bank for the sake of stabilising the bank, rather than making a profit out of it.
What I do object to is the way this has been handled. The government will claim that this comes after exploring all the options available. Actually, it looks like the government dithered, chose an approach, cocked that up because their delay had made the bank even more unattractive to bidders, and finally chose this. That’s what the media, the opposition and finally, the voter will pick up on anyway. The government made nationalisation a grudging last resort, rather than the firm, decisive step it could have been. It looked like they didn’t want to do this - but they’ve done it anyway. So now they look incompetent.
In short, strategic error of the month…
PMQs will, I fear, be uncomfortable.
Posted in: Breaking News, The Economy, The Government
“Northern Rock to be nationalised”
FINALLY.
Well, my thoughts too, essentially.
They should have nationalised immediately or not at all. This is politically suicidal and economically genocidal.