The Anonymous Widower

Did The Government Dither Over Northern Rock?

Sir Nicholas Macpherson was the senior civil servant in the Treasury, when Northern Rock ran into difficulties. He has just appeared before the Treasury Select Committee and there is a report here. This is the first paragraph.

The Treasury’s most senior civil servant has told MPs the government should have been quicker to nationalise Northern Rock following its collapse.

It doesn’t appear to me, that the government appeared to act quickly at all.

Perhaps, Gordon Brown was just being too prudent!

On the other hand, I’ve done financial modelling with loan companies and know that if you decide to run them down collecting all the payments aggressively, you can often retrieve a bad situation.

So perhaps, they were hoping Northern Rock would all come good!  It didn’t!

Remember though, the bank did employ a lot of people in Labour’s heartland. So liquidation would have been a bad option for NuLabor.

September 17, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Business, Finance, News | Banks, Gordon Brown, Northern Rock, NuLabor