Northern Rock

One of the dubious benefits of having a BLOODY cold is that you sit, Lemsip in hand and with thtuffed-up node, mindlessly watching the entire Commons debate on the Banking (Special Provisions) Bill on a Tuesday night, being momentarily perked up by Yvette Cooper’s explanation of how the Bill was drafted so as to avoid its being hybrid. That’s how bad the cold was.

It was amazing how basic information about the nationalisation scheme came to light only as the Bill progressed from committee stage of the whole house, to report and third reading – such as the relevation that assets in the form of mortgage security owned by Granite will not be included in the plan. I think the late revelation of this is breathtaking even if, as John Band explains, Granite’s exclusion is no big deal in financial terms.

Anyway, the government’s now been defeated in the Lords. Who knows where any of this is heading? I think Northern Rock may be beginning to cause a slow loss of blood from the government, and, with its assets and its future lending business both dwindling because of the housing market, I think it may come to have the same kind of political meaning as phrases like “Profumo”, “Black Wednesday”, “three-day week”, “devaluation” and “sleaze”.

Albatross? Neck? Gordon Brown’s glittering eye?