A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.
A timely reminder from the Pensions Minister that if Labour hadn't nationalised Northern Rock a year ago - and Cameron said the bank should be allowed to collapse - "thousands [of savers] could have lost years’ worth of deposits".
posted by Luke Akehurst at 5:41 pm
Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012 and since 2020. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.
10 Comments:
If only they'd go and nationalise the railways too. If only to spare me from pouring money into Richard Branson's pocket everytime I travel north from London
5:53 pm, February 17, 2009
To be fair, only those savers with over £50,000 in the bank.
I do wonder how many that would have been.
6:40 pm, February 17, 2009
Did Cameron say NR should be allowed to collapse? This is the nearest I can find - he wanted a private solution.
"I don't support nationalisation [of Northern Rock]," Cameron told the Today programme. "I don't think it would be right for the government to spend even more taxpayers' money nationalising a bank and suddenly becoming responsible for £100 billion of mortgage lending.
"What we want is a private sale, but I suspect the government is running out of time and money and it may well be that it needs to go down the path of nationalisation. If it does it will be a monumental failure."
7:03 pm, February 17, 2009
Erm, no. Rosie Winterton tells fibs, more like.
7:10 pm, February 17, 2009
Cameron didn't acually say that but if it was up to me then I would have let the bank collapse and then nationalise it.
Anyone with under £50,000 would have been protected and then the remaining savings could have been met by the tax payer.
The only losers would have been investors but that is life I'm afraid.
The point is that Gordon knew of the problems and the risks and should have acted.
7:49 pm, February 17, 2009
The electorate is so impressed by your stewardship of everything under the sun, including Northern Rock, that they've just put you 20 points behind the Tories - according to Ipsos Mori?
In the Vietnam war, one little reported aspect was of grunts expressing contempt for difficult officers was to "frag" them. No, this wasn't chucking them in a cesspit. A grenade was chucked in their tent.
Gordon is well past time on being fragged.
11:25 pm, February 17, 2009
Lets face it if the main offices for Northern Rock had been in Surrey or Hampshire instead of the north east,it would have been allowed to go bust.
12:07 am, February 18, 2009
"if the main offices for Northern Rock had been in Surrey or Hampshire instead of the north east,it would have been allowed to go bust"
What a load of old horse crap!
12:25 am, February 18, 2009
Or how about guaranteeing the deposits without nationalising the bank? Like most FDIC interventions in the past year...
9:29 am, February 18, 2009
If memory serves the Nu-Lab Govt dallied for about five months in deciding whether to nationalise Northern Rock or not. In the intervening period, the taxpayer was providing untold cover.
Plus when precisely did Cameron say 'Northern Rock should go to the wall'? Nu Lab spin is not even plausible anymore!
10:48 am, February 18, 2009
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