A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Monday, October 01, 2007

Move Over Darling!

Alistair Darling sounds all sweet reasonableness when it comes to soothing the furrowed brows of Northern Rock investors. But he is up to his old tricks as a New Labour man. Didn't he say that investors' money would be safe up to £100,000? He kept telling all and sundry that the Government was going to do good for the investing public by increasing the sum. Guaranteed, it was going to be. Sounded all very good. But it isn't quite as it seems now.

The old guarantee was that up £2,000 was 100% safe and the next amount one had in the coffers was £33,000 at 90% guaranteed. Darling is only guaranteeing £35,000 at 100% it now appears. Not much of an increase there! So much for his garrulous talk of £100,000! Maybe he muddled up his 100's thinking in thousands but meaning to say percent?

All this will lead to more cynical belief that New Labour spins a good web. Darling also has the cheek to suggest that the Northern Rock board goes because "it will send a message that mistakes and recklessness will be punished". That's other people's mistakes he has in mind, because in the fantastical world of New Labour their own mistakes and recklessness get rewarded.

Not that Northern Rock did as badly out of the crisis. According to the Independent on Sunday they made an estimated £100 million on charging the panicking customers hefty penalty fees for withdrawing money early from their savings accounts. I wonder in all the customers' desire to get in through the doors before they thought the money would run out, they were ever told that they were going to be stiffed to the tune of £100 million. There we go again, another hundred coming into play.

Perhaps Alistair Darling should enquire about the Chiltern Hundreds?

Bring on the election, I say, so we can get rid of this minority government (from a voter support aspect!) and choose a set of new brooms for the country.

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