Between a Rock and a hard place

Rachel Sylvester has a typically eloquent and perceptive piece on the political ramifications of nationalising Northern Rock in the Telegraph today. As Sylvester points out the government has to come up with a solution before the end of February when the six month period for state aid mandated by the European Union runs out.

The problem isn’t so much nationalisation per se but the fact that it was so clearly the government’s least preferred option. Reading Hansard one is struck by the venom with which the Liberal Democrats were attacked for first floating the idea. The political effect in the North East is going to be magnified by the fact that it was local MPs such as Jim Cousins who led the charge against it.