Labour still in danger of drifting onto the rocks
James Forsyth 6:30pm
Today’s Economist poll on Northern Rock is a belated birthday present for Gordon Brown. Only 5 percent believe the government is most responsible for the crisis and people are more impressed with Brown and Darling’s handling of it now than they were a month ago. But what will really cheer up the PM is that almost 60 percent of the public think the Tories are playing politics with the issue and only one in five say that David Cameron and George Osborne would have done any better.
However, this doesn’t mean that the danger has passed for Labour. There are still, as The Economist points out, a whole bunch of problems for Labour—the management of the bank, the inevitable job loses, the repossessions to name but a few—to deal with. There is also the fact that little stories about Northern Rock are going to crop up on a regular basis until the government manages to get the bank back into the public sector, a tricky operation in and of itself. In short, Northern Rock could still destroy Labour's ratings on the economic question.
Previous
Comments
Craig
February 23rd, 2008 1:04amI believe that a close communication should exist between the Government and the new management of Northern Rock, with a panel elected to over see it's prime directive. It is clear that risk investments like the ones we have witnessed should not be allowed to occur whilst backed with UK Governments taxpayers money. As regards the expected staff cuts, I'd suggest proposing a settlement pay off for those with long service? For others try to integrate these employees into other banks?? For those long serving employees maybe they should be offered some kind of first refusal once the company goes back into the private sector. Once the bank has recouped its losses to a vantage point.I'd suggest it be sold with a percentage being retained by the Government for its Taxpayer bailout - This could be in the form of charity donations I guess.
Adrian Drummond
February 23rd, 2008 9:14amI can't think of anything so depressing to read. How on earth can only 5% believe that the government is most responsible for the Northern Rock crisis? This government set up the mechanisms for dealing with such events as sub prime loans and it failed miserably. Either people in Britain are stupid or they are misinformed. Perhaps someone can enlighten me on any other possible reason.