Northern Rock - private sector failure, Labour opportunity

Gordon Brown's justification at his Press Conference tomorrow (Monday) will be conciliatory. But let's not mince words here or on the doorstep - Northern Rock was, is and will remain a private sector failure. Private sector greed and negligence broke it, private sector greed couldn't put it together again even though a Labour government mortgaged its reputation to encourage a private sector bailout.

To his credit Brown has responded promptly to the Goldman Sachs' evaluation of the options (deadline for submissions - two weeks ago) and, more importantly from a political standpoint, refused to bow to Virgin's demands for further taxpayer handouts.

Tory opportunism has to be unmasked. Personally, I'm grateful the Brown government didn't flinch from propping up the banking system and is seeking powers now to nationalise promptly in the event of any further threat to financial stability.