What Am I Bid?

The 'other assets ' category in the Bank of England's weekly accounts indicate that up to now Northern Rock has borrowed £16 billion (sixteen billion pounds sterling) from the lender of last resort. The lender of last resort is you, the UK taxpayer.

And do you own, for £16 billion , this grotty north eastern England ex- building society that seems to have the horn of plenty to its mouth? Of course you don't. Has anybody been dismissed? Of course they haven't. Is any part of the Labour regime and its multi-benefitted supporters going to blow the whistle on this off-balance sheet funding of an economically collapsed area of England by grotesquely risky (not now of course, now its the taxpayer, but not counted in the books) means, to an even more grotesque clientele? Anyone want to buy a wholly home-grown mortgage book together with some assets like Northern Rock has to offer?

The Bank of England has paid £ 16 billion up front and still not succeeded, so that's the order of offer required (well, considerably more to make its clockwork keep running), or it could be noticed that it's worthless, unless there is some not immediately visible value.

Update

"The government should have made Mr Ridley's departure a condition of its loan, rather than waiting for him to go. Furthermore there are other directors, including Derek Wanless, who are equally culpable. All of the senior management should have been cleared out on day one.", Vincent Cable MP, Liberal Democrat acting leader and treasury spokesman stated.

Northern Rock, who the Treasury Select Committee accused of destroying "the good name of British banking", “now believe that in the interests of all stakeholders in the company, the time is right to accept his [Ridley’s] resignation as a director and chairman of the company.” He is to be replaced by Bryan Sanderson, a Labour party advisor on competitiveness during the 1990s, who stepped down from Standard Chartered late in 2006 with threequarters of a million pounds.

The Board of Northern Rock, it seems, is “delighted to welcome Bryan Sanderson to the company. He has a wealth of experience in business, banking and working with government that will prove invaluable to Northern Rock when considering future strategic options.”
Northern Rock think it "premature" to discuss how much Sanderson will be paid.

So from the lowliest clerk to the highest members of the board, Northern Rock is still out there, posturing and choosing, lending your money and making appointments at unspecified payment levels to Labour advisors .

You could buy the whole of north east England and a packet of Woodbines and still have change out of £16 billion.