Northern Rock review

A week that saw Freedom of Information hit the headlines

The nationalisation ot the Northern Rock bank was finalised yesterday after only three days debate in the House of Commons including a heated exchange of views between Conservative Leader David Cameron and Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Once again Labour showed it’s propensity to hide behind the argument of “commercial sensitivity” (how often have we heard that in South Shields Town Hall?) when we learned that the “peoples bank” will not be subjected to the measure contained in the Freedom of Information Act.

The vast majority of the valuable mortgage assets have been hived off to an offshore company that basically leaves Northern Rock as a savings bank no longer interested in helping people to get on the housing ladder, indeed it is now advising customers to look elsewhere for a mortgage. Despite having a less than concrete alternative proposal for the future of Northern Rock (nationalisation was inevitable) Conservative Leader still managed to wound Prime Minister Brown with some stinging barbs at Wednesday’s weekly Prime Minister’s Questions knock about!

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