The Rocky Road
It is not over. We will be hearing more about the Northern Rock debacle. Ron Sandler appointed McKinsey to give advice as to how to reconstitute Northern Rock. If I were being paid over £1,000,000 a year I think I would have done the job myself, without the need of the admirable McKinsey organisation. I thought that this was why he was appointed.
However a number of over excited commentators have suggested that the Tories are disappointed, and have been embarrassed, by Northern Rock not being Labour’s equivalent of Black Wednesday. No Tory believed it ever would be. It simply is part of the process of the unwinding of Labour’s reputation for economic competence. And unlike Black Wednesday, which was actually economically liberating, if not ultimately politically hugely devastating, Northern Rock is part of a pattern of procrastination and misjudgement which are increasingly the hallmarks of a very tired looking Government.
Just watch this space over the next few months.