Any Other Business | 23 February 2008

In the end, they may have to auction what’s left of Northern Rock on eBay

When the nationalisation of Northern Rock was announced at the beginning of the week, commentators queued up behind the shadow chancellor to declare a return to the dark days of the 1970s and to dance on the ashes of Alistair Darling’s career. It took a little longer for us all to work out what a horrendous task faces the new management duo of Ron Sandler and his chief financial officer, who rejoices in the name of Ann Godbehere. Let’s hope He is, because they’re going to need a miracle to rebuild a profitable business out of the ruins of the Rock and sell it back to the private sector by the government’s real deadline, which we may assume falls a couple of months before 3 June 2010, when Gordon Brown has no choice but to come out of his bunker and face the electorate.