Northern Rock

[empip]

We shall see... I am not convinced that this is cut and dried - not through total sympathy with shareholders, but through an uneasy feeling about the manner in which HMG, BoE and FSA have conducted the NR shenanegens.

Don't forget HMG ballyhoo extolling the FSA safety net of £35k, even tho' the FSA do not have sufficient funds to cover even a single major bank 'going down'... Reference posted here in the recent past and highlighted, just this week on TV by 'Martin the money'... See the govn minister interview? her eyes bulging as she tried to directly answer his questions - she did not. Effectively HMG touting a very flawed 'safety net' without explaining the small print.
Limitations of the scheme :-
http://www.fscs.org.uk/consumer/key_facts/limitations_of_the_scheme/

...But it is still possible to conceive of a default (or a combination of defaults) so big as to be beyond FSCS's ability to pay compensation up to our limits. The FSA's proposals significantly reduce the probability of this happening, but they cannot completely eliminate it...

Martin (Lewis)'s 'take' on the scheme :-
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/safe-savings#cope