A&L in terminal collapse as shares marked down 31.3% on day

At the close of business today the market makers marked A&L down to 600p that's a drop on the day of 31.27% - A market value of £2.58 Bn. (NRK.L dropped 35%)

Now shares don't move like that because Mom & Pop have bailed out - this is serious money. The men who run the big funds (and every single one wil have a piece of A&L) and said here is a Chancellor who doesn't give a fuck for shareholders - are we in or out. OUT ! So just look at that spread Bid 600 Ask 300 the market was swamped with sellers. (Fair chance those Bidding 600 are just shorting expecting further drop tommorrow)

Now where did it all go ? - a good bet it is parked in Gilts - just look at the closing prices today.

Vincent Cable the Lib Dem Chancellor of the Exchequer in waiting told the Brighton Conference ...

".....a decade of mismanagement by Gordon Brown had led to a collective madness around house prices which threatened to derail the economy.... he lambasted the "professional optimists" who had convinced the public that values could keep going up for ever."

"History tells us that bubbles burst; and every housing boom is followed by a crash whatever the papers say."

Laying the blame for the crisis squarely at the door of Mr Brown, he said that he had done nothing to prevent the housing market overheating during his 10 years as Chancellor, and now "chickens were coming home to roost".

"I deeply distrust the professional optimists - the banks, estate agents, government ministers - who seem to believe in an economic version of levitation."

"This is something Gordon Brown understood ten years ago when he said in his first budget: 'I will not allow house prices to get out of control and put at risk the sustainability of recovery.' But that is exactly what he did. Why? Why did he exclude housing from the measure of inflation?

Why did he not give the Bank of England responsibility for this, the most important and destabilising element in inflation?


"Why has he taken 10 years to produce a housing policy? Why was council and other social housing drastically curtailed forcing families into owner-occupation they cannot afford? Why was he so frightened of tackling the banks over debt promotion, unfair charges and irresponsible lending?"

"As long as the boom has gone on, he has been able to avoid answering these questions but his day of reckoning cannot be far off."

Meanwhile the Treasury Minister Andy Burnham on BBC4 "PM" program at 5.20 pm BST is persisting in selling the lie that Northern Rock is solvent... when it is patently obvious they are not.

It is a "complicated matter" he says.

It is not - Northern Rock cannot pay its debts as they fall due. They are insolvent -regardless of the extended overdraft offered by the BOE - which is yet another debt there is any prospect that they can repay.

The Directors are in breach of their duty and should file for Administration. If the FSA or Ministers like Andy Burnham persist in lying about the state of the company's finances they are equally culpable and liable in law.