Northern Rock to be nationalised - Good News at last

The confused, dumb and extremely frightened men now responsible for sinking $30 Bn. plus of tax payer;s money into Northern Wreck are busy adding a belt to their braces.

A Nationalisation bill for Northern Rock is being agreed with the Conservative Party (NOT WITH VINCE CABLE IT SEEMS) to put Northern Wreck plc into public ownership - and to rush it through in one day before Christmas.

The Government wants interested parties to submit final deals by the end of the week. Parliament goes into recess on December 17 and returns on January 7.

The Government is required to report to the European Union on February 12 over the bank's future and address any state aid issues.

Northern Wreck's finances get worse daily as canny Geordies pull out their wedges as nothing seems to happen. Two weeks ago, it was losing £200m a day in deposits. Price Waterhouse Coopers who audited Northern Wreck have billed £1.8m in fees.

Richard Sexton, PwC's UK head of assurance,told the Treasury Select Committee the firm made £700,000 in fees from issuing "no more than 10" letters of comfort for the bank's securitisation programme in 2006. Securitisations underpinned its aggressive funding model.

PWC claims it was not required to audit liquidity risks and merely provided so-called "comfort letters" in relation to Northern Rock's funding transactions.

UPDATE If you arrived here by Alphaville /FT you might like to see previous posts on the Northern Wreck saga. here