There are a number of things I find strange about the nationalisation of Northern Rock but the most intriguing to me is the Government’s dismissal of market valuations.

The Treasury and its advisers, Goldman Sachs, have flopped about trying to persuade a couple of outfits to bid for Northern Rock. I should have thought that the shear effort required and the number of concessions necessary to bring these people to the table would have given the Government some indication of the scale of the task it faces.  Now having tried to obtain a fair price for the firm, it has turned its back on the market and decided it can do a better job itself.  This seems to show a rather arrogant disdain for the market.  I wonder who will turn out to have got their pricing right?

As a taxpayer, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see the Government successfully negotiate redundancies, disgruntled shareholders and a marketing revamp to bring Northern Rock back to the market at a tidy profit but there is nothing in their track record to suggest this will go at all well.

It is all very well mixing business and politics when it comes to party funding but history does not throw up many examples of Government involvement in business ownership working well. 

Some politicians have criticised the bidders’ eye for a profit but I do hope the Treasury has one in mind for us.