Government to underwrite all risk from now on

So the Government has promised that it will guarantee Northern Rock savers by underwriting £28bn of deposits? Darling has, in theory, just nationalised the savings industry - yet you get the distinct impression that he is making this up as he goes along. You can't blame those with their savings in Northern Rock queuing up and withdrawing the money because Darling, the PM, the opposition, the electorate and anyone else you can think of knows full well that what Darling said is about as solid a commitment as Chamberlain gave the people when he claimed it was "peace in our time". £28bn? That is three Crossrails. It is three Olympics (though it may be just the one by the time we know the full cost). It is nearly half our health budget.  It is three quarters of our defence budget. We could probably go to war with Iran with that money and you think the government would hand it over just like that? Of course not. They have no idea what they are doing so let's just hope that Darling's promise doesn't come back to haunt him. After all, the Treasury has made it clear that they will underwrite any other lending institutions in a similar situation.

In other news, the Daily Mash is reporting:

CHANCELLOR Alistair Darling has agreed to cover all bets at this afternoon's EBF Maiden Stakes and is tipping the Irish two year-old, General Ting...

Mr Darling added: "If you see a brand new Ferrari advertised on eBay for a Buy-it-Now price of £3000, my advice is 'go for it'. "When you turn up to collect and discover you've been shafted, worry not, I'll send you a cheque."