On the rocks

II have some sympathy with the small shareholders in Northern Rock but at the end of the day the firm went belly up and it is not the taxpayer's job to reimburse losses. The shares are worth what the company was worth when it could no longer pay its way and going to court will not change that.

As for the hedge funds . . . asset stripping is bad enough but body snatching? They came in late with a big bet on a badly lame nag gambling the Government would change the rules to save face and pay out on a loser. They didn't and now their horse has been put down. So, like any punter who risks the housekeeping on a rank outsider and loses, its time to rip up your betting slip lads and walk home.

Just an aside, when Jerome Kerviel screwed Societe Generale for £4 billion in Paris last month it was all sorted out quietly by the Bank of France over a weekend without any of the dithering, juggling and song and dance we have had at Northern Rock, something I am sure international investors might well have noticed.