91Èȱ¬

What a wishy washy article !!

You are THE 'Business Editor of the 91Èȱ¬' - let's get back to some proper business reporting !!

I believe the old saying was "If you have nothing to say - don't say anything" !!

Robert, you have been a journalist for a great deal of time and you must be good at your job otheriwse you wouldnt be where you are today but there are 6000 people that want to prove you wrong with your last statement about the rock being returned to former glories! I doubt there is another company where the employees are so loyal, so fiercely proud and so hard working. Maybe its time for you to come to the North and see it first hand? I cant guarentee you a welcoming party though!

From the very beginning you have reported how you see fit and you cant change that now but maybe, just maybe you should start thinking about the lives you have impacted on. As todays events have illustrated, everyone is accountable to someone and I hope that you have to answer some tough questions along the way, and before you start reporting your next 'crisis' stop and think about those who will be effected by it.

Robert,

This is almost a postive story about Northern Rock.

Shame on you! You won't get your Christmas pantomine baddie spot with comments like this!

"It will never be restored to its former glory" ...

Why ever not. The crisis has only ever been 'smoke and mirrors' created by misguided sensationalist reporting such as yours Robert.

The Rock can and should be restored to its former glory, with the name preserved, albeit under new and enlightened leadership.

Ben #2 comments --- I doubt there is another company where the employees are so loyal, so fiercely proud and so hard working.

I agree --- Lions led by donkeys.

The future will be difficult and needs someone capable at the helm.

The management has been woeful and reckless. NR needs a shake up. Savers, shareholders and staff deserve better. I hope they have found it.

@4 --- please send me a ticket for this pantomime LOL

suggest Jack and the Liquidity-talk!

When I started to read "This former journalist - whose lack of experience running any substantial business has been widely criticised ...", I actually thought for a moment that it was referring to you, Robert.

Robert

I work for the Rock. I've had a successful and enjoyable career there (nothing to do with funding though I stress).

Due in no small part to the hysteria you did your best to whip up, at best I now have no prospects, no chance of even a cost of living pay rise, will get no bonus however good my performance. What little shares and options I had built up, probably trivial to you but life changing to me, are now worthless. At worst I will be in the dole queue in a couple of weeks, being chased by the vultures that’ve picked at the bones of the Rock for mortgage payments to my Northern Rock mortgage. High quality jobs for graduates such as myself are few and far between in the North East (outside of the Rock) as I'm sure you are aware, so my life has been made a lot worse whatever happens. There are thousands in a similar position.

However, in light of the deliciously ironic funding problems at the 91Èȱ¬, then if I do end up standing in the dole queue, I will be cheered slightly if I'm stood next to your good self.

Can you just leave us be for a little while, please?

Like Mack, I'm a Rock employee. I sway between doom and hope, and no longer know what my future holds - it was looking very good until quite recently.

I'm no longer interested in whose fault it is, who started it, and who embellished it or who *sensationalised* it. We all know every party involved and how much blame they own.

What I am interested is in being given a chance. Use of expressions like "most rickety seat in British business" and utterances of how we can't continue, and if we can, how we can't be good again - well they're just not fair. The simple fact is that you're opinion is being passed off as fact.

Just leave us alone - or shock us with a positive article.

Andy

PS Robbie - you're right we are lions. We're all continually redoubling our efforts because we love this company and what it means.

You call yourself a business editor yet you don't seem capable of covering anything else apart from Northern Rock. so much for the quality news coverage we've been promised by BEEB intead of this continous drip feed of dross!!

As a license payer i expect more from an overpaid beeb business editor than this trivia and empty speculation.

Move on to something new Peston you are beoming extremely boring!!

Northern Rock has been extremely lucky that Mother Brown ordered the Old Lady to act as lender of last resort. It was managerial stupidity on a colossal scale which failed to identify the risk of borrowing short to lend long which has brought the Company to its kneees. Those who blame Robert Peston for this mess would be well advised to take a calm look at the facts. He is only an observer not a player. His commentary does not move inter-bank credit markets which is where senior managements gamble for growth was stopped in its tracks. I doubt if there is anyone who is taking comfort from watching a well known and highly regarded company struggle to survive. However it is in this position because of its own management's failure to recognise the risks with its business strategy. As this situation did not come about overnight one could seriously question the role of the FSA but this has political dimensions which Mother Brown will want to avoid at all costs. Changing the Chairman will not move the credit markets. For the time being there is no obvious solution to a situation which is worsening by the day. Even Mother Brown's largesse has its limits so at some point the Old Lady may have to stop providing new credit. It is shameful that a leading British financial institution should be in this position and is a terrible reflection on financial regulators. May I suggest that employees of the Company channel their anger towards their own senior management because they have gambled at the expense of the livelihoods of thousands of their colleagues.

The single reason why so many southern toff's like yourself desperately want Northern Rock to fail is because you can't bare the the fact that this company consitantly outperformed and beat it's competitors. What you have done is unforgivable as you have single handily ruined thousounds of peoples lives with your reckless reporting.

You point out 'The Pride' in N Rock in NE UK.This area is one of the largest recipients of Government Aid,in the last 10 years.That is overshadowed by the latest aid to NR.It is also a surprise that the CEO of this 'bank' has no banking qualifications!!!

We've seen many posts about Northern Rock here. I can't help but thinking it has become some sort of personal hobby for the author. I believe that most people would actually like to read more about the general developments in British banking rather than the Rock. After all most people heard about that bank for the first time in their lives when you started writing about it's bid for cash.

Obviously the NR staff really are fiercely loyal - so loyal they would rather shoot the messenger than criticise their leaders.

News is news. Blaming Robert Peston for this mess is a bit like blaming air raid sirens for the blitz. The problem was that NR ran out of cash, not that people were told about it.

As happens with RBS in Scotland one drop of criticism or comment on a newspaper forum then within milliseconds an RBS drone pops up to tell us all what a wonderful bank it is..

I wouldn't worry about it Robert.

My own view is that Northern Rock represents all that is squalid and greedy about the financial services sector. Watching the NR management during the recent Treasury Committee meeting I got that overwhelming "would you trust your cat with this lot" feeling.

As to Matt Ridley then his performance was utterly pathetic but I suspect he was only chairman for who he is rather than what he is.

Keep on reporting on NR Robert and keep on digging into the antics of the entire financial services sector. It's high time this lot were taken down a lot of pegs.

I agree that the NR Executives have blown it, but Peston has made a bad situation 10 times worse by whipping up unnecessary panic. It can't be overstated how much damage he and his mole at the FSA caused.

Tony, while NR has been partially to blame for the current situation, Robert Pest-on sensationalised the articles to make them more newsworthy without a single thought to the effect on the employees or shareholders. People were panicked by the tone of the reports which lead to the mass run. NR only had to borrow money due to this run, they initially only approached the BOE in case they needed money for loans in the short-term. They were never in risk of "going bust" as was alluded to in RP's reports. ("What if NR goes Bust").

NR is supposed to be accountable to the FSA. Who is Peston accountable to ?

Peston must 'bang on' about this problem since he is a messenger and we don't shoot those do we.
The message is bad news and actually credit to Peston that he lays it out as it is EXCEPT that what lies in the future is not rosy NE glasses but a true global situation which we can only hope that will not pan out to be as bad as some predict.
NR is symptomatic of the problems relating to too much easy credit. At one time mortgages were 2-3 times earnings. Why change? Increased borrowings inflate house prices amongst other problems.
Sooner or later borrowings have to be paid back and that goes for governments also.
Mind you some governments have money to invest in other countries like the UK ;-)

It's obvious to me that Peston feels he is on to a winner and won;t let go until he has milked this story for eevrything it's worth.

I for one fel he has behaved highly irresponsbly an d without any senstivity whatsover to thousands of people he is affecting by his continous negative speculation.

it is getting to the stage where I feel he needs to be reported to the press complaints commission.

i cetrtainly feel there are legitimate grounds for a complaint on the bases of inaccuracy and persistent harassment!!

It's obvious to me that Peston feels he is on to a winner and won;t let go until he has milked this story for eevrything it's worth.

I for one feel he has behaved highly irresponsbly an d without any senstivity whatsover to thousands of people he is affecting by his continous negative speculation.

it is getting to the stage where I feel he needs to be reported to the press complaints commission.

i cetrtainly feel there are legitimate grounds for a complaint on the bases of inaccuracy and persistent harassment!!

It is distressing to read posts from some NR workers who are rightly fearful of their future.

Economics editor David Smith of the Sunday Times, pointed out recently that some areas of England are so dependent on Government 'jobs' that they were almost Communist command-and-control economies.

The North-East was one of those regions identifed as such by Smith.

This is probably at the root of the fears of the NR workers.

You could look at it slightly differently.

The private sector has been a hard place to work in for some time now, and seems to be becoming ever more volatile.

On the other hand, the public sector is a model of stability in comparision, pay rates, are on average, actually slightly above the equivalent private sector jobs and then there are those pensions.

Therefore, the good workers of the North East should demand Government jobs.

Not entirely tongue-in-cheek, maybe we should all demand Government jobs!

The real question is why has the Govenment (present and past) allowed such an economic imbalance between the private and public sectors around the various regions of England?

Pest-on the Beeb, poor article. Just trying to keep the rock story going for a while, or at least until the housing market tanks, then you can add more lenders to your hate list!

I was amazed to find that the Matt Ridley who was chairman of the Wreck is the same Matt Ridley who often wrote for New Scientist magazine - his executive credentials seem somewhat thin, ( ) - and that he is also the nephew of the late Nicholas Ridley (the former Trade & Industry Secretary) And now he's being replaced by an ex-chairman of Sunderland FC? Given NR's prominent sponsorship of Newcastle, one might suspect a certain conflict of interests.

Nicholas Ridley once had to apologise for remarking (soon after the sinking of the Herlad of Free Enterprise) that he would not be pursuing a particular policy "with the bow doors open". One might suggest that this is exactly what Northern Rock have been doing for the last few years.

And NR now owes the Bank of England £16bn, having borrowed £3bn more over the last week alone. The Telegraph also reports that (even before the news of the emergency funding was leaked to Robert) Lloyds Bank had been in talks to rescue NR but had demanded a £30bn 2 year loan at a non-penal interest rate from the Bank of England in order to cover NR's obligations. ( )

My father banked with the Northern Rock and my mortgage was with them so there has been some emotional connection with the Rock for a time. However, blaming Robert Peston for the fate and perception of the Rock is ridiculous. By trying to be financial superstars the top people took wild risks which in benign conditions produced good results but, as the banks that would not lend to them knew, this created long-term problems when difficult circumstances arose. And these circumstances were INEVITABLE with any basic understanding of capitalism.
The Rock has 16 billion of debt. It has a global brand with the word 'run' attached. If the economy enters recession, which, I think, is a certainty, it will be facing it from a position of weakness. And given the ability of good lending to become bad lending very quickly in such a situation and the Rock's thoughtless expansion - which institution will help? And how can the Rock pull itself back-up without a massive sell-off of assets?

To #14 the biggest recipient of government hand-outs is and has always been London and, consequently, its surrounds.

My father banked with the Northern Rock and my mortgage was with them so there has been some emotional connection with the Rock for a time. However, blaming Robert Peston for the fate and perception of the Rock is ridiculous. By trying to be financial superstars the top people took wild risks which in benign conditions produced good results but, as the banks that would not lend to them knew, this created long-term problems when difficult circumstances arose. And these circumstances were INEVITABLE with any basic understanding of capitalism.
The Rock has 16 billion of debt. It has a global brand with the word 'run' attached. If the economy enters recession, which, I think, is a certainty, it will be facing it from a position of weakness. And given the ability of good lending to become bad lending very quickly in such a situation and the Rock's thoughtless expansion - which institution will help? And how can the Rock pull itself back-up without a massive sell-off of assets?

To #14 the biggest recipient of government hand-outs is and has always been London and, consequently, its surrounds.

Here the Pest goes again. Making statements about things that have never happened as if they are true and fact. You have manage to cause a lot of stress to 6000 good people who work for The Rock, they are 'Lions', and I am proud to be one of their number. If I ever have the displeasure of meeting you I will behave like a lion and rip you apart.

To all the disgruntled Northern Rock employees posting here, screaming that it's unfair and blaming Robert Peston for ruining their livelihoods and future prospects - such is life, suck it up and deal with it. The world does not owe you a living.

I have been in IT for most of my working life. As a fresh graduate, I went straight into the dot-com boom, breaking my back in silicon valley for promises of future wealth. The future looked incredibly bright. Well, around December '99 it hit the fan and I, together with many thousands of IT workers very suddenly ended up without a job and a very bleak looking future. All that incredibly hard work, and most of us got nothing in the end. Any stock options we might have had were now worthless. And was this media's fault? Of course not. All the world's Peston's did was to point out that the dot-com boom was a daft house of cards, but greed or naivete failed to see it. It's hard not to draw any parallels to the cheap credit bonanza which fuelled banks such as Northern Rock.

Many of my former colleagues retrained (one guy became a train driver, another became a chef), worked extra in record shops, or went back to school. I moved to London, where I went back to university, worked extra and eventually landed a job at a small software company. Soon enough, the economy had recovered and IT was a good business to be in again. I have faced two more redundancies since, but you suck it up as experience and move on. After the first setback, you get to learn that life is never easy and always changing. But all that hard earned experience has served me well and given me even better job prospects. And it has taught me not to put all eggs in one basket, and more importantly to think for myself.

Today, some six years later I work in corporate IT, life feels very stable and there seems little to suggest that it might all suddenly change. Of course it will. But I will never blame anyone else for it. And I have little sympathy for anyone who does. If you want stability, become a plumber.

Well said JW. The best career advice I ever had was `nothing is forever'.

I can understand the concerns of the Rock employees articulated here as I too have been there, worn the T-shirt and written the job applications.

The one thing that they have to realise that there is nothing to gain from shooting the messenger. The problem lies elsewhere and they, and the employees of the 91Èȱ¬ as well, need to take off the rose-tinted spectacles and take a long hard look at the economic reality that prevails in this country. For them, the illusion is over.

So far the only losers are the shareholders,me included.What is quite clear is that the only way to get NR on a sure footing is to refinance its mortgage lending in a secure longterm way.That holds for continuation as an independant company and if NR is taken over.Shareholders have nothing to gain from a take over at a pittance that does not reflect the value of the company or from someone taking a majority stake;that just kills the market.From my point of view it is better for NR to remain in its present ownership.I have already been denied my declared dividend,I don't want to be done out of my equity value as well.

If you nothing to say Robert better to say nothing. But to pick up your ket point ....

'Northern Rock is now in receipt of £16bn of emergency funding from the Bank of England - and money markets are a long way from being liquid enough again to refinance all that now or in the near future.'

Why do you use the most perjorative description Robert ' £16bn of emergency funding...'.

Let me rephrase that for you....

'In the light of the illiquidity in the market NR has now replaced £16bn of commercial loans with loans from the BoE who failed to act as quickly or decisively as other central banks to avert the worse of the liquidity crisis.'

It is nicely symmetrical that the BoE should now be having to provide such liquidity to NR. The BoE is now in as big a bind as the NR. It cannot get even close to precipitating another run on NR. It has to engineer a situation where the commercial market will lend on NRs mortgage book once again. Maybe the mortgage book should be put up for sale. What is it worth? Well NR made an annual profit of £500m ...so on a p/e of say 8 .... £4bn.

It's ridiculous to blame Robert Peston for what he's writing. He has a responsibility to the public to translate the professional language and actions of finance into words people uninitiated can understand. The Rock is in trouble because of its business model: institutions in the city knew that and that is why it did not lend to it. People may work very hard but if they're badly led then it all goes to waste. Robert Peston didn't build any hysteria - people decided that they wanted their money in a safer place given what they understood about the situation. Robert Peston only helped provide (an unbias) understanding and in good faith.

To #14 the largest recipient of government aid is and always has been London and its environs.

I wish people would stop talking about Northern Rock's debts as if it is a new thing. This scaremongering is just plain wrong!

Northern Rock, like all other banks and businesses, have debt. The important thing is that these debts should be balanced out by assets held which in this case would be their mortgage book.

The £16 billion from the BOE is mostly due to refinancing of existing loans and these already existed when they were declaring healthy profits and when the share price was above £10.

The penal rate charged by BOE would be at the most 1% more than what they had originally planned ie £160million per annum. This comes to a paltry £13million a month. Remember this crisis only began in Sept and it hasn't always been £16billion borrowed.

Hopefully the credit markets would ease in the near future and they could stop paying this extra £13million monthly.

To JW: The crucial difference between the commentators who pointed out the dot com industry was a 'daft house of cards' and Peston's reporting of NR - is that Peston is not commenting on the banking industry in general- he is running a vendetta against NR in particular.

OK, so only NR went to the BoE to secure a lending facility- but other banks were able to go elsewhere, such as the European Central Bank without them making a song and dance about it. If the 'liquidity crisis' in the banking industry is such an important story- why has this not been covered? Did your 'source' have a vested interest in damaging NR Robert? Why not name him/her/them and dispell any such 'conspiracy' theories?

So, the real analogy to the dot com thing JW would have been a journalist picking on your company in particular and ignoring the wider issues. Further, you and your colleagues would have been paying them to do so (just as NR employees and shareholders are - through their license fees- currently funding Robert's vendetta).

Northern Rock isn't the only bank having trouble and to correct it, its far better off than most banks out there believe it or not.

I see that Virgin is trying to talking the share price down again in the weekend media. Well that would do them nicely.

Better to break up the mortagage book into say 10 parcels of swallowable sizes for the commercial market and offer them for competitive tender. At least that would optimise value for shareholders. It would of course leave the Rock dead. And the government doesn't want that. So it will continue to allow NR to borrow from the BoE. This will help NR maintain the value of its mortgage book. But how does the gov get out of its catch 22?

It's incredible to read comments here telling Robert Peston to stop reporting on one of the biggest financial stories in living memory.

Are you the same folks that put your fingers in your ears and shout 'La la la' whenever you are about to hear bad news?

I'm glad Robert has got a few friends to post on his behalf, but there is no doubt whatsoever that the run on Northern Rock was purely a direct result of hysterical over-reporting by himself and the 91Èȱ¬. NR hadn't even touched the money promised by the BoE and in all likelihood may not have needed to. Until Mr Peston rolled along to trumpet claims of NR going bust. Then and only then did the run start.

Those who support Robert are the ones with the rose-tinted specs.

I am surprised to see you haven't yet reported on Barclays & RBS seeking £30bn of emergency funds from the US Federal Reserve.

Robert, have you nothing else to talk about, your continued adverse comments about Northern Rock are becoming quite tedious...given you have been instrumental in its collapse, your agenda unknown I think its time you moved on - find another subject to discuss

I think that part of the problem is that instead of just reporting the story Mr Peston has, in a lot of peoples eyes, become part of the story, especially when you get mentioned/blamed in select commitee meetings. His words and style on news reports have had added influence on the impact of the original news. Whilst the information conveyed may be technically accurate, more people are trying to work out the angle of the writer instead of reading the words. The journalist is not supposed to be part of the story, he is supposed to be an impartial conveyer of the story.

Isn't scare mongering the most popular type of news?!
Old ladies all over the country scrambling for their hard earned savings. If only they'd 'checked out your blog!'

Everyone likes a bit if dirt here and there, maybe you thought this might be a shrewd career moving story. How proud you must be. Thought about writing for Heat Magazine??

Robert, as Louise rightly pointed out, you were very quick off the mark to report on Northern Rock, but what about RBS and Barclays? Their emergency credit line with the Fed makes the Rock's loan look like small fry. And yet nothing on the 91Èȱ¬ website at all....

Peston, the man a lot less talented than any one at the board of Northern Rock, has once again started talking total rubbish. My hard earned money going into the 91Èȱ¬ would be a total waste if he were an example of where my money goes ! It would be better off in the Rock (if I had'nt been forced to pay his wages with a TV licence). He is a disgrace to ANY intelligent person in the world ! Please read comment numbers 41, 42 and 43 again to read proper reporting of the REAL story ! Well done guys !

it ain't over... wtch out for more bad banks an some you SHOULD have seen already if you had not been so blind by NR ego!!

comment on real stories from real people who have real life tales to tell,

the renter from the sub-prime borrower

the NR borrower who thinks he/she is not sub prime

the extent of the problem, being a lot bigger.

all was on the table, YOU should have seen it all coming

Peston,

Come on out, where are you hiding, please comment on the other lenders seeking US and European banking funding to bail them selves out of this whole mess, report evenly and fairle or not at all. Who actually pays your wage? how come your still banging on about the NR when the rest of the banking sector is up the same creek without a paddle, (at least the rock has that!) Equity, Equity, Equity, wher is it all coming from.... I'll tell you ... a housing market that's about to go pop, I know it you know it but who's asking you to keep mum about this?

Jon H/harley bren. You must employees of the Rock or something with that emotional stance against Robert. Harley your comments about Roberts intellect are very disrespectful and childish.

NR made some over-aggressive moves and paid for it when credit conditions changed.

Your belief that Robert Peston STARTED THE RUN?? is hysterical!! How many people do you think read this blog??

I think those who need to "move on" to other things are the Northern Rockers and hopefully not our gentle reporter.
With kind regards

to #42,

Barclays and RBS only requested emergency funding from the Federal Reserve as a contigency, unlike the Rock. The contigency is in place for their US clients and has nothing to do with the situation at Northern Rock.