I say this for two reasons. Firstly, it sets a precedent. Any other bank with a flawed financial model now doesn't really have to worry too much. The Bank of England has already said that it was a bit concerned about the dangers of moral hazard when it made the loan available in the first place. Now any other bank and their customers will expect the same treatment.

However, the main argument is that this decision seems to be based on class. The FSA already has a scheme that covers in full the first £2,000 and then 90% of further deposits up to something over £30,000. I guess that covers the majority of savers, certainly the majority of working class savers. The govenment stepping in to guarantee everything is essentially underwriting with public funds the considerable wealth of a few.

But it gets worse. Remember the Park hamper scheme that went bust? Did the government step in to help those people? No. Why not? Could it be because they were poor?

And what about the thousands of pensioners who had their pensions stolen as companies took 'pension holidays' and didn't pay in what they should have done? Have those people been fully compensated? Again, no. Nor have any of the directors who were responsible ever been charged with any offences. The law needs to change so that the pension scheme becomes a first charge on a company's assets if it goes bust, not its debts to other companies and shareholders.

So in the Northern Rock case the government has stepped in to help people who haven't actually lost anything yet while allowing real suffering to occur to people who have lost what for them was a considerable sum of money or their pension. Isn't Labour government great?