All the news today has featured various talking heads from the financial world saying how perfectly ordinary it is for the Bank of England to step in and help out Northern Rock to prop it up.  They have been urging people to not panic and leave their money in the bank.

Yet when their own money is at stake what happens?  The share price drops by one-third in one day.   Isn’t that the financial equivalent of a football club’s chairman saying the manager has the board’s full confidence?