It's a Wonderful Life

Am I the only one who, while watching panicked customers trying to remove their life savings from troubled mortgage lender Northern Rock, keep flashing back to Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life and that scene of Jimmy Stewart pleading with investors - I can't give you your money, it isn't here, it's in Frank's house and Joe's house...

I do like the fact that the government, financial regulators, Bank of England and Northern Rock all insist there is no problem. Perhaps they are right in their assertion it is a liquidity problem and they needed some quick cash to keep things ticking over, but getting a multi-million pound handout from the Bank of England to a major mortgage supplier does mean there is a problem of some sort. Still, since the Bank of England is feeling so generous why not bung me a few grand to help me pay my mortgage, eh? After all you are the scunners who have raised rates several times in one year and made it so much harder for me and hundreds of thousands of others to try keeping up with their bills, not that the pinstripe suit-wearing, overpaid twats on the B of E board give a damn about how their decisions affect ordinary people, do they? By coincidence my annual mortgage statement came in as this news was breaking and it was so depressing to look at it and see it jump up almost every second month for the whole year - bastards and their endless rate rises fucking with people's lives, utterly unaccountable to the people for the actions they take which can have terrible effects on them all.

Sometimes I dream of torture devices linked to the financial markets and tying those scunners into it - the more rates go up the more pain is inflicted on them. Anyone want to help me develop this idea?