How Bad Is Northern Rock?

The subprime crisis has forced the British government to do what it dreaded: nationalize a bank. What's the fallout from the Northern Rock takeover?

• Gordon Brown "put quite a good face" on an unpalatable decision, says Philip Stephens of the Financial Times. Nationalization hasn't hurt him much, but the dithering has. Result: An election is probably years away.

• Polly Toynbee, in the liberal Guardian, says, "Labour only did what any responsible government would do—but then, politics isn't fair."
• In the right-leaning Telegraph, Rachel Sylvester writes that Brown looks "like the foolish man who built his house on sand." He should watch out if he tries to scapegoat chancellor of the exchequer Alistair Darling.
• In the Independent, Steve Richards applauds government ownership—"it could hardly be managed more poorly." The real fallout will not be about nationalization but about oversight: how could this happen in the first place?

(More Northern Rock stories.)