Banking (Special Provisions) Bill

The one point of agreement between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats on the substantive point is that, whatever the Government wanted to do, they should have done it earlier instead of dithering for four or five months. However, I am glad that we have Liberal Democrat support for some of the amendments, which we tabled with Liberal Democrat agreement. I therefore hope that there will be opportunities to vote on, for example, ensuring the public's right to know and fair competition. If there is no opportunity to vote tonight, there will be plenty of opportunities in the House of Lords, where circumstances mean that we may carry the day through working with the Liberal Democrats, and that we will come back on Thursday evening, perhaps late at night, to discuss those matters. We do not know what we are buying or how much we are paying for it. We also do not know for how long we are buying it. The Prime Minister and the Chancellor keep telling us that there will be a temporary period of public ownership. They still cannot bear to utter the word ““nationalisation””. It has become the policy that dare not speak its name. How long could ““temporary”” be? The Chancellor and the Prime Minister refused to say. The Chief Secretary, whom it was enjoyable to watch on ““Newsnight”” last night, also refused to answer the question. However, Ron Sandler is not so coy. He said yesterday, ““We're clearly talking about some years””. Why did we hear that from Ron Sandler but not from the Chancellor of the Exchequer today or yesterday? We know that, in private, the Chancellor tells journalists that ““temporary”” could be at least three years. That is reported as being said by authoritative sources in Government. Why does not he say that in Parliament and to the public instead of simply briefing the press? The sorry history of nationalisation is littered with examples of companies that were taken into what was supposed to be temporary public ownership and stayed there for years. I repeat that we do not know what we are buying, how much we are paying for it and for how long we are going to own it. We do not know what the Government plan to do with that high street bank. The formal business plan will not be presented until 17 March. When it is, I understand from the Chancellor that it will be presented to the European Commission instead of the House of Commons. Are we in Westminster not entitled to know the plans for the bank that we are being asked to buy? We will try to amend the Bill to require the new management of Northern Rock to explain to Parliament and the taxpayers' elected representatives the Government's plans for the taxpayer-owned bank.