Rock shame

It should come as no surprise that George Osborne and David Cameron, the Burke and Hare representatives of the richest 1 per cent, have decided to sell off Northern Rock to multi-billionaire Richard Branson for the knockdown price of £740 million (your report, 18 November). This represents a loss of £400 million to the taxpayer. It is the same fire sale of assets that the Tories sold off in the 1980s at a fraction of what they were worth.

The is yet another example of the Robin Hood-in reverse ethos which has become the hallmark of the Tory government. What this sale masks, however, is that the taxpayer is still liable for the “bad part” of Northern Rock’s toxic investments which are estimated at some £20 billion.

The signal that this sale will give to the city hoodlum’s crooks and robber barons who are the Tory paymasters who pay no tax is that they can pick up the good parts of other nationalised banks like RBS, HBOS and Lloyds TSB for next to nothing while the hard-pressed taxpayers will still be liable for the bad debt.

The Tories don’t think the bankers who caused the crisis should have to have any culpability for their actions. They believe that finance capital should go on before and everyone else should pay with a cut in wages, pensions and living standards.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillepie Terrace

Dundee