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Banking Bill

I agree with the noble Baroness to the extent that I consider the word ““temporary”” to be unacceptable. Either it means something or it means nothing. In reality, it is pretty meaningless. Contrary to what the noble Baroness said, it is impossible and undesirable to define what ““temporary”” might mean in the context of the Bill. Let us take the case of Northern Rock. It seems to me that the Government have set a tight timetable for Northern Rock to pay back the money that it has received. That is what has been said. In setting that timetable, I believe that the Government have imposed unacceptable pressures on the management of the bank to pay the money back, and that is why Northern Rock, more than any other bank, is being harsh in relation to repossessions. It is under the cosh from the Government to get the money back as quickly as possible and is not following what many people think are currently responsible policies. Therefore, setting in the legislation a limit of three years or anything other than a very long period could, in certain circumstances, of which Northern Rock is one example, require the management of a nationalised or partially nationalised bank to pursue unsatisfactory policies. I do not like the use of ““temporary””. As the noble Baroness said, it has been included to make an ideological rather than a legislative point. I do not think that she or anyone else believes that the Government have become involved in nationalising Northern Rock or any other institution on ideological grounds. Quite the opposite: the Government tried desperately to avoid nationalising Northern Rock, even when it was the most blatantly obvious thing to do. However, constraining ““temporary”” in the way that she does is not acceptable to me. I would rather delete it altogether, and perhaps that is what we should do.