"Remorse" of ex Northern Rock Chairman

See front page of today's Journal.

But doesn't reveal what he could and should have done differently.

He is quoted as saying;

"I enormously regret what happened at Northern Rock. It's an incredibly painful memory for me and it's something that I will live with for the rest of my life. I have nothing but remorse for my role in what happened. I've apologised and explained as much as I can what happened before the Treasury Select Committee.

"We were all taken by surprise by that. there was almost nobody who saw it coming. Those who did were not in the right place to warn everyone else. Northern Rock ended up suffering a fate no different from any other mortgage bank. They all disappeared as a result of the crisis, and I learnt a lot from that."

Apparently he says he now knows that "the only thing I'm good at is writing."

Editor's notes ;
1. Mr Ridley is currently promoting a book.
2. Robert Peston was warning about potential problems at Northern Rock even before he went to the BBC.
3. Mr Ridley was all but invisible to the investors and the general public during the whole crisis. The chairman of a public company is generally expected to be its public face.
4. Building Societies who built their businesses on prudent mortgage lending and not on fancy financial instruments weathered the storm.
5. Mr Ridley was paid £300,000 per annum to know better than the rest of us.