It seems that Tesco may well be interested in bidding for the government's holding in Northern Rock, as the government is desperate to offload its stake before the next general election.
Ironically, the Treasury claim that politics has nothing do with the hasty private sale.
That being the case, why not float it?
Answer, because it would take too long!
Meanwhile, Britain's most profitable rail franchise (the East Coast Main Line - run by National Express) is set to be nationalised.
Talks between the Government and National Express over the franchise broke down last week. The company will hand back the service to the Department of Transport, when its funding runs out later this year.
National Express runs two other rail franchises and it is now entirely possible, under the terms of the contract re defaults, that they will be nationalised too.
Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, said that there would be no limit placed on the amount of taxpayers' money that would be allocated to the nationalised service to ensure it continued to run as normal.
Hardly true surely, given that Britain is bankrupt?
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