From the FT’s transport correspondent turned lyricist, Robert Wright, comes The Red Flag (Northern Rock version.)
The people’s flag is deepest red,
It shrouds the finance system’s dead,
We’ll nationalise the Northern Rock,
And hope that that will stop the rot.
Chorus:
Then raise the scarlet standard high,
The Northern Rock’s too big to die,
Though actually it’s rather small,
We panicked, so we’ll buy it all.
The management were not astute,
Although they thought that it was cute,
To finance liabilities,
Of decades with a short-term wheeze.
Chorus
This may recall our triumphs past,
A Clement Attlee-era blast,
But this, we promise, won’t last long,
We know this kind of thing is wrong.
Chorus
It well befits the hedge funds base,
Who care for naught but Alpha’s trace,
To whinge that their returns are down;
They should invest where banks are sound.
Chorus
With heads uncovered swear we all,
It’s not a principle at all,
It’s just that we got in too deep,
And Branson’s offer’s much too cheap.