It is the school of hard knocks. The UK government learnt from the Northern Rock crisis what to avoid. As Bradford & Bingley’s fate as an independent company was sealed this weekend, there were no scenes of anxious depositors forming lines outside bank branches. Furthermore, the symbolism of a Labour government nationalising a bank is considerably less heavy than it was. It is hard to point to British exceptionalism when the US government is standing behind big swathes of the mortgage sector.

In fact, when the details are unveiled, Northern Rock might even appear to belong to a (relatively) more benign age. The idea of keeping Northern Rock together, albeit in nationalised form, suggested at the time that the Rock has some rationale for existing, once the liquidity squeeze was removed. Northern Rock has, in fact, been able to attract more savers and is shrinking its mortgage book by encouraging existing borrowers to remortgage with others. B&B’s issues are tougher: finding alternative remortgaging for B&B’s buy-to-let borrowers, for starters. Then there are the arrears. These have risen as a percentage of Northern Rock’s mortgage book – but arrears in the worst bits of B&B’s £41bn mortgage book are higher.