Vox pops of Northern Rock’s customers continue to fascinate and illuminate. As one man interviewed by ITN at the weekend said: “When the government says ‘Don’t panic’, I start to worry.”

What the authorities faced before last Thursday was the retail finance equivalent of a terror threat. Remember “tanks at Heathrow”? The government’s deployment of soldiers at the airport in February 2003 may have been instrumental in deterring a serious menace. But instead of shoring up public confidence, the public relations gaffe managed to shake it.