QUEUES of worried and angry savers continued outside Northern Rock banks yesterday.
At the Harrow branch many queuers told News Line that they did not trust Premier Brown and Chancellor Darling’s assurances that all of the deposits were guaranteed.
Arun Oza told News Line: ‘I came yesterday before 9am and went home at 5pm. This morning I got here just before 5am.
‘No one saw me yesterday. We have now sorted out a queuing system.
‘A man voluntarily printed out numbered tickets and gave us all numbers so that we all have a turn in the queue. Otherwise there would be chaos with thousands here.
‘There were five massive queues yesterday of around 5,000 people in all.
‘And there was a lot of anger in the crowd.
‘I also came on Saturday but could not bare to queue since there were so many people.
‘I don’t know why the government are doing this. I don’t trust the government and I am drawing all of my money out.
‘The mortgage rate here was good and so was the saving rate, but the US crash has got them.
‘The government should have helped them from the beginning. They should have made an announcement from the beginning.
‘You can’t blame the staff. I blame the Bank of England and the Chancellor and Brown.
‘The whole system throughout the world is collapsing and shares are collapsing everywhere.
‘The government is gambling with the public’s money.’
John Reid said : ‘Northern Rock have got themselves into trouble because the housing market is in trouble and now it’s their turn.
‘They have been giving mortgages to people six or seven times greater than their salaries, and now interest rates are going up.
‘Northern Rock are to blame.
‘Gordon Brown is the worst Chancellor of all time.
‘He lowered interest rates and then encouraged everyone to go into debt.
‘He said no boom and bust and now it is just bust, exactly what he said would not be happening.
‘We are in a lousy position now. It will all come home to roost in a few months’ time.
‘People will have no money, because they will be spending all of their money on mortgages and there will be nothing left to spend in the shops so businesses will collapse.’
Jeffrey Hall said: ‘I am here to draw my money out. I do not trust the government or their guarantee.
‘The government showed themselves to be liars over Iraq, and they are lying to us now. You can’t believe them.’
Mr Matek told News Line: ‘I have a lot of money here and I am going to draw it all out.
‘I do not trust the government. Northern Rock have more debts than assets so it is a false promise to say that our money is safe.’
Shares in Northern Rock recovered a little ground yesterday after the government promised to protect savers’ deposits.
The unprecedented move lifted Northern Rock’s shares only marginally, by six per cent, after a fall in share price of over 60 per cent.
Shares in the Alliance & Leicester, which fell by 31 per cent on Monday, were up 25 per cent.
The Bank of England also announced that it would inject £4.4bn into financial markets, offering credit at a rate of 5.75 per cent, in another effort to shore up the crumbling UK banking system.
