Betfair Official Blog

Stuck in the Mud

Our City insider on the Northern Rock affair...

Did the ground move for you? Let's hope so. No love, not the earthquake. And certainly not Gary, your student boyfriend. I mean the ground - the path of greenery and mud owned by Newcastle Falcons rugby club that we now all own?

Three weeks before the Northern Rock had to go cloth-cap in hand to the Bank of England, it invested £15million in mud. A few more details reveal that the land you now own was worth around £5million. The Rock, displaying the business acument they are now renowned for, bought it for £14.75m by factoring in part of the land it could build on. But the Falcons have a lease for the next ten years which means the lads will either have to play around a row of executive show homes, or else you own mud. Granted it is mud that Jonny Wilkinson has run upon and it would be worth a tidy sum were it carved up and sold off by the square inch. But as an investment in property it is right up there with the less-than-sturdy houses of the Two Little Pigs.

Consumer spending is slowing doowwwwn too apparerntly. So says the research nerds. Brian from research says we are spending less than we should. Brian wears the same shoes every day. Same shirt. Same trousers.

If we all spent like Brain, this country's economy really would be doomed.

Kerching