How much per employee did the taxpayer cough up to save the remaining jobs? What exactly was the point of "saving" this company? What prevented it from being merged with a solvent bank? Will the Govt. do the same for other non-bank companies?

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/USA

Surprising use of words from Mr Sandler, ''2000 of CURRENT jobs' in the official release. Therefore, does this cut of roles not incude the 5-700 staff whom have left since the troubles began and not been replaced due to the employment/promotion embargo within NR?

Chris, Lonon,

Being confident that the government would never intervene to save my job I ask : "consultation... why?"

e skelton, cardiff, uk

Surprise surprise.

Farrukh, Woking, UK

Unite said: “If downsizing goes ahead, Unite will be demanding that Northern Rock gives a commitment to no compulsory redundancies." Good luck with that!

“The workforce did not contribute to the situation which the bank now finds itself in..." The workforce are the bank. All for one etc.

Tom, London, UK

How long before this Nationalised Bank collapses, akng with it billions of taxpayers' money?

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

Businesses close every day for any number of reasons so Norther Rock employees should be thankful they still have a job in a bankrupt company. They should use the time wisely to adjust to their new reality not ponder that reality to simply apportion blame elsewhere.

Barry, Shrewsbury, Shropshire

i sincerly hope that those that lose their jobs and those that have lost their savings realise that the Govt could have prevented this from happening if they had acted last August with a loan similar to that which the Bank of England has just made to the banks. However the Govt dithered.

TC, London,

If only they had stayed a Building Society.It shows what greed does.

stephen hulton, eure, france

Guys they are in business fault or no fault

ak, London, uk

thanks to the Brown Mismanagement Company. Another nail in his coffin.

Albert Hall, kettering,

God help all those working for Northern Rock, i hope the workers have some representation, i am only little investor, but
my heart goes for working these bankers, there's hardly a union you can all it, God be with you all Northern Rockers:

Cllr Ken Tiwari (independent), Oxford, United Kingdom

I think this kind of situation will be more and more in Europ and north America. In the end these Bank or investive bank will be held by China enterprise(state own) or other asia cooperation.

Hweitt, SHANGHAI, China

When a company does not have enough money to meet its financial obligations it is technically bankrupt. From that moment on the "jobs" become known as "non-jobs". This is a harsh term which infers that jobs in non profitable private businesses will inevitably cease to exist (albeit not immediately

David Pengilly, Long Ditton,