Bill Jamieson: Taxpayers are now in a new and scarier world after huge failures by watchdog

FIRST, Northern Rock; then the rescue takeover of HBOS, now the pending nationalisation of Bradford and Bingley: Britain is reeling under colossal and unprecedented shocks to its financial system. And a nervous public is asking: What happens now? Who may be next?

This cannot be blamed away on stock market spivs and speculators. As with Northern Rock, B&B was not an indiscriminate target but singled out for the questionable quality of its loan book: its big push in the buy-to-let market, its high loan-to-sala...