* US and Soviet did same 40 years ago. But better than Japan and India in space technology.
*I hope China will not spend a lot but keep it as a viable project forever (learn from the US space funding problem).
* The economical return is diminishing (except the prestige and some satellite business)

TonyP4, boston, usa

I have a lot of shares with bradford and bingley and now that it is to be nationalised have lost a lot of money, will the government pay some sort of compensation for this mess!

Vanessa Brown, Pawcatuck, USA

My prediction is that in the next 20 years, the space will be the play ground for the US, Russia and China, three countries and three countries only. Mark my words, it wouldn't be long, 10 years may be, NASA will need to ask China for help to send supplies to the Space Station.

Jeremy, Columbia, US

Stranger times I have not seen. Utilities and public transport privatised; healtcare backdoor privatisation; and bands becoming public property? Does that mean that if good time come back, us the taxpayers will be able to share in huge profits like the sharholders of these banks used to?

James, Leicester, UK

congratulations to the Chinese!!

joseph, florida, USA

China's space program demonstrates nothing but how to change your life as a boy from a poor family. Most Chinese undergrads and Olympic medalists are from poor families, contrary to the UK. The goverment should give a chance to poor but hard-working people who want to change their life.

Ran, York, UK

Why did this happen? I bought new shares in August to help with the cash injection. Now b&b nationalised and my shares worthless!

James Ritson, Long Eaton,

What happens if I paid 28p for the shares and current price at close was 20p now govt are taking it over?

alan robson, northwood, uk

why is the B abd B allowed to advertise on TV about their savings accounts knowing that they are going to the wall. It stinks of un scrupolous behaviour

Chris Quartly, harpenden,

Why didn't they bundle up the mortgages, securitise them and sell the packages off to American banks?
A bit slow, really.

Howard, Chester,

So now our taxes will be used to bail out Bankrupt & Bust, whose losses should be borne *entirely* by its shareholders.

Paul, Coventry,

So, the bowler hats did belong to Laurel and Hardy ,after all.

ronnie, bucks, UK

Sorry to depositors but they've got to let this fail.

We can't move to a world wherein private institutions expect to be bailed out with taxpayers' money.

Free-market, zero-regulation proponents a bit quiet recently aren't they? Guess that future showing to be not so rosey.

MD, Milton Keynes,

My Mother has shares in them and when she said she would support there "Rights Issue" in August I said "Dont even bother because they certainly will be going down the drain" The Management at B B should never be offered to run a bank ever again ...Dont save them just let them go BUST

Marc, Lima , Peru

Kelly-Just to clarify your comments about Northern institutions-HSBC was NOT founded in the North of England,it began in the Far East-China/Hong Kong.I think you mean HBOS not HSBC.

LINDA, CROWTHORNE, UK

Brian - what do you mean Thatcher privatised the building societies!? Not all the economy was in state hands - bad though it was, the UK was no Soviet Union. Get your facts straight before trying to defend Brown!

Andrew, Cambridge,

Just rebrand it NS&I and sell on the mortgage book. That would be a simple solution!

Michael, London,

Why bail out this failed bank? Will the government bail out every failure? Investments go down as well as up, all these investors were rushing to put their money in 10+ years ago to get their windfall. Take it on the chin, we should not be nationalising this or any bank.

Bee, york,

Both in the U.S. and the UK the failure is generally in the attitude of the new generation which has little common sense and certainly no discipline compared to previous generations which were less into self-indulgence, especially with regard to credit finance.

Payne, Honolulu, USA

I think John D that if these banks where to go down eventually the powers that be would get their act together.

Dave Bridge, Southport, UK

Can't figure out how bankers were able to convince themselves that making loans to people, who may or may not really have an income, was a reasonable risk.

Pure foolishness,

What we have here is 400 years of banking experience absolutely ignored.

gary, austin,

I keep reading "let it go down".... but do any of you have any idea quite what that means??

Mass redundancies, zero inward flows of capital into UK, the collapse of the UK as a banking centre, the end to lending as we know it - no student, car or unsecured loans. Pensions & policies dropping 50%.

John D, London, UK

Why oh why is B&B being nationalised? It is a failed business and should be allowed to fail. How long can government keep propping up this false market.

Chris, Chipping Norton,

Previous post: "His [Brown's] legacy is the ruination of the very people Labour should have protected. "
Don't forget, this is New Labour, not Labour. Labour was yesterday. New Stupid Greed Labour is today.

Peter, Liverpool, UK

Speculation that the FSA sought a buyer led to a ratings downgrade which has led to further loss of confidence and perhaps nationalisation.

It's your pension funds which are invested in these companies' equity so don't be too anxious for government incompetence to steal it.

David, London,

I have thought for a long time that banks don't understand the business of their customers. Now it is all too clear, that they don't even understand their own. What a mess.

Ian, Bingley, UK

Why is it that institutions associated with the north are the ones collapsing? Northern Rock, HSBC and now B&B?
Is this genuine coincidence or are their more sinister motives and influences at play in the City?

Today's news will cause panic withdrawals futher hurting B&B - interesting timing eh?

Kelly, West Mids, UK

Yes, this should be nationalised. Shareholding does imply a risk after all. Deposits should be guaranteed and if borrowers default - especially buy-to-let - we have a new source of social housing. We could develop a Ministry of Housing which could also take over current public stock.

Judy, Daventry, UK

I hope the directors who took the credit in the form of huge personal bonuses for implementing a risky and unsustainable business model, will now take the penalties personally.
Remember if something is unsustainable it won't be sustained, I've never known this golden rule to be otherwise.

Andy Ireland, Stamford, UK

And what will happen to all the rediculously paid exectutives that made all these disasterous business decisions?
Off to other highly paid jobs in the city no doubt, to cause even more havoc.

Gareth Jones, Dusseldorf, Germany

I do not see how this problem can be laid at the current governments door. These building Societies were privatised at the behest of Mrs Thatchers Tories. It in involved risk, all commercial activity does. OK, its gone bad, but the shareholders have had their rewards, now they should take the losses

Brian, Norwich, Norfolk

when the bill nationalising Northern Rock was pushed though one canny commentator noticed room for other banks too and posited one in the pipeline how right he was

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

Nationalisation is an immoral tax on taxpayers

It should be put into Receivership first thing Monday and by all means let Darling Mr Brown gurantee deposits which makes Govt a concurrent creditor.

Then Liquidators must recover what they can.

Shareholders get nothing. Directors get prosecuted.

Dr Richard Bruce, Cape Town,

Should have cherry picked the Bank of Scotland from HBOS. Then Northern Rock and B&B could have become the Bank of England(commercial branch) and the Bank of Wales respectively - voila - 3 Nationalised Banks that we could all move our cash into. 2 fingers up to all of em

billy, Cardiff, Wales

When Charles Goodhart wrote 'The Evolution of Central Banks' in 1970, he noted that the correct course of prudential governance in a crisis is 'to back the first sound bank to come under attack to the hilt'. Wise words in 1970, but in 2008 the game has changed: which bank is now sound ? No one knows

George Smith, Perth, Australia

My corner shop went bust, no-one nationalised it to protect the jobs. The precedent set is out of control.

You can argue the economics of scale, cause and effect etc, I see bailing out the fat cats!

The market will correct itself, let it! Then that way the CEO's wont get their massive payoff

Marc, Antrim, N Ireland

"I will not allow house prices to get out of control and put at risk the sustainability of the recovery"
Gordon Brown 1997 Budget speech when he increased stamp duty slightly.

It's a pity the banks were having none of it and showed him who was really in charge.

Fred, Moray, Scotland

Journalists and depositors alike should read the terms and conditions before clinging on to this 35k mantra. Once the amount set aside for this purpose is used up, no more guarantee, 35k or otherwise.

Nic, Essex, UK

Bradford and Bingley - buy-to-let mortgages are business loans. Northern crock was bad enough - but if the government nationalise B and B they will have gone far too far. Enough of this waste of public money bailing out the incompetent and saddling us with more debt. This really does make me mad

Mark, Basingstoke,

It aint the rich who will get the pain if any bank goes bust just the middle(working & taxpaying) classes who are trying to save for their own old age or the future of their offspring, even a bit over the measly guaranteed £35000, so let's have less pious rubbish about fat cats etc.

John wilson, Ayr, Ayrshire

I think it is safe to say Margaret Thatcher's gerrymandering has spectacularly backfired. Now would be a good time to replace 'Harry Enfield's loadsamoney' with a picture of christ back at the altar.

Paul Gibbons, Milton Keynes, UK

We're not learning are we? This bank has failed because it has a defunct business model. It poses no systemic risk. It should not be nationalised to generate liabilities upon the taxpayer. It should be put into administration and would up.

Mark, Edinburgh,

We love capitalism only it seems when the rich become richer and the middle classes poorer. Now that the rich may flop down to middle class status we need to spend the middle class taxes to prop the rich? Disgusting.

Farrukh, Woking,

Given B&B have such a big exposure to the buy to let market, might it make sense that any return to lender houses are transferred to local councils as social housing at affordable rental rates?
The council gets a house at a knocked down price, the taxpayer gets a steady income from sale and rent.

R Oakland, York,

A national bank sounds quite attractive over the next few years to break out of the lending paralysis that is developing as we enter a depression. The investors in B&B knew the profits/risks in a property bubble and the government should now buy up only the infrastructure of a bust bank not its debt

John, Motherwell,

First time buyers think this is good ? Why ?
Credit crunch means they will not be able to get a mortgage. So you might have to stump up all the cash to buy a house. So you are expecting a 80-90% house price crash. This may happen but if it does you will be worrying about food not house prices.

Richard, London,

What's happening? I thought the short sellers had been banned? This must mean B&B deserves to fail for reckless lending and sheer incompetence and not because of short sellers. Who is the government going to blame now?

anthony, london, England

God, it just gets worse. Brown has shown he's still a novice. I wouldn't trust the incompetent prat with my shopping list, let alone the economy. His legacy is the ruination of the very people Labour should have protected. Shame on him and his government for allowing this to happen.

Ross, Ripon, UK

http://timesbusiness.typepad.com/money_weblog/2007/12/post.html

Charles, London,

Q. Does this mean that the taxpayer is going to fnd buy to let landlords?

A. Yes.

How awful, working people having to fund slum landlords!

Phil Bamboye, Watford,

Failing institutions like B&B should be allowed to fail. When troubled depositors or business clients come to them for assistance, they are politely declined and shown the door. The same should be true when they come, hat in hand, to the FSA or other governmental body.

Samir Kaiser, Cambridge

Samir Kaiser, Cambridge,, U.K.

My Great great grandfather founded the Bingley, Morton and Shipley Building Societies (now Bradford and Bingley) with Mr Weatherhead. I suspect both of them are now turning in their grave. As businesses get further away from their original owners, new owners take less care ...

Peter Mills, Wield, UK

I bought shares in B&B yesterday at £0.1825, what will now happen to shares if B&B is nationalised or split?

Tim, Stoke, UK

Why should the taxpayer be forced to bail out this publicly listed mess?

Allan, Inverness,

Can someone (The Times?) publish a list of group of companies in the financial services sector please?

This will allow us, the general public, to know if we have a total of £35,000 in a particular group. This is because only a total of £35,000 in any one group of companies is secure.

Arif, Leicester,

The new nationalised banking system is getting bigger.
At this rate It won't be long before the "Bank of England" has branches in every town in the UK.

John, London, UK

6 months ago when this was just a crunch and not the next "c" in the line i read a pretty low key article somewhere that said ,that when the CDS (Credit Default Swao) market hits the fan,then all of the present "c" will seem like a walk in the park-so i have watched and waited,and it here it comes.

david devonport, Great Yarmouth, UK

I resent the working class having to bail out the banks with our money. Let them fail, there are too many as it is! Brown has a lot to answer for, not more boom and bust, a £3.6 00000000000000000000 of personnel debt. The economists warned him and he ignored them and now takes no responsibility

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

landlords.. afraid of investing in the stock market.. so they buy properties like crazy, artificially inflating the housing market..

eventually, they fall behind on mortgage payments.. running B&B into the ground..

kick them out.. sell the houses at a loss..

send them the bill..

Pete Smith, Worcester, UK

This is all Gordon Browns fault. He should have limited home loans, which would have limited house inflation. Instead he surfed the wave of greed that he created.

Now we're left with a country that's over-populated, under-performing and riddled with long term debt.

Bruce Harper, Stafford,

the main problems seem to be property loans by the banks. Why doesn't the next possible Tory government buy up all the bad debt. in property and swap with bank of england bonds. Then distribute all property from the banks to the various local councils. A % of the rent stays with council and Govt.

paul hussey, Havant, UK

If you have £35k at B & B and £35k at Asda you are only covered for one of them as they share B & B's FSA licence

Fred, Moray, Scotland

Looks like Labour has shown it true colour! the Party for Nationalisation,
Can anyone trust the credit rating agencies now aday? Look at the mess they created with their so called professional ratings for bonds etc. Perhaps B&B needs to pay these agencies millions so that they can give it AAA rate.

ming, london, uk

Gordon Brown says it is the time to end the age of financial irresponsibility.

Why is he then borrowing billions, that we as a nation can't afford, to prop badly managed institutions such as B&B?

Let the market take it's course.

John R, Chippenham, Wiltshire

Ah, now we taxpayers are bailing out the greedy and stupid buy-to-let landlords. Who's next? Anybody left at all?

Peter, Liverpool, UK

This is bad news for buy to let Investors but great news for first time buyers.

Roll on the house price crash/correction. 50%+ falls are coming. Back to the days when a house was a home and not a investment.

Gavin, London,

well on ilkley moor bhatat - where's that? It's a triple whammy for west yorkshire - halifax, bradford and bingley - another body blow for struggling post-industrial wasteland world of grey northern gloom....

don craigton, wakefield, u.k.

Can you say Merrill Lynch, Lehman, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Northern Rock.......and now B&B. Where will it all end?

Brad, Baltimore, MD, USA

Isn't it ironic that in the 1970s and early 80s the Bennites in the Labour Party were clamouring for the banks to be nationalised? Now, as New Labour enters its twilight years it has come to pass, not through socialist principle, but the bankers' own incompetence and greed

Richard, Bexhill, UK

So the tax payer will take on yet more bad debt. What price will the politicians pay for this ? They will still get their golden pensions -perhaps devalued slightly- and walk away, leaving the UK to pay for Gordon's economic miracle. If only Gordon had stopped the housing bubble. The east is rising

dave, london,

I think this will teach the greedy investors a good lesson, you're not always guaranteed gaining money on the stock market.

The words Ha Ha Ha spring to mind

Richard, Leeds, England

The people who forced the B&B to demutualise have gone quiet, haven't they?

William, London, United Kingdom

Do you remember when a lot of these institutions were rock solid building societies and then the greed of the eighties took over and they all became banks. Where are these pillars of financial thrift now?

Alan Lewis, Bangkok, Thailand

Great there will be know point in working soon if you have a job, as taxes will be too high. Our money is propping up too much as it is.

oliver, colchester,

Will new labours latest acquisition continue to fund buy-to-let? Keeping first time buyers off the ladder?

Will it be allowed to continue its high risk lending activities in spite of Browns claim to bring an end to irresponsible lending? Lets hope so, but then again anything to keep prices up.

L McKay, North Shields, uk

Any institution that indulged in self certified loans deserves to go bust when the income from those loans dries up. What were the board thinking of? Their actions should be deemed criminally incompetent and not be the subject of national bail out.

B Greig, Shrewsbury, UK

"B&B is seen as an unknown quantity because of its aggressive expansion into buy-to-let lending"

Enough. Enough. I've read enough already. Just make sure the senior management get some sort of punishment instead of golden parachutes for their idiocy.

Vishal Kundi, London, UK

Why are we the tax payer bailing out these stupid banks who lent to any one and every one? Let it go down!

Gary, Gravesend, Kent, UK

I believe China has lots of dollars from making stuff.

Does all this crisis mean the love affair between Labour
and the City , is over ? Are they going to come crawling
back to a manufacturing base ?

Or just slowly sink out of power.

M Walker, Bromsgrove, Worcs

Another one bites the dust....

Ivor, High Wycombe,

just let it go bust, people are protected. surely it will be better in the long run if we dont want banks to play these stupid games with "financial products" that we let them go bankrupt.

or are we going back to strategic industries?

banks, network rail, whats next? the LSE, BAe? who?

will, grimsby, uk

Or the Govt could just wait for the US bail-out to take place before making any rash decisions. Hopefully market sentiment will improve such that at the very least the share price will recover the losses of the past couple of days and possibly help to attract a takeover. Assuming the bailout happens

Hassan Azam, Banbury , England