Sometimes you can’t help thinking the shoe box is a better option

THE most obvious difference was the hats. Or lack of them. In pictures of the 1929 collapse in the United States, every investor queuing at the closed doors of financial institutions wore a neat fedora, whereas the men queuing outside the 78 branches of Northern Rock on Friday were hatless and — mostly — grey-haired.

Another contrast was gender. In the ’20s, the queues were made up only of men. The lines of people at Northern Rock, in sharp contrast, were evenly divided. One wide-angle shot outside a branch of the British mortgage house comprised 19 men and 17 women. Now there’s progress: Northern Rock is an equal opportunities disaster.

These were not the filthy rich, toting Vuitton bags, wearing Gucci shoes. The tote bags were plastic. The shoes were sensible cheapos. The wearers were folk whose life savings — whose relatively modest life savings — were behind Northern Rock’s doors.