WE feel sorry for everyone who has lost money due to the incompetence of Northern Rock.

At an emergency meeting in Newcastle today investors will get their first chance to grill management since the bank first ran into trouble last September.

If analysts are right, the lender is certain to be nationalised, leaving investors with little or nothing for their shares.

That also leaves the rest of us out of pocket as every tax-payer picks up the multi-billion pound tab for this fiasco.

Making us all pay for Northern Rock's expensive mistakes would be nothing short of a scandal.

The government will win no new friends if it decides to go down this route.