Forget, if you're not inclined to do so, the merry go round of billions of pounds circulating between the government and the banks they own.

As Evan Davies devastatingly pointed out to Alistair Darling on the BBC Radio 4 Today show this morning, if the banks get into more trouble with their bad debts, then any "penalties" they pay to the government or new big losses they incur will have to be underwritten by the Government, which owns huge chunks of them, in any case. 
 

The point here is that what’s done is done; Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group have amassed vast quantities of "toxic" debts, and the Government - taxpayers in other words - now own them, the  losses that is. They're ours now. That pass was sold long ago. We're lumbered with them whether we break the banks up or not. It was always going to be better to cordon these off in a sate owned bad bank, and let the good bank that’s left over be sold back to the private sector.  

This is what the government is doing with Northern Rock. It means more competition, and a well capitalised new bank that will actually be able to lend to small businesses and first time buyers. That's good. The break up of Lloyds and RBS - bringing back the old Williams and Glyn's Bank or the Cheltenham and Gloucester -  are more to do with EU pressure for more competition, but these new banks, if they are to prosper, will have to be cleansed of bad debts - "good banks" - too. Again they should be more willing to give you a mortgage or loan than their cash-strapped loss making state-owned former parents. So a positive move by the Treasury.

None of this is much of a deal for the taxpayer, but then again, it was never going to be.