The call by Iain Cornish to re-mutualise the state-owned Northern Rock is a poignant reminder of the fate of one of the district’s great businesses.

The de-mutualising of the Bradford & Bingley Building Society in 2000 proved to be the beginning of the end of the B&B name.

The society joined the rush of building societies which decided to demutualise and effectively become banks.

At the time, the Telegraph & Argus warned that the decision was one that cast a shadow across the district because of ‘carpetbaggers’ wanting to make a short term killing.

Sadly, that warning was borne out when the B&B was taken into public ownership during the banking crisis in 2008.

The societies that refused the lure of short term gain and riskier investments have proved the better long-term bets.

Mr Cornish’s own society, the Yorkshire, has gone from strength to strength and is now further expanding.

The idea of re-mutualising Northern Rock is one that the T&A fully supports.

As Mr Cornish says, it will help with the Government’s move to diversify financial services and help create a more competitive banking system.

Unfortunately, the call comes too late to help the Bradford & Bingley, which has now been split up.

But it will help the Northern Rock to stand on its own two feet again after it was nationalised.

And hopefully it will give an indication that the financial sector is now headed in a much more stable direction than it plunged headlong into in the dark days of the global banking crisis.