The Virgin consortium has emerged as the preferred bidder for Northern Rock and will pay about half Friday's market value to shareholders and immediately pay off £11 billion of Bank of England loans. It looks like a better deal than J C Flowers though critics such as Jon Moulton have already said Virgin will be picking it up too cheaply. In which case, why doesn't he put together a bid himself? Is it better than nationalisation? In my view yes, others may disagree. More details here.