In that case, the nationalisation in that context is to apply brakes - sure those brakes are broken already and so wouldn't prevent a collapse - but its intenti

In that case, the nationalisation in that context is to apply brakes - sure those brakes are broken already and so wouldn't prevent a collapse - but its intention is to allow Bank of England's and UK government's protection schemes to be applied with as minimal loss to the taxpayers' and other banks' customers' money as possible. In this case, it limited the run to only the original bank (unlike 19th and early 20th-century bank runs resulting runs in other unrelated banks). Unfortunately, if your a customer of Northern Rock, it sucks so bad.