Where's George Bailey when you need him?

The UK is not the sort of place where there should be a run on a bank, it has one of the best regulated financial systems in the world, and supposedly a fairly educated population. Nonetheless a combination of stupidity and selfishness has managed to evetually force some branches of Northern Rock to close their doors. Unfortunately all those that have joined in getting this bank run going will be too stupid to realise that if there are any significant consequences it will have been their fault, and they will probably just stand around telling people that they were right to get their money out when they did.

From a technology point of view, this bank run has shown the importance of the web site for an organisation's dissemination of information in times of crisis. Unfortunately for Northern Rock there were reports on the BBC yesterday that customers couldn't access the web site. All of these customers that couldn't find out what was happening online will then overwhelm the telephone switchboards and, failing to get through, will then appear at the bank demanding their money. It is imperative that all companies have adequate procedures in place for dealing with swell of interest that will accompany any disaster: mirror sites and bare-bones versions; have them sorted before the crisis.

Northern Rock customers...shame on you.