Northern Rock: when "don't" means "do".

As I write, my mother-in-law is queuing outside Northern Rock's branch in Dorking, waiting to withdraw the money she recently invested with them. Why? Because everybody involved in the bank's lending crisis - chief executive, Chancellor, FSA - has been telling her and her fellow Northern Rock investors that there is absolutely no reason to panic.

In this context, persuasive words like these are directly counter-productive: the very assurance of there being to cause for alarm implies that there may indeed be cause for alarm.

Slippery customers, words. Sometimes they just won't do what we want them to.