The difference is that £24 billion of your cash has been put at risk by the Government in order to shore up Northern Rock while Farepak savers have been told they might get 5p in the £ returned to them.
Northern Rock is a private commercial business aiming to make profits on the world money markets for its shareholders and investors, but running the risk, like any other, that it might make losses, which it has.
So why has public money been pledged to bail out Northern Rock's savers and investors? Northern Rock is a bank, not, for instance, a proud and branded but troubled giant flying the flag for British industry. And as banks go, it's not even a big-time player and does not appear to have been run very well leading to its current troubles.
And what's the difference between Northern Rock and its customers and the insurance companies which failed to deliver on the promise made to endowment mortgage investors that they would share in profits and who now don't stand to get even enough to pay back their building society loans?
The answer is that the Government has proceeded with undue haste and generosity to help Northern Rock while continuing to turn a blind eye to the bigger developing endowment crisis which affects many more people.
How is it that the financial industry's get-out clause "shares can go down as well as up" does not apply equally to all?
How many other businesses which hit hard times and went under would have appreciated such a kind leg-up from the Government using public funds?
Northern Rock took risks and got caught out. That's its lookout, not ours, if the Government continues to dish out such unbalanced treatment.
l The weather's much more seasonal now, with a real wintry chill in the air. But if you want to get warmed up for free, walk Lynn's shopping centre staying close to the doorways. You'll find many of them wide open and will receive a welcome blast of warm air as you pass by.
Hot air blowers above open doors to warm shops is a madness only equalled by patio heaters.
Much of the heat generated goes straight out of the open doors and into the street – test it yourself. It can't be right in these dangerous days of global warming and is reckless use of precious energy.
l Having said that I feel a little guilty about singing the praises in advance of Lynn's Christmas lights. If the wall-to-wall wiring above heads in the high street is anything to go by they are going to be spectacular. The big switch-on is this Friday.
l I've never been much of a cat lover. Generally speaking they are far too superior and self-sufficient for my liking. Dogs are man's best friend, and Barney is mine.
But our smallest, oldest and longest-lived little cat Rosie, has grown on me these last 18 years. We sort of got used to one another, and I think she adopted me. I did, in the main, take on responsibility for feeding her (not watering, as she refused a nice clean drink fresh from the tap, preferring to sup from the fishpond), letting her out, putting her in and latterly, as she grew old and frail, settling her down at night with a hot water bottle. Yes, I had my uses, but she was affectionate for affection's sake and you couldn't not warm to her.
She was my wife's cat really; she had her before we met and, as near as she can work it out, Rosie was at least 21 years old. A great age for a cat and outliving her two companions, Tucker and Cleo by a good few years.
I say was, because Sunday was a very sad day for us. Little Rosie Posey died after just 36 hours' illness, breathing her last resting in my arms. It was almost as if she battled through the long night, dying peacefully, weak in my hands, just a few minutes after being picked up to be stroked one last time.
Rosie had become part of my daily routine, a responsibility shared these last few years with my son. And, although JUST a cat, she had, after all those years, become part of our close-knit family. We were all equally upset. As upset, I'd say, as we were at the deaths in the last few months of my very elderly grandmother and my mother-in-law. But Rosie was just a cat, so that's illogical... isn't it?