are people simply incredibly thick, page-5

no one is suggesting it's going 'down the pan' ..but the sentiment widely expressed ..is that the interest of the lenders must take precedence over that of the shareholders .
interestingly the media speaks freely about breach of banking covenants - pretty easy to do if you're in a wafer thin margin businesses such as Commanders - but we have heard nothing from the company. And in this information vacuum the stockmarket concludes the very worst : " it's a basket case" etc.
so don't underestimate the potential for board room skittishness ...where they address the needs of the banks by selling out on the shareholders