The Prime Minister of Iceland, Geir H. Haarde, has just concluded a press conference in which he said that the government remains intent on working out a “mutually agreeable” solution to the issue of compensating savers with Icesave accounts in the UK.
The PM said he and his government will do all they can to retain close and friendly relations with Iceland’s close ally, the United Kingdom.
The British government has promised to reimburse all Icesave customers’ savings in full regardless of if the Icelandic government reneges on its responsibility to insure the first EUR 20,000. The damage that would do to Iceland’s international reputation could be considerable however, and the PM has reiterated his desire not to go down that route.
On the subject of the potential Russian loan, the PM said meetings will take place in Moscow on Tuesday to arrange the loan to stabilise the Icelandic economy.
Any problems that have been occurring with regard to payments into and out of Iceland (especially to the UK) will be eradicated by the morning and were “mostly of a technical nature”, the PM said.
Haarde explained that the crisis hitting the Icelandic banks is not unusual in today’s economic climate, but that what is unusual is that the potential failure of three banks would effectively destroy a whole country’s banking sector.
The state’s tough bank measures and swift emergency management are, he said, intended to save the banks – a goal which must be achieved for the sake of all of Iceland.
I had a deposit with Landsbanki Guernsey and it is very annoying and disheartening that in all the media reports both in Iceland & UK, everybody is talking about Icesave and the UK depositors – what about Landsbanki Guernsey depositors??? We have also put our hard earned money into your Bank and seem to have been completely sidelined and ignored – THIS IS NOT FAIR.
It’s becoming clear with each passing day the Icelandic government doesn’t have the slightest idea on how to respond to the crises engulfing their mickey mouse country. They should stick to what they’re best which is fishing and leave financial management to the professionals. What a bunch of incompetent no-hopers !!
Roger, that doesn’t exactly seem fair. The Icelandic government has been pushed into a corner by a huge banking crisis that should never have happened. As entirely free, commercial entities, the banks are to blame for the mess, not the government. But even then, the banks could not have foreseen such a catastrophic set of circumstances. They actually believed they had built enough liquid assets to weather any storm – and normally they’d have been right.
Also, I believe that the Icelandic crisis has merely come a week before everyone else’s…I hope not, but I fear so.
We Brits are in no position to berate Iceland over it’s economic crisis. British banks actually became far more involved in sub prime than the Icelanders.
It’s two sides of a coin. As regards UK Landsbanki subsidiary investors, they may also ask questions of the FSA as to why it did not step in more quickly. Seems the FSA is in perpetual slumber.
I have deep sympathy for ordinary Icelanders for whom this must be traumatic. As a small business owner, I am holding my breath, because if there is to be a second “Iceland” in Europe (and I truly hope not), we will most certainly be it.
Brad, are you serious? Roger is spot on. The icelandic government have failed to communicate a clear and concise position and to very anxious depositors informed on progress. Surprisingly the UK governement are doing more to move this forward. The icelandic PM continues to change his mind – it is simply NOT good enough!
Iceland’s honour and integrity is at stake here – not just foreign money!
Oh I feel sorry for the poor little Icelandic government being bullied by the big bad banks. Why weren’t these big bad banks properly regulated, isn’t that supposed to be a function of the Central bank? The incredible wealth generated by these big bad banks was too good to ignore, after all why kill the golden goose ? When the good times turned bad, the central bank didn’t have funds to bail them out, incompetence? After their treatment of IceSave British savers, we won’t be shedding a tear as Iceland descends into bankruptcy.
Icelanders and the country’s PM must hang their head in shame. Banks are their institutions and having nationalised or placed under recevership or whatever they seem to ignore the fact that there is other peoples money which they have enjoyed for prosperity of their own country and when its to pay back they say it is the banks fault. Plainly it is iceland’s problem that when money was supposed to be there(in their FSA) to help in a situation like this plainly its not there. So the entire nation is culpable in committing this crime & must be accounted for.
Roger, instead of blaming Iceland, why don’t you do some research about who is behind the global mess. I think you will find everyone is going down the pan, thanks to the actions of a few in the good old USA. Try turning your attentions to the Federal Reserve, the people who loan non existant money to the US government. The people behind that are who you should be venting your anger against.
120.000 Dutchmen had about 1,500 million euro on those IceSave accounts. It’s funny how such a large figure gets lost in the fuss. I find it awfully quiet out here when it comes to these Dutch IceSave customers.
What kind of newspaper are you? Investigate the whole issue before publishing. Above Paul is right Icesave has stolen 1.700 million Euro from even 125.000 Dutch people (including myself)by closing without any anouncement, their website, customer service and leaving behind their empty Amsterdam office. In my opinion this is impertinent, amateuristic and may be a criminal act. Sorry I dont have other words for the this Landsbanki/Icesave behavior.
All the Icelanders I know are decent, honest, hard-working good people. They’ve been very kind to me for the last 37 years.
They have been let down by the 100 or so very rich people who control the Icelandic economy and who think that rules for everybody else don’t apply to them, and Governments who were only too happy to go along for the ride and didn’t want to regulate their activities properly.
Unfortunately, they’ve let down a lot of non-Icelanders as well. It will take some time for Iceland to regain the trust of foreigners, though I hope it doesn’t affect your tourist and export industries.
The Icelandic government is indeed to blame, as it has alowed their depositor guarantee fund, a semi public institution, to put up far greater guarantees than it could cover. Already in 2005, analyses were published that warned against the huge risk the state of Iceland was taking on behalf of its runaway banks.
What has happened, is that Iclandic millionaires, like the owners of Kaupthing, have been able to run a one way bet: If they won, they got rich (and could buy West Ham). If they lost, the state of Iceland would carry the loss. They themselves would be able to exit with much of their fortune intact.
Icelanders are thieves.
Customers consoled by the Iceland PM – that is a bit rich – suffered yet another sleepness night due to his incompetant handling of this crisis.
Your news item above said “…Any problems that have been occurring with regard to payments into and out of Iceland (especially to the UK) will be eradicated by the morning and were “mostly of a technical nature”, the PM said.”
Really? Well I have just logged to find the same mess as it was yesterday and I still cannot access my money.
Also, why have people locally in Iceland got access to their accounts not the European customers – is this because we are no longer your friends?
Clear, straightforward communication with the customers would go a long way to helping. This is a PR disaster (as well as a financial one) for Iceland.
Icesave opened an office in Amsterdam in may this year.
At this moment the Amsterdam office is Empty, desolated.
Looks like a hit and run job to me.
Does Iceland has the decency to compensate ICESave Dutch clients?
Icesave’s immediate and non-communicative responce to its account holders leaves both the Icelantic Banking and Icelantic Government looking somewhat like a Third World action. I applaud Gordon Brown’s seizure of Icelantic assets in the UK. I believe this is the only action that will insure that some responce will happen. Closure of Icelantic financial institution in the “middle of the night” smacks of “doing a runner”.
I was intend to use the money for a future treatment because I’m a kidney patient.
So what will de Iceland gov. do?
A dutch Isesave custumer.
icleand is a small contury and i feel it is wrong make them the scapegoat , in the uk we have had bank fail , everyone has all over the world , you all find the usa is the main reason for this fallout with its subprime loans, iceland cvould have recovered if we had all not lost confidence in the market
i dont think the icelandic goverment has handled it well but its not the whole country .. who has been making good money choices recently not the uk or usa thats for sure , we are all in debt now more than ever ….at least they can turn to russia with all that oil money for loans and i hope for the uk’s sake it works out …
iceland is only the canary in the coal mine lets hope we all took note and got out in time …
Hello eveybody – now germans as Kaupthing customers are in the same situation. Because of a missing pin number (took one week to get a new one) I couldn´t withdraw my last money. Meeting my birthday and the arrival of the new pin number the website of Kaupthing greeted me that morning with “sorry no more transactions”. Looking forward how german instituitions will cope with the situation.
It’s commendable that the prime minister is promising a solution for the UK customers of Landsbanki, but the lack of vigilance and responsiveness displayed by the Icelandic authorities as regards the Dutch branch of Landsbanki, Icesave, is unacceptable.
On Tuesday 7 October, Icesave announced to its Dutch customers could normally access their accounts, despite the crisis that occurred in Iceland the evening before. That morning, I successfully transferred our savings back. I have email confirmation of the withdrawal. But the money was never written to the Dutch shadow account. Somewhere in cyberspace, invisible hands hold our money hostage. This is simply unimaginable under any circumstance. The Icelandic government is responsible, since it holds the reins. So far, the government has behaved like a rogue. Rather than appease the Dutch authorities, its response is laconic. It cannot and should not discriminate between national or international clients.
Legally, Landsbanki is not bankrupt or in suspension of payments. Landsbanki was obliged to execute valid transactions (also according to its general conditions) that took place after the nationalization, but while the bank and its branches were still fully operational. It hasn’t. Many of my countrymen could not access their account after Tuesday morning. Unless access is reinstated, they might have to claim under the Icelandic guarantee. The government not only refuses access to the deposits it has remained silent on the scope of the guarantee, for an unacceptable 60 hours (and counting) already.
I respect the Icelandic people, their spirit and I emphatize with them under this crisis. The irresponsiveness and elusiveness of the Icelandic authorities causes distress to me, my fellow citizens and seriously harms Iceland’s reputation in the Netherlands and the rest of the world. I call on the government to take immediate and satisfactory action.
Serge
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
if the icelanders want to maintain any credibility as suitable partners for european countries they will make sure that they do not discriminate against foreign savers and institutions that have invested with them.
there will be a backlash if not that will cost more than the 4.5 billion they appear to be trying to steal from us.
i for one will never buy an icelandic product again.
I’m sorry to read all this comments. But somewhat reading the news I knew since December 2007 following a series of article in financial newspapers that Iceland was in deep shit.
Event the Newyorker mentioned a national bankruptcy in this article from April 21st (http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2008/04/21/080421ta_talk_surowiecki).
Living as an expatriate in Iceland, I saw my money losing 30% of this value from January to March 2008. This was clearly a sign that something was rotten. We all knew this was going to happen.
I personally took a lot of risks by waiting the last minute. I liquidate all my assets 2 weeks ago.
Now sorry to say that, but the least you can do when you put money in a foreign fund is to know a bit of the country economical situation. Or then you should blame the trust relation you had with whoever advise you to put all your savings there.
As an Irish person I feel I can relate more to Iceland than other Nationalities ,We’re both small countries habitated by nice people. To those dutch and English who lost their money I say “tough “.Leave little Iceland alone!!!
Iceland was a victim of a once in a 100 years global fiscal shock , the outcome was completely beyond their control and therefore in my opinion they bear no liability.Iceland Rocks
Sean, I don’t think people are having a go at Iceland per se. They are understandably frustated and concerned about the complete lack of information – if you consider that all domestic business continues without their accounts but all international accounts have been frozen – I am not sure that is legal (let alone fair). It doesn’t matter whether it is domestic or international the Icelandic government’s handling of this is a PR disaster of huge proportions for the country.
We should not forget the Icelandic government has a legal, financial & legal obligation here. It is not smart to renege on one of these let alone all three.
I also don’t buy this point about we all knew the risks – lets be clear on normal risk profiling cash at a bank would have been considered extremely risk adverse – until the last few weeks how many western banks have failed in the last 100 years? Placing investment in Russia, China or other emerging markets would and still is far risker.
Iceland’s banks have been buying up European, mainly British companies, using the deposits of other European, mainly British and Dutch, savers. Since the size of Iceland’s economy is dwarfed by their banks debts, wouldn’t it make sense for the British (and other European) governments to seize and sell Icelandic bank investments in their territories? That way they could sell them and repay their depositors at least a very large part of what the banks owe. Seems fair to me.
So, in Norway Glitnir gets £500m support in their time of “liquidity problems”, the same thing in Sweden for Kaupthing to the tunes of £400m so that Kaupthing Edge customers may withdraw their savings (and in both cases the lenders have high expectations of getting their money back, since “it’s a liquidity problem”).
What exactly has the UK government done that has made the situation better (in the short term) for IceSave customers?
To Serge (Amsterdam).
This is exactly what they did in UK ie suddenly, without warning effectively block all transfers out of the bank – since Saturday/Sunday (BEFORE the British Icesave bank and its deposits were illegally seized by the Icelandic government).
To Sean (Ireland). Grow-up, you are obviously a child who has no concept of what its like to see serious quantities of your own money stolen (£25,000 in my case). Yes I say stolen because the bank was solvent before Geir H. Haarde and his cronies’ actions last week.
The money was legally covered by an Icelandic government guarantee, but Haarde has turned around and stated that he has no intention of honouring the government guarantee (no doubt he never did intend to do so). Icelanders have been living it large with other people’s money, and now their government wants to protect them by using British and Dutch people’s hard-earned money.
Fortunately for me the British government will cover this theft against the personal account-holders. I urge my government to take all actions against possible (yes I mean ALL) the Iceland government to recover the stolen money which the British taxpayers will have to cover until then. I remind you that many charities for good causes lost their money also.
Demonstrate. British and Dutch people who had their money in Icelandic banks should consider flying to Reykjavik en masse and holding an extremely noisy midweek demonstration outside parliament. A mere 2000 angry British and Dutch folk on the streets would really light a fire under Haarde and his band of thieves. And the money spent on airtickets, hotels, food, and booze would hep the Icelandic economy!
To sean (ireland)
You stupid child, i have £90,ooo pound invested in icesave and you say ,tough. tell that to my 2 year old and 4 year old who will be homeless without our money. British people have been robbed and fat cat made rich. it is fraud and shoud be treated as such.
The Icelandic Bank owners , from what I’ve read in the UK newspapers, are having a ‘whale’ of a time (no pun intended)in some of the poshest Icelandic hotels. Lots of bottles of food,wine and laughter while their countrymen and depositors are left to rot. From what I’ve read, one of the Glitner owners has bullet proof windows on his house which suggest he has quite a few enemies already. Why did the Icelandic government put their trust in questionable people running their banking systems? It stinks of corruption and I imagine there are quite a few favours being exchanged between high ranking government officials and the bank owners. I’ve seen Geir H. Haarde on TV and, quite frankly, I find it incredibly hard to believe a word he says (just like Tony Blair). I’m glad that all Landsbanksi’s assets have been frozen (no pun intended) and that they are worth considerably more than what is owed to UK depositors. What I am a bit concerned about is the £100m that the UK have loaned to Iceland to hasten the payment back to UK depositors. I personally think this is a bad move because the Iceland government cannot be trusted for ‘spit’. I can only hope that the Icelandic people conduct their own internal investigations to bring criminal proceedings against the people responsible for destroying the livelihoods of so many innocent people. Hit them where it hurts, confiscate their assets, jail them and throw away the key.
Blaming everybody and complaining is not going to change a dam thing, get off your arses and start again, the english did not get the nick name whinging pom for nothing, i hire men in my firm and 90% of them are Irish and Scots, do you know why its because these men get there heads down and work, when i get an english guy all i get from most of the is boo hoo wipe my arse were is my mammy, we all lost over the last 4 weeks and must we forget that poeple are starving in places of the world and they have less chance to improve their standard of life, START AGAIN,
ashamed to be english: I wish I had my savings in icesave then I wold get it back eventually. But instead my money is in stocks, I’ve seen my funds literally go up in smoke. Luckily I invested in stable companies, so my funds aren’t gone it will just a long time to bounce back. I was really hoping to get a new car, but this will have to be put on hold.
GreatDane
you stocks will come back
The point im making is this from my own story
Last year i was running my company making money
then one day the partner i was with stole all the money from my company one day i could buy anything then the next day i could not buy food, 200000quid gone, yes it hurt feels like you been hit by a bus going at 120 an hour,
so i know how people are feeling and its not nice, i started this company from nothing, i lost the house car girl the lot
but what i didnt do was blame eveybody else, i screwed up i put my trust in the wrong poeple,
so i started again trying to get things moving and it worked now my company is growing all over Scandinavia, even in these times poeple can start again, most poeple started with nothing and made money and they can do it again.i was driving a jeep then that went i was driving a 15 year old car that kept dying, i slept on my friends sofa for a few months but i did not give up, good luck Dane life will be good again soon
For those people who say start again etc. Fine, good on you but I want the perpetrators of the Icesave fiasco to face their own people so they don’t repeat it again. I personally will not lose money but many (who are too old to start again) will and can only hope justice is meted out. You can use any moral argument to belittle the seriousness of this issue and the credit crunch in general (such as people are starving etc ).In fact, unless you are living just above the poverty lines experienced in some of the poorest countries, you can question the morality of your own lifestyle rather than preaching it to others. But remember, in the end , the people who will suffer the most will be the poor and starving while the crooks get away scot free (and richer).
@ keith
your correct in so much of what you say and justice should come to those and Gordon Brown should be on the same list, For the old and who cant start again its a terrible situation and its something that i dont have an anwser,Maybe a new way of thinking should be brought about so this never happens again,
these poeple who made a mess of things will not get away with it for sure,
i do think that poeple should start acting now as though that money is not coming back to them even though it will and move on as best as they can
i am in no way trying to turn this in to a small matter, many poeple are scared and hurt, i dont have to question my life style or do i judge other poeple, but what should the world do just shut themselves in a corner and do nothing, justice should be served to those who committed these mistakes, im very sure that the Icelanders who were in charge never set out to defraud any one, i lived here for 20 years and would choose Iceland over England any day, Icelanders know whats it like to be in very difficult situations so im sure they would want to put any one in the same situation,
@ keith again
i been reading your post and you seem to be sticking you nose in everybodys face and saying much that you know nothing about,
case 1, everybody is taking back handers and corruption in Iceland is rife
1 year ago there was a survey taken, Iceland was in the top 3 of countries of least corrupt countries in the world,
England was number 10
And for someone telling others not to Judge then you seem to be having a good go at the same thing you suggest others should not do,
Re : Ashamed to Be English
You seem to have a very ‘angry at the English’ attitude so I’m doubting that you really are English. Especially your biased remarks concerning English workers versus Scots and Irish. Unsure how you interpreted my remark as assuming that “everybody is taken backhanders, etc” . I don’t think I said ‘everybody’ but I certainly am cynical about unsavoury goings-on between Government and those ‘fat-cats’ that send them large contributions etc (whether it be in Iceland, UK or any other nation). The Bernie Eccles/Tony Blair issue is a good example and I imagine the same goes on in Iceland . Being in the top 3 of non-corrupt countries doesn’t mean a monkey’s to me considering Iceland only has 300,000 people . Just do the division of number of corrupt cases as percentage of population and you can reverse those stats (in fact you can tweak stats to fit anything you like). Have a read of this article and make up your own mind abiout Jon Asgeir Johannesson (Glitner owner) who was found guilty last year of false accounting. Surely, alarm bells should have been ringing in the Icelandic government ears!!!!
‘http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1076699/The-devils-enjoying-days-Hell–billionaire-blonde-wife-friends-helped-bring-Iceland-brink.html
I recommend that Keith should stop writing utter nonsense on this site and instead ‘get his skates on’(pun intented) before the heavies find you and freeze your most prized assets! PS. Stop beating me at golf!
As an Icesave account holder (and I’m sure that most feel like me) I have nothing whatsoever against the Icelandic people, I’ve always thought them to be hardworking, straightforward decent folk, hence (after checking it out) my decision to put my money here. They’ve been let down by their government and the flagrant exploitation of the banking code of practice. To all those in earlier posts who said “tough, start again” tough it may be, fair it definitely ain’t. Geir Haarde reneged on the basic promise to refund money if the bank went down. The bank has gone down, but he’s refusing to pay. While he messes around, playing politics, he’s messing around with our lives and those of our families – I wonder how he manages to sleep at night – I can’t.
SEAN MURPHY look paddy you need slap
The majority are having to cope with the fallout from the small number of greedy individuals. The question the Icelandic people will have to ask is why the government allowed the minority to extend so far without any control to limit the damage they could bring to the country. Any government that is forced to announce thet they would have to renage on their comittments cannot be taken seriously and should be removed.Gordon Brown acted wisely in moving quickly to limit the damage – even if this meant invoking terrorism legislation in viw of the Iclandic Government just throwing their hands up and walking away. Frankly I wil bycott any high street store that has Icelandic share ownership.
On Oct 26, 2008, TE said:
>Any government that is forced to announce thet they would have to renage on their
>comittments cannot be taken seriously and should be removed.Gordon Brown acted
>wisely in moving quickly to limit the damage – even if this meant invoking terrorism
>legislation in viw of the Iclandic Government just throwing their hands up and walking
>away.
Repeating a lie again and again does not make it true, and certainly not a lie as big as this.
If you think the wise and correct thing to do is to tell the world a big lie, then freeze assets and force a solvent bank into receivership based on that lie, then I would hate to hear what you think the wrong thing is.
I can understand that when the lie comes from the mouth of a government minister and the Prime Minister (yes my old son I do mean Darling and Brown) then people are going to believe it (at least for a while), and then experience cognitive dissonance* as they discover the truth.
But the Icelandic government, as it has from the start and has never wavered from, agreed that it will pay its part of EUR 20,887 (£16,300) if things went bad. This was also exactly what was promised in the Landsbanki IceSave account documents, website, and elsewhere. So your assertion about ‘renageing’ is totally and completely false.
That Darling also has frozen assets up to that amount to pay depositors with and thus does not have to dip into tax payer’s pockets, of course is not to be glossed over. No doubt they will be ‘utilized’ for this purpose as that is good politics for Brown and Darling and to hell with the UK charities and local authorities, other foreign creditors, etc, etc.
While individual depositors can be happy for the Chancellor’s largess in these guarantees (even though of course it was an on-the-fly decision taken for entirely political reasons during the BBC radio interview) ultimately Brown will be found accountable for his actions in destroying Kaupthing – the biggest bank, and company in Iceland – and falsely and unfairly besmirching the reputation of an entire nation.
Darling is a liar but Brown is in many ways far worse, a cheap opportunist without a conscience.
If you care to find out why Brown did what he did based on Darling’s lie just Google the Scottish Glenrothes by-election of 2008, the “arc of prosperity”, (and newly coined “arc of insolvency”).
*On cognitive dissonance: “when someone is called upon to learn something which contradicts what they already think they know — particularly if they are committed to that prior knowledge — they are likely to resist the new learning.”
>Frankly I wil bycott any high street store that has Icelandic share ownership.
Of course you do realize that these Icelandic companies employ 100,000 British people – as many people as Icelandic companies employ in Iceland itself?
Something is totally wrong with this world.
Bush= is a socialist
Brown=is popular
The end is near!!!
Hey William great posts you do, I wish I had the time to do the same.
But I do not understand why they coined the phrase “arc of insolvency” We in Denmark have +5% on Export-Import, and very healthy economy, our banks not leveraged. Things are still looking pretty good, the drop in Oil prices will carve a hole in the value of our exports, but we firmly believe this is nothing to worry about.
Norway is doing well as always.
Finland is also doing well.
Sweden had some problems because they have a lot of heavy industry, but they are also doing ok. They still have valuable exports.
And I haven’t heard that the celtic tiger is having problems?
The only economy that have folded is Iceland, ALL the other economies in the “Arc of prosperity” are still doing allright.
so why have we in Denmark suddenly become part of the “arc of insolvency”? If the Norwegians read this they would be furious! with right, they are far from insolvent. I would even think that Norway have more money to burn than the UK!!!
>William Watson said:
The only one lying is you. The Icelandic government has not said it would pay the EUR 20,887 guarantee.
It has said only domestic savers would be protected, not international savers.
If Iceland intends to pay the guarantee, that’s great. when will the checks be sent out – because they haven’t been so far.
Iceland has to pay the guarantee with 3 months.
On Oct 27, 2008, Peter – London said:
>The only one lying is you.
Peter – as I do for Gray, Germany – at this time I feel for you, I really do, but never fear, the cognitive dissonance will pass soon for you also.
But with the greatest of respect, as other posters have also been trying to tell you* it is a fact that Darling lied about the Icelandic government’s position. Your ever more shrill posts clinging to the old reality based on Darling’s lies indicate that you should take some time away from the keyboard to reflect on what this means for the UK’s image abroad, and the damage that Darling’s lies have cause to countless people around the world.
While the most direct damage of his mendacity is being felt both in Iceland, in the UK, in the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Qatar, of course the ripples** are being felt in countless other places and markets around the world.
Of course it took Brown to act on these lies of Darling and to inflict the most damage, demonstrating that he is a cheap opportunist without a conscience, concerned only with his own image, and attacking the Labour party’s enemies in Scotland***.
*http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/10/27/kaupthing-isle-of-man-savers-will-get-some-of-their-money-back/#comment-31788
**http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3267504/Kaupthing-becomes-first-European-borrower-to-default-on-samurai-bond-financial-crisis.html
***http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/10/16/unbowed-icelandic-pm-sends-a-strong-message-to-uk/#comment-30852
WW: Take your theories to the bank and convert them to cash. See how much you get for them.
Your obvious devotion to Scottish Nationalism makes you prey to your own version of reality that is peculiar to a certain breed of Scots.
Others may just classify them as nuts.
Peter – London,
I’m sorry to pop your little fantasy but I am English, and I have no association with Scotland.
The SNP are far too socialist for my taste, but if the Scots want their independence again, and a referendum in 2010 or thereabouts, after which they will no doubt join the EEA or EU as an independent country, who is Gordon Brown to destroy Iceland and ruin many companies and lives in an opportunistic attempt to try and deny them that right?
On Oct 27, 2008, GreatDane said:
>Hey William great posts you do, I wish I had the time to do the same.
Well, thank you for yours. I think I am not alone in enjoying punchy brevity. :)
>But I do not understand why they coined the phrase “arc of insolvency”
…
>The only economy that have folded is Iceland, ALL >the other economies in the “Arc of prosperity” are >still doing allright.
…
>so why have we in Denmark suddenly become part of
>the “arc of insolvency”? If the Norwegians read
>this they would be furious! with right, they are
>far from insolvent.
Sadly, it’s just cheap politics from Scottish Labour.
If Glenrothes falls to the SNP on November 6th, (as did Glasgow East) then Brown will fall with it.
>I’m sorry to pop your little fantasy but I am English, and I have no association with Scotland.
Right… an Englishman obsessed with trivia of Scottish politics.
>Glenrothes falls to the SNP on November 6th, (as did Glasgow East)
Find another English man who could come out with those facts and I’ll show you a Scotsman
“Find another English man who could come out with those facts and I’ll show you a Scotsman”
Why do you assume everyone is at your level? There could be people out there who takes a greater interest in UK politics than you do.
Maybe William is affiliated with a political party?
I wrote:
>>If Glenrothes falls to the SNP on November 6th, (as did Glasgow East) then
>>Brown will fall with it.
On Oct 29, 2008, Peter – London wrote:
>Find another English man who could come out with those facts and I’ll show you a Scotsman
Being English I take no offense to being called a Scot, but of course you would be taking your life in your hands if you tried the opposite.
Um, well, yes. Of course. As we know the Scottish don’t sit in the Westminster parliament in London and vote on matters regarding the United Kingdom…
Wait, my god! I just realized that our Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer are Scots!
Come to think of it, they are the only Scots I am aware of with a high profile in British public life. What terrible ambassadors they are turning out to be for that great Northern country.
You really don’t have a reply to my fact packed post here, do you?
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2008/10/25/non-terrorist-website-launched-for-non-terrorists/#comment-32061
No, I won’t read past the first few lines because you start with the preconception that the banks could have survived more than 24hours before Darling acted.
There was a run on all Icelandic banks, their problems had been discussed widely in the year before they crashed. Death was ineviatable, Darling did the decent thing and pulled the trigger.
Thats cause and effect. Over leveraged banks will fall at times of the inevitable economic crisis, unless bailed out by the government.
On Oct 29, 2008, Peter – London wrote:
>There was a run on all Icelandic banks,
No, there wasn’t. Not on Kaupthing/Edge until…
As the eminent hodgson wrote at the FT.com and here,
“Of course if [the transcript is accurate - which Darling has confirmed it is], then the report of the later discussion would prove that [Darling] was lying when he acted to create a run on Kaupthing, the third run on a bank in the UK during his brief period as Chancellor and the third since Gladstone, each of which has been caused by this government or an institution controlled by it.”
>>…No, there wasn’t. Not on Kaupthing/Edge until…
Yes there was according to customers who were trying (and failing) to get their money out.
Go http://www.ksfiomdepositors.org/ are read about the hundreds of customers who lost their transfers of money in the days before shut down. Thats just the IoM customers.
UK customers of the other Icelandic banks had their accounts frozen as well.
As I said before, take your theories and fantasies and cash them in a bank or court of law. Bullshit opinions of idiots in the FT count for precisely jack****.