What The Hell Is Happening In Iceland?
Icelandic assets in Britain have apparently been frozen under anti-terrorism legislation!
Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has confirmed that this was indeed the law which had been used, because “that’s where the power happened to be”, as if there was nothing odd in using such legislation for a purpose for which it cannot originally have been intended.
It is becoming apparent that many of the supposed 300,000 British depositors with money in Icelandic banks are town councils.
Mr Timms was again unable to shed any light on what will happen to their (our) money, beyond saying that a meeting was to be held that afternoon at the Treasury.
Now I'm firmly in the camp that thinks, hey you put your money in a foreign bank to earn a bit of extra interest, you have to face the consequences and abide by the laws of the foreign country you decided to invest in.
Suppose that my local council have "invested" my council tax in Iceland & now can't get it back? What are they going to do? Ask me to pay it again? Stop collecting the rubbish & lighting the streets? Or expect Darling to bail them, and all the other local councils, out?
This thing is going to get far worse before it gets better.
Stephen Timms, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has confirmed that this was indeed the law which had been used, because “that’s where the power happened to be”, as if there was nothing odd in using such legislation for a purpose for which it cannot originally have been intended.
It is becoming apparent that many of the supposed 300,000 British depositors with money in Icelandic banks are town councils.
Mr Timms was again unable to shed any light on what will happen to their (our) money, beyond saying that a meeting was to be held that afternoon at the Treasury.
Now I'm firmly in the camp that thinks, hey you put your money in a foreign bank to earn a bit of extra interest, you have to face the consequences and abide by the laws of the foreign country you decided to invest in.
Suppose that my local council have "invested" my council tax in Iceland & now can't get it back? What are they going to do? Ask me to pay it again? Stop collecting the rubbish & lighting the streets? Or expect Darling to bail them, and all the other local councils, out?
This thing is going to get far worse before it gets better.