Wowbanger TIP

The UK has used anti terrorist laws to seize Icelandic assets in the UK.

BBC NEWS | Politics | Brown: Iceland's actions illegal

Cod War II. This time their going down.

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Wowbanger TIP

Oh and they have frozen their stock market as well.

BBC NEWS | Business | Iceland nationalises biggest bank

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The only ones left with any confidence at all are the New Dumb. It is the beginning of the end of our world as we knew it. Doom is the operative ethic.

H S Thompson

Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century (2004)

Little Englander (sour)

Not another cod war.

I honestly do not know who Brown thinks he is, putting on a big macho front against Iceland with their three trawlers and three man army, if it had been American banks that had folded with Brit depositors, it would be a different story, he would fawn all over them.

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John Connor

I smell Mandelson in this. Probably his way of inviting Iceland into the EU.

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Mikeuk

Good for Brown!

These greedy morons had it coming to them. Did the fools really believe that their ridiculous mini-country could compete with the big players on the world stage?

Now we've nationalised the banks (should have been done decades ago), Britain can show it means business!

Mikeuk

Good!

Call that a stock market!

They do say there are some nice geezers in Iceland but all the human ones I've met are way out of their depth.

Chip

I think that it is very serious that the Moron Gordon has used anti-terrorist law to do this against Iceland. It shows that he and his mob are prepared to use this legislation to whatever end they want and will not hesitate to use it against anyone who upsets them. Like the green taxes these laws are a cover up, and this case give them unlimited power over everyone not just terrorists.

angelman

Chip - can't agree more. To me this is a clear abuse of the anti-terrorism laws. Iceland and its banking has nothing to do at all with terrorism and therefore the terrorism laws, and although it is the easiest way to freeze assets, it sets a dangerous precedent. Where will it stop? This sort of scenario was also one of the reasons why everyone was against raising the time limit for incarceration from 28 to 42 days. We are going to have a government that has very few checks and balances to their power, which is looking likely to be freely abused as and when it suits them.

Aardvark

Agree. The government has demonstrated that anti-terror laws replace international diplomacy when it suits. The reason Brits had money in Iceland was because the Labour Government encouraged people in public bodies to chase the higher interest rates (as in the BCCI collapse) with taxpayers money. Private investors were encouraged to do the same. Lord alone knows where all of the other money is.

At present the average Icelandic citizen is in hock to the rest of the world to the tune of £116 K. If they were to repay it over 50 years at say £2K + pa, with no interest or penalties, it still means that every man, woman and child in the whole country must pay 40 quid a week in extra taxes - the majority for the rest of their lives. The problem is that the few who benefitted have taken the money and ran and left the taxpayer or 'investor' to pick up the tab.

In our country there has been no penalty for Adam Applegarth, boss of NR, who sold his shareholding for millions at the peak price (insider trading?) and then got a pay off as he left the workers to see their shares become worthless and to lose their jobs. We taxpayers are paying for his big house and big car and he is off playing golf.

The same will happen in Iceland. The rich bankers will take their yachts and sail off into the sunset whilst the ordinary guy in the street is left to be bullied by Gordon Brown as the country goes bankrupt. There is no way that the people of Iceland can pay for the profligacy of their bankers and Brown's pretence that they can shows a naivete that surpasses all others. If Brown bullies and threatens, to look good for the thick Brits who don't understand that the ordinary Icelandic housewife hasn't got any money to pay them, that will not win us any friends. The Scandinavians will look askance at his behaviour and wonder why he is not picking on the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, British Virgin Islands and checking that they can underwrite all deposits in their countries. Which brings us to the next scam. Millionaire bankers have made a packet with accounts in those countries, but they are all British dependencies and you can bet that when the going gets tough the Brits will underwrite the whole lot from our taxes.

I am now £250 or so worse off as West Oxon District Council has invested £9 million and Oxon County Council has invested £5 million in Icelandic banks. Thames Valley Police has put £5 million in. I will pay for this in increased taxes or reduced services.

Why has Brown not moved to protect British investors in Lehman, the boss of which took 300 million USD in the last 4 years?

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g hall

Gordon the Moron has a degree in History, which explains his stewardship of the Treasury.

Strangely enough despite his degree he appears not have understand the saying "If you don't learn from history you are doomed to repeat it"

Boom and Bust anyone ?

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