Icelandic President Says Won't Sign Icesave Bill

[bluemonday]

President says Iceland should decide on issue in referendum

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6040YB20100105

[Freggyragh]

They'd better vote 'yes' or an old nutter in a wig might warble 'Don't bank in Iceland' into a camera and post it to youtube.

[Tempus Fugit]

and the Westminster gang will say you can't join our gang

[queenie]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...itain-investors

 

Ann Pettifor says:

 

A fair deal for Iceland - Britain shares responsibility for Icesave losses – it must not expect Iceland to carry an impossible financial burden

 

Today the people of Iceland, a country whose population, at 317,000, is somewhat smaller than Leicester's, are required by the British political, financial and economic establishment to carry the full burden of the losses suffered by Landsbanki's depositor programme Icesave.

 

We consider this to be unfair, for the following reasons. First, the British political and financial establishment bear co-responsibility with Icelandic regulators and bankers for the losses of British investors. Indeed Iceland's financial policies and practice fell foursquare within the deregulated and liberalised framework set in Britain and the United States since the 1970s. We therefore bear a greater share of responsibility.

 

cont... (see link)

[manshimajin]

One can hardly imagine the lieutenant governor giving us a vote on KSF compensation payments! Mind you maybe that is the advantage that Icelanders posess in having the world's oldest Parliament and a continuing link to Norse democracy. Their President made quite a point of the people's right to vote on this matter as it works out to about £42,000 per household.

 

What the Guardian said above was also said by a number of commentators in the Financial Times - the UK and the Netherlands need to look in a mirror to work out why their own regulators didn't see this coming as it was being commented on back in 2007.

 

Wonder if the UK would be happy to hand back the money from KSFIOM on the same basis as it expects Icelanders to cough up for Icesave?