After taking the piddle out of Iceland in my blog about their collapsing banks when the news broke back on 7th October, I do feel some sympathy for their situation. Especially as our banks are in crisis too.
However, to protect British interests by using anti-terrorism laws to freeze Icelandic bank assets in Britain, we may have ruined the Icelandic economy but it has been effective, according to Lord Paul Myners, the Financial Services Minister.
Meanwhile, Bjork wrote a piece for the Times this week that puts it all in context, particularly when she mentions that 1 in 10 Icelanders have signed a petition against our actions.
"I quote a petition signed by a tenth of the nation: 'Gordon Brown unjustifiably used the Anti-Terrorism Act against the
people of Iceland for his own short-term political gain. This has
turned a grave situation into a national disaster...hour by hour and
day by day the actions of the British Government are indiscriminately
obliterating Icelandic interests.'"
I think you better advise mom not to go to Iceland right now.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
