Saturday, Mar 06, 2010

Looks like there'll have to be a second referendum

Sky News: Iceland Rejects Icesave Bank Payback Plan

Icelanders have rejected a plan to pay back Britain and the Netherlands some of the billions of pounds they lost over the collapse of the Icesave bank.
The nation's 230,000 voters were asked to approve a £3.3bn deal to reimburse the Government for the money it paid out to UK savers who had Icesave accounts.
Results returned from six constituencies showed that voters overwhelmingly said "no" in Saturday's referendum.

Posted by devo @ 11:16 PM (1418 views) Add Comment

17 Comments

1. devo said...

alternatively they could just ignore the result altogether

Saturday, March 6, 2010 11:21PM Report Comment
 

2. devo said...

The proposed deal would require each person to pay around £90 a month for eight years.

Saturday, March 6, 2010 11:27PM Report Comment
 

3. devo said...

see also:

Iceland's prime minister says her government will remain in office and continue to seek a deal.

With a third of votes counted, 93% of Icelanders have voted "No", less than 2% back the deal, and the remaining votes are invalid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8553979.stm

Saturday, March 6, 2010 11:40PM Report Comment
 

4. devo said...

a little context for those not up to speed (heaven forbid!)

Gordon Brown, by collapsing the last solvent Icelandic bank through anti-terrorism laws, massively exacerbated that country’s difficulties, and made it far harder for it to meet its debts.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100026785/there-is-no-honour-in-demanding-these-repayment-terms-from-iceland/

Sunday, March 7, 2010 12:03AM Report Comment
 

5. markj69 str05 said...

I had an automated telephone call this week - 'This is not a message.....government legislation allowing for 100% of your debt to be wiped out' Blah, blah, blah.... (Along those lines anyway). Perhaps Iceland will give them a call!?!

Regarding the vote, did anyone really expect any other result.

Why would any indebted, troubled nation give up billions to a country who's gov't allow it's financial industry to pay billions in bonuses.

We must be a cash rich country, surely???

Sunday, March 7, 2010 01:01AM Report Comment
 

6. sneaker said...

naughty terrorists!

Sunday, March 7, 2010 01:20AM Report Comment
 

7. paul said...

This does actually confirm that the UK government was right not to trust Iceland to repay the money and use anti-terrorism laws to freeze their assets.

Sunday, March 7, 2010 09:13AM Report Comment
 

8. Steve said...

There was never any a priori agreement that Iceland would compensate depositors of banks operating in a different country. These banks were registered as UK Ltd companies, so fall under the UK compensation scheme. The people the UK and Netherlands need to go to get their money back are the CEOs of the banks, such as Björgólfur Guðmundsson.

Sunday, March 7, 2010 09:28AM Report Comment
 

9. devo said...

no, this confirms the UK government was wrong to reimburse savers

Sunday, March 7, 2010 09:28AM Report Comment
 

10. contrails are not a conspiracy (formerly npnh) said...

This is a tricky one. I hate Brown so for many reasons. A couple are what he did with the Gold, Interest rates and housing market and more recently becoming an unelected Scottish PM!!

I can see both sides of this argument. If I were an Icelander I’d be voting the same way. Brown has handled this wrong no doubt.... but we need our money back.

But 95% of UK and Dutch citizens will jump on the Icelandic hate band wagon.

He really screwed the pooch on this one.

Sunday, March 7, 2010 10:02AM Report Comment
 

11. alan_540 said...

I hate Brown for nicking my pension.

Why wasn't these anti-terrorist laws applied to him?

Sunday, March 7, 2010 12:09PM Report Comment
 

12. vacuouspolitician said...

How can anyone have any sympathy for savers who put more than fifty thousand pounds in one Icelandic bank? Didn't they read the T&Cs? They knew that if the bank went belly up then they were at risk and would lose any money above the compo. Some British people put large sums in these banks, one was interviewed and he said he had put one hundred and twenty five thousand in Icesave!
I feel genuinely sorry for the ordinary Icelandic people - they shouldn't be paying for these greedy people ...or the mistakes/greed of bankers.

Sunday, March 7, 2010 02:30PM Report Comment
 

13. markj69 str05 said...

I thought many local authorities had also invested huge sums (£millions). Or am I thinking of another bank?

Sunday, March 7, 2010 04:57PM Report Comment
 

14. tom101 said...

Devo @8. Totally agree!

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3108/3221461589_a3e5112835.jpg

Sunday, March 7, 2010 06:17PM Report Comment
 

15. vacuouspolitician said...

mark - yes you are right - a few did. Just shows you how enept and out of touch some LA s are ...and their puppet masters.
This is tax payers money and they shouldn't be doing doing dodgy deals with anyone...

Sunday, March 7, 2010 08:54PM Report Comment
 

16. Davidof said...

What are they being asked to pay? Is it the full 100% compensation Brown agreed to pay out or just the legal amount agreed before the fiscal crisis? I can't see how Iceland can be held liable for more than the legal amount which was what exactly?

Sunday, March 7, 2010 08:54PM Report Comment
 

17. general congreve said...

Cheeky c4nts! INVADE!!!

Sunday, March 7, 2010 09:35PM Report Comment
 

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