“When Landsbanki got into trouble, the Icelandic government first assured the UK government that it was solvent, then assured the UK government that it was guaranteed by the Icelandic state, then nationalised it. On that basis and in agreement with the government of Iceland, the UK paid out the depositors and took ownership of their Icesave deposits”

I must say I’m sceptical. the poster’s report is sober, intelligent and factual, convincing, but this paragraph has a string of legal leaps in it that it would be good to see evidenced –

- “first assured the UK government that it was solvent” – when and it what words (remembering that back then all the banks were solvent till the moment they weren’t any more)?

- “then assured the UK government that it was guaranteed by the Icelandic state ” – big word, guaranteed, and there’s “assured” again, too

- “then nationalised it”. But just in the same way HMG nationalized Lloyd’s, right? not quite the same as stepping into their shoes and assuming all their liabilities.

- “On that basis and in agreement with the government of Iceland, the UK paid out” – that combines reliance and contract as making the Iceland government liable. is it really both? If “in agreement”, especially before any pay-out, things really should be cut and dried, but I don’t hear that from ministers (I mean the one really shifty-looking one I’ve seen on TV on this).

All also true for the Dutch, too?

Maybe all this is down at a nitpicky level that doesn’t add anything to the discussion, in which case, apologies. Keep up the good work.

Actually it was our cod. Ours in the sense that it belonged to all mankind. I think Iceland did a sensible thing in asserting property rights over what had up to then belonged to all of mankind but there is no denying the shift was from something we, as a planet, owned to something we, as anyone outside of the Iceland Government, did not.

As for India, by any rational definition we owned it. Literally when it was run by the Company. It went to war in 1939 when we said so. We divided it up when we left as we saw fit. By any rational definition of ownership, we, the British people, owned it. After all, we created it so why not? Or do you think that property is passed down racially?

An Icelandic politician lied to a British politician. That British politician being the one who argued in court, successfully, that manifesto commitments aren’t contractually binding.

That same British politician is now surprised when said Icelandic politician argues that commitments made in the heat of political battle aren’t contractually binding.

That same British politician will soon be asking us to believe his promises and trust him to negotiate on the international stage when he asks for our votes at the upcoming politician.

And they are surprised that nobody trusts them.

On Dsquared’s comment, yes, this clears things up somewhat. The basic point being that the UK government acted, at all times, based on what the Icelandic government told it – in particular, that the decision to pay UK savers full compensation came *after the Icelandic government had agreed to accept liability for providing full compensation to UK savers*. This is the opposite of the lies that the Iceland-defenders are telling about the situaiton.

@1, we’re trying to “bully” you into paying that money because you stole it from us.

@4, Landsbanki was *not* registered in the UK, and was *not* covered by the guarantee.

@5, not “mixed messages”. Completely clear messages, which involved going back on their word.

(oh, just for the record I never worked on any of the Icelandic bank administrations – I worked on administrations and restructuring for Icelandic and UK companies whose main creditors were Icelandic banks, and knew people who worked on the bank administrations)

Iceland issues bonds to the amount owed and hands them over to the UK government. It then defaults on those bonds.

Also the bank that operated the IceSave account was private, registered by the FSA to operate in the UK and therefore covered by the guarantee here. We’re only chasing the Icelandic Govt cos we can rather than the “billionaires” who owned the bank. Ironically in the interview yesterday those billionaires were said to be hiding out in….you guessed it…London!!! Probably laughing all the way to the BANK.