Praise be to Iceland

The Icelandic people have sent a very strong message to their government who wanted taxpayers to bail out the private bank Landsbanki: “F**k Off”.

When Landsbanki (operating in the UK as Icesave) collapsed in October 2008, the British and Dutch Governments decided to reimburse depositors, and now expect the Icelandic Government to reimburse them to the tune of £3.4 billion. The only snag was that Icelandic President Olafur Ragnar refused to sign the repayment deal agreed by his Parliament. This triggered an automatic referendum in March 2010. 93% of Icelandic voters supported their President and rejected the proposed repayment deal.

Like the corrupt and undemocratic EU, the Icelandic Government could not accept the will of the people, and another referendum has now been held. Once again, the overwhelming majority of voters have rejected the terms on offer. Icelandic taxpayers have stated clearly and unequivocally that they do not wish to bail out private banks which were badly run.

People who invested in Landsbanki did so at their own risk. The reason Icesave paid much higher rates of interest than traditional banks was because of the greater risk attached. Their economy was going to hell in a handcart, but if depositors were too stupid to check where they placed their money, why should those of us who are more prudent with our finances be expected to bail them out?

In a similar vein, British taxpayers have been forced to bail out Greece, Ireland and now Portugal, whose respective governments were even more profligate than ours under the Brown/Darling regime. The British government has no democratic mandate to give our money away. We are not members of the single currency and it is not our responsibility to rescue basket case economies.

The Government has introduced an austerity package to deal with our crippling budget deficit. Domestic public spending has to be cut, yet at the same time as soldiers in Afghanistan are being made redundant whilst risking their lives, money can still be found to piss away on this failed European project.

The people of Iceland have done a great service to democracy by reminding their politicians who is in charge. To them I say: Ég heilsa hugrekki, styrk þinn og indefatigability þinn (I salute your courage, your strength, and your indefatigability).