Word: icelander
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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This isn't Britain's first run-in with Iceland. The so-called Cod Wars over fishing rights in the North Atlantic led to hostile engagements between British and Icelandic fishing fleets and naval vessels, with nets being cut and boats being rammed, ending in the 1970s with an agreement that many British fishermen still blame for limiting their catches. If Brown fails to retrieve British cash from Iceland, a wider swath of the population - all British taxpayers, in fact - will feel the effects this time around. His chancellor, Alistair Darling, promised U.K.-based private investors on Wednesday that...
...there are no such blanket assurances for civic authorities and other institutions that lodged their money with Icelandic banks. The Local Government Association estimates that 108 local government councils have deposited $1.36 billion in Iceland. The councils' claims will be dealt with "case by case," said Hazel Blears, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. She told the BBC that local councils had varying degrees of exposure and indicated that while some might require additional funding, others might just "need extra advice." "I'm not going to sit here today and say that in relation to individual councils...
That comes as something of a surprise to some local councils. There have been warnings since the beginning of the year that all was not well with Iceland's banks. As early as Jan. 30, credit-ratings agency Moody's Investors Service said it was placing on review for possible downgrade Landsbanki, Kaupthing and Glitnir, another Icelandic bank. It did indeed downgrade all three a month later. In July, Kitty Ussher, then Economic Secretary to the Treasury and now a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions, was quizzed by an influential House of Commons committee after newspapers reported...
Kent County Council, controlled by the opposition Conservatives, tops the list of local government bodies looking to retrieve investments in Iceland: $85 million of its total budget of $4.42 billion is stuck in Icelandic accounts. Nick Chard, the council's cabinet member for finance, says he and his colleagues chose its banks in line with government rules about spreading risk by placing deposits with a range of institutions. Those rules also stipulate that councils should try to obtain as high a return as possible and should always check the credit ratings of the institutions. "At the time of making...
When the dust settles, the committee might want to revisit Ussher's words and maybe even question the wisdom of the rules governing local-council investments and how local councils interpret them. For the moment, Britons' ire is directed outward: at Iceland's hubris in allowing its banks to expand imprudently. There are also mounting concerns about how Iceland's economic meltdown will affect British Main Streets. Icelandic investment companies also own significant shares in famous retailers such as Debenhams, Hamleys and Oasis, and an Icelandic entrepreneur even owns the East London premiership football club West Ham United...