Hundreds of millions of pounds invested by British local authorities in Iceland's failed banks look likely to disappear down the Atlantic sinkhole.
In London Gordon Brown put £500bn of public money at risk in a gamble to restore the UK banking system. It works out to £20,000 per taxpayer and bigger than the US $700bn bailout. Don't lose sight of the approximate £100bn already at risk after the Northern Rock collapse.
Politicians of all shades were backing the paper shuffle as a sensible and sage move...what else could they do?
Meanwhile, down on the farm: Kent County Council - has £50 million deposited in the country which gleefully stuffed us over the Cod Wars and will happily take British money slap the arrogant UK twits with a wet haddock and simply slip away. Other Councils around 20 more, have lost millions.
Transport for London says it has a £40m deposit with a failed Iceland bank. Let's not forget sensible mums shop at Iceland they don't throw money at it.
A TfL spokeswoman said: "We are urgently seeking further information on the situation."
I bet they are. The difference is the money they have invested is lost. The Government has none of the right pieces of paper to shuffle and paste over the cracks. The financial whirlpool has swallowed ratepayers' money. Another example of greedy local authorities looking for high interest short term returns. Town Hall oinks being shafted by the professionals.
The UK Government did act yesterday to halt Icelandic coffers being spirited away out of British holdings...it was not under any bi-partisan agreement... Brown Bovver Boys used the Anti-Terrorism Act. True.
The Local Government Association is asking Government to cover any losses, after Chancellor Alistair Darling announced he will protect the savings of private individuals in Icelandic banks. Why not? He has bailed out the worst of the British Banking sector but it is noticeable there is a massive split.
HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Abbey National have no intention of raising capital from the State, which confirmed to the jittery City Financiers the £50bn offer is solely for Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB, HBOS and Barclays.
Pssst!! Wanna know the secret?
HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Abbey National have majority shareholdings ...outside Britain and they don't want to be caught in the neutralisation/nationalisation scam going on right now. They know it is a hollow scheme, idle paper shuffling. They have no intention of handing a very substantial shareholding to the Excise and Revenue.
The flaw is: someone somewhere has to put hard cash, or gold, on the line.
Remember: "Hey Buddy can you spare several hundred billion?"
When will the Government get off its complacent backside and start prosecutions? The Finance Directors/ Treasurers of local authorities are paid massively, pensioned superbly and should now be sacked promptly...and pension rights stripped or reduced where recklessness is shown. Forget restitution let's have a bit of massive and profligate retribution...the court cases will be well-worth reading.
After all, Adam Applegarth, Northern Rock's woefully inadequate Chief Executive, was found to have been fiddling with a lower order bank official (married female). She has since, allegedly, had his child.
How many more tales of lust and corruption await the eager readers?
Come On! Bring out the dirt. The whole thing looks sordid enough to keep us amused for ages while we bale out the lifeboats.
One last thing: Have you walked into a HBOS or Lloyds-TSB branch of late.
I have and I have seen more confidence in the future in a Funeral Parlour...and that is the true horror of this.
It is the staff and customers which pick up the final tab.