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UK Chancellor Darling Lies, Causes Iceland Crisis
A transcript of a conversation between the UK chancellor, Alistair Darling, and his Icelandic counterpart appears to question the British governments claim that Iceland had refused to compensate UK savers.The transcript, obtained by the Financial Times, is of a telephone conversation at the height of the crisis on October 7 between Mr Darling and Arni Mathiesen, Icelandic finance minister. In it they discuss whether or not the Icelandic government is in a position to compensate up to 300,000 British depositors in Icesave, the online arm of Landsbanki, the Icelandic bank. At no point does the Icelandic finance minister state unequivocally that Iceland would not honour its obligations. Instead, Mr Mathiesen says that Iceland plans to use its compensation scheme to try to meet obligations to British depositors. This commits Iceland to paying 20,887 (£16,462) under directives agreed as part of its membership of the European Economic Area... Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-10-24 |
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