Councils set to get most of the Icelandic bank money back

The BBC has a story estimating that 70% to 80% of the £1 billion deposited by local Councils and other branches of the public sector will be paid back.

Conservative leader of Kent, Cllr Paul Carter says: "If markets improve, we may get more than that, closer to 90%." The first payments are due in July and August,

By the way, Eamonn Butler, Director of the Adam Smith Institute has a powerful indictment in his book The Rotten State of Britain, over how the British Government handled the whole affair.

He recounts:

"The world's financial markets were in free-fall, and banks were going bust. One of them was Iceland's Landsbanki, with which 300,000 British residents (including me) held accounts through its Icesave subsidiary. The Icelandic Government would be responsible to paying compensation to these account holders. Geir Haarde admitted that his small country was in deep embarrassment, but that he was working to find a satisfactory solution to the problem. But instead he was struck a triple blow by Gordon Brown's clunking fist. The British Government seized Icelandic assets. And not just assets of Icesave, but those of Iceland's last solvent bank Kaupthing - which collapsed as a result, leaving Iceland even more financially embarrassed. But the final blow was that this hugely hostile, bullying action against a tiny and friendly country was all done under anti-terrorist legislation. No wonder  Geir Haarde could scarcely contain his rage and disappointment."