ARE ICELANDERS TERRORISTS?
Friday, October 24, 2008 at 02:29PM I see that thousands of Icelanders are sending a message to Gordon Brown that they are not terrorists after the UK used terror laws to freeze their assets.
An online petition was launched this week following the UK government's attempt to protect British savings in Iceland's failed Landsbanki. The petition has been signed by about 40,000 people and shows Icelanders with signs saying they are not terrorists.
Brown says that he knows they are not terrorists but that he was obliged to use the terror law provisions he introduced to safeguard British savers in Icelandic banks interests. And therein, my friends, is the real and present danger to much of this government's attempts to marginalise our liberty in the guise of "fighting terrorism". It's not that we shouldn't be fighting terrorism, of course we should! But how can we trust a government that uses terror legislation so casually to punish Icelanders for the crime of imprudent bank practises?
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Reader Comments (9)
The Scandinavians used to be terrorists in the old days. I still don't trust them!
Well the Bjork gal is kinda scary, but more in a fashion sense.
Brown was right to act as he did. If he had done nothing to mitigate the losses for UK citizens, he would have been pilloried, and deservedly.
Well where has the money gone then!
Everyone knows that those pictures of the Icelanders are just ridicilous. I mean imagine this, an Everton, Liverpool and Manchester United supporter all in the same house. Completely staged.
It was the wrong thing to do, it was insulting and sent the wrong message out to others that Britain can be a dubious friend. It was insulting to the Icelanders, and if Brown had any decency which he hasn't, he'd apologise.
Brown says that he knows they are not terrorists but that he was obliged to use the terror law provisions he introduced
If things go from bad to worse in this economic turmoil i think we will find this excuse being used more and more.
And therein, my friends, is the real and present danger to much of this government's attempts to marginalise our liberty in the guise of "fighting terrorism". It's not that we shouldn't be fighting terrorism, of course we should! But how can we trust a government that uses terror legislation so casually
David, no offence but there is no use pretending to be only a lowly camp guard. You were among the merry band of trumpeters that considered these laws as more than necessary, and to hell with the consequences. Well we now know what the consequences will be. These laws will, as usual, are actually targetted at the wider population. Maybe they were expecting massive social unrest and upheaval sometime in the future.
When the icelandic government allowed its banking sector to lend many times more than the assets of the entire country it waved the right to any sympathy. A country with a population of 301,931 can never expect to be a major banking nation because when things go wrong it will not be able to pay it off!
Ant,
I agree and only fools would have put their financial resources with such a dysfunctional system so I waive sympathy with them yet the government seeks to bail them out.