Icelandic battle rages on

Oct 14 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

ISN’T it amazing what strange information is thrown up by a crisis. Who ever would have guessed that more than 100 councils and police authorities for some strange reason had £20bn of their (ie, our) money tied up in Icelandic banks?

Why? In a tiny country of 300,000 people, why have we invested so much that we stand to lose £1bn as it all goes pear-shaped and Icelandic banks go bust?

Now this has escalated into a diplomatic row with our prime minister Gordon Brown using anti-terrorist laws to hit back and freeze the assets of Icelandic companies and investments in the UK.

You would think as two great seafaring nations (whose links were emphasised by the late broadcaster and Mastermind host Magnus Magnusson), that Britain and Iceland would have always been the best of friends.

Yet we’ve been at loggerheads since Victorian times when the Danes, who then ruled Iceland, set up an exclusion zone around the island to protect its fishing.

As many readers will recall, the “Cod Wars” rumbled on as a bitter dispute between the UK and Iceland, from 1958 - 1961, when Iceland increased its fishing zone from four nautical miles off the shore to 12 miles, in spite of Royal Navy protection of our fishing vessels.

In 1972, it went to 50 miles, and in 1975 to 200 miles.

Britain was forced to accept this with the result that, by 2002, some 2,000 British trawler men were put out of work and thousands more lost their shore-based jobs in the ports of Fleetwood, Hull and Grimsby.

British government compensation to our fishermen and workers totalled £37m. Unbelievably, it seems like Iceland is now is costing us more and more.

W Jones, Birkenhead

Always in recession

FOR years, I have campaigned for a fair deal for stay-at-home carers like myself.

The general consensus, however, has always been that there is no public money available to grant carers such a deal.

The Government has now given over public money to banks.

I have always argued at JobCentres how unfair things are for carers and the staff always agreed with me.

Public money given to banks only confirms what double standards there are in society.

Public money, private money or even a small proportion from the Lottery Fund would enable carers to live a reasonable economic existence.

We are always in recession.

If the majority of people recognise the rights of carers, then why does our Government remain deaf to us, yet is all ears to large, capitalist institutions?

J Carmichael, Southport

Begging bowls

WHILE everybody now realises we are about to undergo the tragedy of yet another capitalist slump (if it is bad now, wait six months), the supreme irony is how its useless perpetrators now scramble for the protection of the state. Yes, that is the same “nanny state” pilloried by the same spivs only a few weeks ago.

Now they come scrounging with their begging bowls on a level that demonstrates as never before just how literally and morally bankrupt capitalism is and always will be. History is impatient to consign it to oblivion.

Gradually, it is dawning on people that decent laws are there for protection against the kind of economic anarchy and opportunism that once again threatens innocent citizens and their families.

Legislation is the only way ordinary citizens can defend themselves against the immorality of capitalism. This is why “deregulation” – one of the roots of the present malevolence – was forced through in the evil 80s. The chickens have come home to roost in squadrons.

However, you can safely bet any immediate new legislation will be framed to suit continuation of the system in the same way as Roosevelt’s so-called New Deal in the last century.

If allowed, you can also bet the cycle will be repeated after the economic dust has settled. But capitalism is running out of options. What once failed with manufactured goods has now failed with “financial services”. There aren’t many alternatives or excuses left.

Michael Durkin, Liverpool L3

No resignations

SO WE’VE heard about the 100- plus public sector bodies that have potentially lost nearly £1bn of our money in the collapsed Icelandic banks – but I have yet to hear of one resignation of the senior officers responsible for this breach of fiduciary duty.

Mark Bill, via email

Winter of discontent

I AM sure I am not the first person to talk about a winter of discontent looming, but the parallels with the final months of Callaghan’s administration in 1978-79, and the current situation we have in the UK, are growing ever stronger.

We are already in recession and we are starting to see spots of industrial action and unrest.

Now, this morning, I read that undertakers are having to put burials on hold because the Government has failed to pay benefits which undertakers are entitled to.

What next, rubbish piling up in the streets and then a Tory government?

Mrs F Grimshaw, Waterloo

Economic drain

THE never-ending extension of EU taxes and regulations never draws breath.

Brussels plans to control Corporation Tax across all the EU countries. This will force up corporate tax bills.

The EU’s latest tax power grab could reduce the GDP of the UK economy by £73bn over the next 10 years. This is equivalent to each UK resident paying £1,200 in extra taxes.

Furthermore, economic analysts believe the CCCTB will mean that Britain could lose a total of £58.4bn of investment over 10 years.

We already suffer a dramatic drain on the UK economy subsidising Continental farmers to the tune of £500 extra on our household food bills. The EU is becoming a stone around our neck we can ill afford.

Even more to the point, whatever happened to the principle: “No taxation without representation”? Why are we, in the UK, seeing taxes imposed on us without one iota of democratic decision making?

Cllr Steve Radford, President of the Liberal Party

Church plans

MAY I add my opinion on the article in the Daily Post, on Wednesday, October 8, and the letter from Mr Poole in today’s DP on the subject of the proposed refurbishment of St James Church?

Whatever is the Bishop thinking of? One wonders if he has done his marketing properly.

A stone’s throw from St James’ is the under-attended St Brides Church and nearby is St Michaels. Then there is the Anglican Cathedral.

There are other Anglican churches in the city with established links to students. As for city centre residents – apart from the churches already mentioned, there is Our Lady and St Nicholas at the Pier Head which boasts a growing congregation.

So why speculate, at a time when there are hundreds of un-let flats and offices in the city and church goers are well catered for elsewhere?

Just let the slaves rest in peace.

Monica Lawrence, Liverpool 1

Lazy stereotype

THE American writer, F Scott Fitzgerald, once wrote that “there are no second acts in American lives”. If we translate that statement into Liverpool lives, it becomes plain the creator of Eric’s: The Musical, is oblivious to this fact.

How much longer do the long- suffering Liverpool public have to put up with sad and tired Boswell-esque storylines and stereotypes?

The family at the centre of Eric’s was straight out of an episode of Bread. The father, Reg, was depicted as drunken and lazy, forever putting down the creative aspirations of his son. But at least the donkey jacket looked good!

This docker stereotype is not new and dates back to Alf Garnett. It is a lazy characterisation and an insult to the memory of thousands of Liverpool dock workers and their families who used to work the port of Liverpool.

Literary giants Camus, Borges and Gorski described their respective dockside wharfs of Marseilles, Boca and Odessa, as: “the universities of life”. Liverpool theatrical establishments, take note.

Steve Higginson, Childwall

Good feeling

I ADMIRE the good feeling from Liverpool and Everton Football supporters in recent letters, and hope this is some kind of turning point in the respect that these supporters should be giving each other.

I am an Evertonian and have been absolutely disgusted with the mindless chants that have been aimed at Liverpool in recent derbies. One thing that I strongly believe has been overlooked by everyone, including the club, is that, when the Everton team need uplifting – and it was very evident at the last derby match – singing about Spanish waiters or murderers is not going to lift the team in the slightest. The team need overwhelming vocal support of the right kind which these are clearly not. I would like to see David Moyes at the next derby make a point of requesting this.

John Jenkins, via email