Brilliant article by Roy Hattersley

This is a brilliant article written in a friendly manner and in a good sense of humour. Iceland´s government should ask Mr Hattersley to give them a course in the mentality of British negotiators before the next round of talks on the Icesave matter. It is good to know beforehand that they expect to lose! The reason why the team of the Icelandic negotiators lost the first two rounds is perhaps the fact that the team was made up of East German educated negotiators who were not aware of the weak spots in the opposing party. This we must fix before talks resume.

It may not be widely known in Britain that the owners of the Icesave Band are residents in the UK and only came to Iceland for short holidays and board meetings of their companies. So, if the British authorities really want to punish the guilty party they know where to find these guys. That would be more appropriate that hunting down the Icelandic nation that has done nothing wrong, at least not in this matter. The British authorities should also look into how the British banks collaborated and financed the Icelandic banks and over-enthusiastic investors in the UK.

Britain should perhaps take into account in their negotiations on the Icesave issue how Icelanders have contributed to their economy over the past few decades by buying all kinds of goods from the UK as well as supplying high quality fish to the British consumers. By squeezing the Icelandic economy till it bleeds is not will of course lower the standard of living in Iceland and Icelanders are not likely to go on shopping trips to Britain for some years to come and instead choose to spend their money at home. The benefit of this for the Icelandic economy will probably outweigh the negative effect on the British economy as population of the size of Leicester is hardly noticeable in the UK, however noisy it may be.

And it is good to see that Mr Hattersley is not resentful in spite of the way he lost the "cod war" and the articles shows that your "enemies" can also be your friends. This is a lesson the Icelandic government still has to learn.....

Hinir þrjósku Íslendingar