Running Silently

The blatant lying that is going on about two things: that the financial crisis is American in origin and global in effect and the United Kingdom is not suffering worse than elsewhere; and that Gordon Brown is saving the global financial system - has a worrying corollary.

How safe is it really to leave savings and deposits, or allow large payments to pass through bank accounts in the UK?

Iceland has guarantees in place too. But under the assault from the UK regime's unhelpful and irrational attempts to get UK depositors' money back Iceland is now preventing the export of cash, limiting withdrawals, begging for help from the IMF and exhibiting all the behaviours of the Wilson government when the gnomes of Zurich came for that Labour government. Incidentally, Dutch depositors are being repaid after their government reached an amicable settlement at the same time that Brown's raging and blustering was undermining our officials' attempts to organise the same thing. There are open retail runs on Russian banks being reported from across the Federation, complete with full Northern Rock queues and scenes. Yet Russia's economy is well managed and its underlying, real economy position is sound.

The European press is giving sharply different accounts of what needs to be done and what is being done for the eurozone from the reports offered by the UK papers on the acclaim for the 'Brown solution'. We know that Brown is a fantasist and a show off. Disturbingly, he is humoured like an unpleasant child by those who are forced to have dealings with him. So out of proportion is the English press coverage that it is now worth considering the value of the reassurance offered under the 'Brown solution'.

The United Kingdom's real economy is in very poor shape, and coping with this long term reality, now come to a head, is a very unsatisfactory and ill-qualified leader. It's bad enough being denied the democratic vote that would remove him. To be denied access to our own money would be, for each of us, a personal catastrophe.