The Wardman Wire

David Osler at Liberal Conspiracy. I couldn’t put it better if my name was Jupiter Peston.

For some reason, this morning’s newspapers are full of outcry about what UK councils are doing investing in Iceland anyway. The answer to that seems quite simple; they were seeking the best returns for the council tax payer, which is exactly what they should be doing. Remember, Iceland’s leading banks offered high rates of interest and enjoyed AAA credit ratings. Sounds fair enough to me.

Are the critics seriously maintaining that those good folk who cheerfully pay whatever shocking sum Ceredigion demands for a Band D semi would have been better off if their dosh had been in the safekeeping of Northern Rock or Bradford & Bingley?

It can be argued that they should have taken the money out in the few days avaialble to them, but - basically - spot on. If the original decision to lock in lots of money at high interest rates for long periods was faulty, then so was the Treasury advice to do the same.

OK, that’s Councils. Now, if we start to apply a requirement for individual judgement where it *can* be expected and follow the MP demands that individual bankers cannot hide behind the “letter of the regulatory regime”, and then proceed with logic to apply the same principle to MPs with their expenses, where they themselves use the “it is within the rules” excuse to justify massive abuse - then we might get somewhere.