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Business Daily: Iceland says 'Nei' 

08/03/2010

Iceland says 'Nei' 

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Iceland says 'Nei'

Why did Icelanders vote against a plan to pay back the Netherlands and the UK?

Steve Evans reports from Reykyavik, after voters threw out a plan to pay back the UK and Holland. Their governments want back $5.2bn they paid in compensation to the savers of failed bank Icesave.

Steve Evans reports from Iceland's capital, Reykyavik, after tax payers voted overwhelmingly against a plan to pay back Britain and the Netherlands after the collapse of the online savings bank, Icesave.  The British and Dutch governments want to be reimbursed for the $5.2bn they paid in compensation to the bank's customers in their countries.

The President of Iceland, Olaf Ragnar Grimsson, tells Steve what he reads in to this resounding "no".  And Steve wonders how the psyche of this windswept North Atlantic island has changed.  Have the descendants of the Vikings discovered the true good things of life now the money has gone?

Plus The Chairman of the Federation of Icelandic Industries, Helgi Magnusson, refuses to dwell on the past and says we should stop looking for business leaders to blame, and look forward not back.

And Steve goes to church and meets Gunnar Orn Olafsson, the Head of Investigations at the Icelandic tax collections authority.  He says the great crash changed the Icelanders in many subtle ways including their attendance at the Sunday service.

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