west end letters: Gamble fails | taxpayers money

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West End Extra - LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Published: 17 October 2008

Gamble fails

• WESTMINSTER City Council faces losing £17million of taxpayers’ money in the collapse of the Icelandic banking system (Banking crisis hits City Hall, October 10).
Instead of admitting culpability, it is claimed that these were reasonable investments and that the banks involved had excellent credit ratings in August 2008.
Yet in February this year, Moody’s (a credit rating agency) placed the entire Icelandic banking sector on review for a possible downgrade, while Standard & Poor’s issued warnings over Kaupthing, Glitnir and Landsbanki.
Even the Daily Telegraph’s financial correspondent, Iain Dey, cautioned that Iceland was heading for an economic meltdown (Daily Telegraph, February 5).
Councillors are quick to take the credit when things go well.
They should be equally prepared to shoulder the blame when things go disastrously wrong and vast sums of money are lost in a speculative gamble for high rates of interest.
Tristan Smith
Green Party parliamentary candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster

Send your letters to: The Letters Editor, West End Extra, 40 Camden Road, London, NW1 9DR or email to letters@westendextra.co.uk. The deadline for letters is midday Wednesday. The editor regrets that anonymous letters cannot be published, although names and addresses can be withheld.
Please include a full name, postal address and telephone number.
Letters may be edited for reasons of space.

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