Atkvæði Neitun. Dvöl sjálfstæður. Viðurværi út af the E.U.

This is Iceland’s President Olafur Grimsson.
“Atkvæði Neitun. Dvöl sjálfstæður. Viðurværi út af the E.U.” English translation: Vote No. Stay independent. Keep out of the E.U.
The recent and brewing controversy over the £2.3 billion that the Icelandic government agreed to pay the British government is due to explode on the 20th February when the Icelandic people are expected to vote against the plan to reimburse the British taxpayer.
Whilst the initial reaction of many British Gazette readers may be one of irritation at the Icelanders, the British Gazette would counsel against this. The £2.3 billion in question was the amount of our [British taxpayer’s] money that Alistair Darling spent reimbursing those persons who had invested money in Icesave to for a higher return than they could get onshore – i.e.; in the U.K.
Well those persons [and councils] should have thought before this about the obvious risks on putting one’s nest egg in a foreign bank account. Why should we who left our nest eggs in British banks have to compensate these people ?
The Icelandic government was under no treaty obligation to make special provision for British savers. Iceland is now in a desperate mess economically and the Icelandic government now is minded to throw away Iceland’s independence which is nearly a century old and join the European Union and the Eurozone.
Should the Icelandic people vote to reject the British bailout David Miliband is threatening to veto Iceland’s application for membership of the E.U. This alone should be a reason for every Icelander to vote no in the forthcoming referendum!
For Iceland to enter the European Union would be catastrophic for them. Iceland has two great natural resources and one strategic one. The natural resources lie around her coast – her fishing grounds are the richest in the North Atlantic and before “financial services” was the mainstay of her economy. The second is geothermal power – Iceland can be self sufficient in electrical energy generation. The third great resource is a strategic one. She is halfway between the U.S.A. and Europe. Both the U.S.A. and E.U. feel that they have a vested interest in keeping Iceland friendly towards them.
Interestingly the Icelandic people are the British people’s closest cousins in racial terms [British in this context meaning the indigenous British stock]. It is commonly regarded that the Icelanders are descendants of the Vikings. This is true. However many of these [male] Vikings took Celtic women as their wives and concubines from Ireland and thus the Icelanders are approximately half Viking [Teuton] and half Irish [Celt].
Icelanders have overcome many trials in the past and the British Gazette would urge them not to give up over this latest one. It would urge them not to give up their independence and keep well clear of the E.U.