David Maddox: Warm front from Iceland
The last thing we heard about Iceland was that its banking system had collapsed taking with it many Brits' savings and large chunks of money belonging to UK councils.
Of course, it is hard to forget that our government's (UK version) reaction to this was to freeze Icelandic assets using anti-terror laws against this peaceful country of 320,000 people. You may recall that it did not go well.
So while Iceland has been removed from the SNP list of "how to be a successful small country," Icelanders are also not exactly well disposed to anything British. Or are they?
It seems that even in this time of economic strife the Icelanders have found a spot in their hearts for Britain, in particular our pensioners.
So as I write a ship load of thousands of warm woolly jumpers and other items of clothing is sailing to Hull to help keep Britain's pensioners warm this winter.
After all, they may not know about banking, although nor do we any more, but the Icelanders are international experts on fish and the cold (see picture on the right).
Apparently an appeal was launched by two radio DJs - Heimir Karlsson and Kolbrun Bjornsdottir - after they covered a story featuring Britain's National Pensioners Convention (NPC), and their warning that up to 1 in 12 pensioners may die this winter due to the drop in temperature because they cannot pay their fuel bills (as the Age Concern advert below left highlights). They were even more shocked to hear that 260,000 pensioners died of the cold in Britain ov
er the last decade, which is most of their population.
Clearly under the probably correct impression that we were too poor or too mean to look after our old folk properly the appeal attracted thousands of items. One nine-year-old girl gathered 37 beautiful sweaters and delivered it to them at the radio station.
As Mr Karlsson put it: "I am sure I speak on behalf of every living soul in Iceland when I say that we looked at it with an utter dismay and total disbelief, how badly the government of the United Kingdom treats its old people.
"The elderly deserve to live their last years enjoying the best of care. They deserve to live in warm housing, free from worries over cold and rising gas bills. The Icelandic people heard about how terribly the UK government treats the pensioners, and could not just do nothing about it!"
Touche Mr Brown!
Of course, it is hard to forget that our government's (UK version) reaction to this was to freeze Icelandic assets using anti-terror laws against this peaceful country of 320,000 people. You may recall that it did not go well.
So while Iceland has been removed from the SNP list of "how to be a successful small country," Icelanders are also not exactly well disposed to anything British. Or are they?
It seems that even in this time of economic strife the Icelanders have found a spot in their hearts for Britain, in particular our pensioners.
So as I write a ship load of thousands of warm woolly jumpers and other items of clothing is sailing to Hull to help keep Britain's pensioners warm this winter.
After all, they may not know about banking, although nor do we any more, but the Icelanders are international experts on fish and the cold (see picture on the right).
Apparently an appeal was launched by two radio DJs - Heimir Karlsson and Kolbrun Bjornsdottir - after they covered a story featuring Britain's National Pensioners Convention (NPC), and their warning that up to 1 in 12 pensioners may die this winter due to the drop in temperature because they cannot pay their fuel bills (as the Age Concern advert below left highlights). They were even more shocked to hear that 260,000 pensioners died of the cold in Britain ov
er the last decade, which is most of their population.Clearly under the probably correct impression that we were too poor or too mean to look after our old folk properly the appeal attracted thousands of items. One nine-year-old girl gathered 37 beautiful sweaters and delivered it to them at the radio station.
As Mr Karlsson put it: "I am sure I speak on behalf of every living soul in Iceland when I say that we looked at it with an utter dismay and total disbelief, how badly the government of the United Kingdom treats its old people.
"The elderly deserve to live their last years enjoying the best of care. They deserve to live in warm housing, free from worries over cold and rising gas bills. The Icelandic people heard about how terribly the UK government treats the pensioners, and could not just do nothing about it!"
Touche Mr Brown!
Labels: cold, David Maddox, Gordon Brown, Iceland, pensioners
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