Can we trust the Tories with our money?

[rov1200]

Now that he City of Westminster (a Tory Borough) has invested over �18 million pounds of council tax payments into the dodgy Icelandic banks and lost every penny can we trust the tories to do the right thing in financial matters? They have gone crying to the government to get them off the hook. But they were warned many months ago about dealing with this bank.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7660438 .stm

Wasn't this the same council who prosecuted Dame Porter some years ago?

[Rollo]

We have not got any money left to entrust to anybody since Darling earmarked it yesterday!!

[Gromit]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I would be grateful if you could supply a link to the warnings many months ago, because I am sure non exist.

The Councils and Authorities (they are a mix of Labour and Tory) rightly deposited our money were it would yield the most return for the tax payer. The Icelandic Banks rather than being dodgy, were until the crunch, very well run and respected.
The Council have gone to the Government for help because such a loss will adversely affect many people in the borough. Services, schools, the elderly, transport all need that money.

[vehelpfulguy]

I hardly think they were "dodgy icelandic banks".

Lehman Brothers, a huge well respected financial institution in the USA, has just gone bankrupt.

Other major banks have "written off" billions in bad debts.

Over 20 councils have put their money in banks here in the UK and all over the world so it is not just one council that is affected.

Your question is just a cheap jibe at a tory run council.

[vehelpfulguy]

Anyway, you are talking here about 18 million.

A few years ago Gordon Brown sold HALF of britians gold reserves.

When he did so the price of gold was at its lowest for years.

Since then it has risen to record highs.

Gordon Brown's AWFUL mis-management cost this country over 2 BILLION POUNDS.

And people say he was a good chancellor !

So your question should be "Can we ever trust labour with the UK economy again"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics /article1655001.ece

[The Sherman]

re vehelpfulguy's comments

When Gordon Brown sold all our gold can you please tell me who didnt sell all their gold? IT was the done thing at the time and was considered a wise move by all other presidents/prime ministers. I love how Gordon Brown is single out NOW how many years after it happened?

Why aren't you complaining that he didnt invest all the proceeds into google? He could have made a mint doing that! did YOU know at the time it was a good or bad decision? Or are you talking with hindsight when now gold is at its peak?

[youngmafbog]

It is generally unwise to sell your gold to invest in a currency - particularly one like the Euro.

Bottler c*cked up big time on this. Accept it it does happen just as it has happend to these various councils.

This so called 'credit crunch' is not a party issue, thats why they are all talking to each other. True we could have had more brass to hand if Brown hadn't wasted it on pet labour projects but it probably would be failry insignificant given the magnitude of this proble.

These things happen, we need to band together to get through it not bicker and point fingers.

[jake-the-peg]

The credit crunch is not a party issue simpl;y because the Tories do not have any better ideas.

They're stuck saying "er yes well we just hope it works"

Would Osbourne have had the guts to do this?

I don't think so

I think we know who the bottler is here

[Rollo]

Indeed, we do know. It's Gordon McBottle.

[joggerjayne]

The public purse has no money left, because it's been set aside for the Banks, so that they can lend our own money back to us and charge us interest.

Still, at least we've got the gold reserves. Oop, no ... they've been flogged off.

[Gromit]

joggerjayne

We still have Gold Reserves. Brown only sold some of 'em.

[R1Geezer]

Now forgive me for throwing stones at those in the glass houses but are there not several Labour councils also involved in this fiasco? They haven't lost anything yet either.

At least your question has a future tense I can tell you from experience that you cannot trust Labour with the Economy!

[R1Geezer]

There's old Barmy Berie's old stamping ground for a start, the peoples republic of Brent!

[rov1200]

I think you will find that most of the councils are Conservative. Along with Kent County council they are the ones with the most losses. The knowledge about Icelandic banks was featured widely in the financial web sites and also corroborated with John Snow on Channel 4 news this evening. As councils are supposed to have their own financial experts unlike the casual saver maybe more research should have been made before investment. www.moneysupermarket.com issued a warning in April according to its founder yesterday evening.