The Finaical Crisis in the UK

Dear Stan,

Thanks for the news. The financial disasters are heavily dramatised in the media, as you might expect, though the wise have been warning about the unsustainability of our housing-price boom for years. The bail-out proposed for the big 4 British banks, including the royal Bank of Scotland where I work, is £500 billion ($850 billion). This is more than the fortune proposed for the US economy with 5 times the population, but the figures are so insanely huge it is like talking about the distance to the "nearest" galaxy - still beyond human understanding.

Most unbelievable of all is the heavy British involvement in Icelandic banks - around $7 billion invested in the Icelandic banks by all sorts of British institutions, due to the favourable interest rates offered. Major charities, hospital trusts, local councils.... I didn't know the SOBs had so much of our cash to invest. I bet some of them have an extra hard time fund raising once the dust has settled. One cautious council which did not take the Icelandic bait said that they thought the offers were "too good to be true". Spot on. I sometimes think that our more rabid political bloggers are far too vicious, cruel and foul-mouthed about our politicians. Then something like this happens and you realise that they are too kind and tolerant about them.

The "Daily Mash" had merciless fun at some of the investors in Icelandic banks, quoting one appalled "financial expert": "I thought Iceland was a huge economy next door to Belgium. Now, after checking the internet, I realise it is a stinking volcano in the Arctic inhabited by 3 weirdo singers and six fishermen....no one warned me." Slight exaggeration, but its total population is about that of Reading. Given the amount they owe British investors, we probably own the whole country lock stock and barrel.

The weird thing about being at the centre of this storm is how little everyday life is affected. At the bank, there has been frantic business as customers spread their funds between multiple banks - the Government is guaranteeing up to £50K per person per bank. But even that has not been as manic as you might expect. Given that the Government has taken huge numbers of preferential shares in all 4 big banks to prop them up, we have had no clear guidance as to whether our status has changed - are we all going to be civil servants now?

Thanks for the news about your changing parishes (our liberal priest got to me - sw.) Part of the problem with Reading is that we are part of an extremely liberal diocese (Portsmouth), so the rot afflicts all parishes to a certain extent. I have not done the obvious thing and crossed to a parish on the north bank of the river - the Thames marks the boundary with Birmingham diocese.