After investing £50 million and £27 million respectively in a bank that several bloggers and even the Daily Mail knew was a bit dodgy, Kent and Barnet councils are sending their senior finance managers on a jolly debt collecting mission to Iceland.
What they hope to achieve is anybody’s guess. Landsbanki’s debt runs into billions. Why would they pay out to a couple of British local authorities before anyone else?
Perhaps the authorities are sending some of their council tax bailiffs along too. Having a couple of blokes march into the government offices and start seizing the furniture might just do the trick. Then again, given the size of the average Icelander, that might not be an effective strategy either.
Maybe the town hall money men have something else up their sleeves. If they come back empty-handed, this is going to look suspiciously like a taxpayer-funded weekend away.
