Basildon Council has no money in Icelandic Banks

Just to be clear, Basildon District Council has no cash in Icelandic Banks. At the turn of the year members voted on an ultra-cautious investment policy, because we didn't like the way the markets looked at all. I am not saying that we were prescient, but it didn't take a great brain to work out that the international money markets were not working as they should. So, we elected only to have short terms placements at the best of the UK banks and building societies, and if we lost a quarter point of interest here and there it was a price worth paying. It is very sad that not everyone took this view, and it will be interesting to know how much of this poor-decision making was down to elected member policy, and how much was financial professionals getting it wrong.