President of Iceland cuts Jeremy Paxman down to size (06Jan10)

After the banking collapse of Iceland, the President of Iceland Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, has decided to give his population a vote on whether to compensate the UK and Dutch governments on the terms those countries want - which would cripple Iceland, or on Iceland's terms which would not cripple Iceland as much.

Jeremy Paxman though he would have an easy interview, he was outclassed by the Icelandic president.

Recorded from BBC Newsnight, 06 January 2010.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• iceland
• icelandic
• president
• olafur
• ragnar
• grimsson
• jeremy
• paxman
• newsnight
• cut
• down
• to
• size
• bank
• banks
• crisis
• bust
• imf
• threat
• eu
• membership

[MrAnthropophagy]

So Britain is blocking Iceland joining the E.U.? Lucky Iceland i say.

[BirgirZ]

@mellowNdark haha its funny how people turn to spelling when they know that they have lost an argument. English is my second language, i also study a third and next year a forth. The fact that happen has two p's doesn´t contribute to your argument at all and shows how pathatic it is.

[LionEyedTiger]

How dare that fucking Paxman interrupt the president...Does he not know any fucking manners? Who the hell does he think he is. DO NOT DARE INTERRUPT THE PRESIDENT!

[LionEyedTiger]

Iceland is awesome.

[wcyamyname]

I am dissapointed with the BBC having this interview our president, I don't care if we have the same population as Wigan, based on intellect and social respinsibuility we are one of the best countries in the world, so show some respect.

[nphanlon1973]

3.05 that is the worst necklace i have ever seen.

And btw capitalism is a profit and loss system.

And Iceland is a democracy.So fuck off.

[TheNottinghamLad]

@edmund184 No he did not at all. Paxo said the lesson many are drawing from this is do not trust an icelander.

Are you deaf or did the interview just fly over your head?

[ludocrat]

@JohanRegus12

What are you? His grandad?

[gazz12345a]

@JohanRegus12 That's simply not true. Google 'The Myth that Laissez Faire Is Responsible for Our Financial Crisis' by George Reisman. Read that then come back if you still think 'free markets' are responsible for the recession. Secondly deregulation did not cause banks to collapse. Not all banks collapsed, only incompetent ones. In a free market they would not 'have to be' bailed out. Another example of government intervention rewarding failure and bad behaviour.

[JohanRegus12]

@gazz12345a It was the neoliberals who deregulated the banks and caused them to collapse, which led to states having to borrow massively to bail them out while tax revenues plummeted in the ensuing recession. Iceland had excellent public finances before neoliberalism destroyed it and buried it in debt.

[JohanRegus12]

@BournemouthWoodle And you need to grow up