Journalist, author, broadcaster
Iceland is often held up as the poster child for an alternative approach to the global crisis, but how accurate are the stories about the Nordic nation? My London Review of Books blog took a look. In April, a video entitled ‘Iceland forgives mortgage debt of its population’ went viral. The 30-second clip, a Spanish-language news broadcast […]
Iceland after the kreppa. My long-form piece from Sunday Business Post, May 22, 2011. ‘Sometimes it doesn’t feel like there’s been a crash here at all.” Heather Millard, an English documentary filmmaker living in Reykjavik, is chatting tome over coffee in a trendy bar in the Icelandic capital’s achingly hip 101neighbourhood. ‘‘Yes, incomes are lower […]
Like Z-list celebrities, volcanoes are often more infamous than famous. Vesuvius, Krakatoa, Etna: all owe their household name status to the destructive force of their periodic eruptions. Last year, another, more difficult to pronounce name entered the pantheon of volcanic infamy – Eyjafjallajökull. The Eyjafjallajökull glacier, in south-west Iceland, had been dormant for some 200 […]
Which way now? The neoliberals who created the bubble are resurgent, but many Icelanders want to move away from finance. My analysis from the Guardian’s Comment is Free. Even before the final result was in, the tenor of national and international reaction to the Icelandic public’s latest rejection of a deal for Icesave was crystal […]
In MANY respects, a lengthy legal battle over the Icelandic public’s latest rejection of a deal for Icesave is the least of the country’s worries. Finance minister Steingrímur Sigfússon was at pains to stress yesterday that the “no” vote will not affect Iceland’s application to join the EU. But the result has placed a huge […]
By Peter Geoghegan in Reykjavik Public opinion in Iceland is split over a deal to repay the British government £2.35 billion for losses incurred following the failure of online bank Icesave. Icelanders will vote on the issue in a referendum on Saturday, with opinion polls suggesting the result is too close to call. A recent […]