Whilst thousands protest in the centre of London in advance of the G20 summit, Iceland featured heavily in Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
Although the fate of Kaupthing Singer and Friedlander is relatively old news, the repercussions are still being mulled over in Westminster and Gordon Brown was asked directly how he plans to help The Christie, a Manchester-based hospital specialising in cancer research that lost more than £6m in the collapse. The amount forms one third of their research budget for the next year.
Brown gave a standard answer, stating that he will meet those involved and discuss financial help for the charity but the direct connection between Iceland’s financial crash and the cutback of cancer care and research is another piece of deeply negative PR for the country. He also emphasised that the problem was caused by a lack of regulation in the Icelandic financial industry.
The tradition of Prime Minister’s Questions began in the 1950s and allows MPs, the regional representatives who sit in the House of Commons and form the decision-making body of the Parliament, to directly question the Prime Minister about a variety of issues pertaining to the national interest.
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