Yes it probably was Bee I'm afraid in order to restrict UK assets held in this country being transferred back to Iceland.

As McGrath pointed out it is a 'cover-all' act aimed at protecting the 'security' of a nation (financial or otherwise) and as far as the people of the UK are concerned it is an action to simply freeze what assets are still held by UK subsidaries in this country - admittedly a drop in the ocean when compared with the £743 million the UK tax payer will have to find.

Unfortunately as the burden of this shortfall falls upon the local authorities providing services for the elderly, children at risk etc as well as public services like refuse collection etc it's unlikely that it will be any great addition to an increase in life expectancy.

As I pointed out, people on fixed incomes like pensioners already have problems with rising heating costs (we don't have geothermal energy resources here) without the additional burden of increased Council taxes.