From what has been reported;

when the USA's Lehmans bank went down they extracted money from their foreign branches, leaving their overseas employees with no funds, absolutly nothing.

when the British government saw the Icelandic funds being withdrawn they used the legislation available to stop it,

reasoning - I assume - that it would be far more difficult to get it back into this country than to retain it.

Although there were assurances that individuals would be able to access their money, it gradually became apparent that many organisations, charities and councils had got considerable sums of money in accounts which had - apparently - no guarentees.

My own county council of Dorset has not got the means to pay its employees this week or month unless it obtains permission to use Government money.

That is police, fire, ambulance services, healthcare - some pretty essential people.

The air around the town is one of shock and disbelief - the mood of the people is not angry, that might come later, but at the moment it seems that they can see that they are helpless to do anything but wait to find out what can be salvaged from the mess.

Anne