UK vs Zimbabwe - The same!

The UK Government made a big song and dance hands in the air indignant protest at Robert Mugabe taking the land from the white owners and giving it to the locals.

Yet, on 7th October 2008, the UK Government took £550 Million from the depositors of an offshore bank - many of whom who could not use UK onshore banks, as UK 2007 'Know Your Customer' legislation means it is near impossible to open or hold a UK bank account without being resident in the UK - and ever since have refused to give it back. Mugabe used the land his Government took to give to local peoples. Gordon Brown used the money his Government took to pay back cat charities, millionaire friends of the Labour Party and friendly public companies.

Nearly 10,000 people, mostly middle-income hardworking older people - the backbone of the UK - have lost from a few hundred pounds to their entire life savings. Most, through NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN and NOT BECAUSE OF ANY 'GLOBAL' PROBLEM but because the UK Government made a simple mistake and didnt have the guts to admit it.


I have lost count of how many people have told their MP's, repeatitly, the simple facts that;

• Many were forced to use Offshore banks as 2007, Labour Government legislation (unopposed by the other Parties) , 'Know Your Customer' legislation resulted in UK Banks requiring customers to close their accounts if moving abroad (even temporarily) and not allowing new accounts without a UK address.
  
• The UK Financial Services Authority, via the IoM Financial Services Authority (which dances to the Uk's FSA's tune), instructed Kaupthing Singer and Freidlander (IoM) to deposit large quantities of its assets in the UK sister bank Kaupthing (HF).
  
• The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, used emergency legislation (Banking Bill 2008) to close Kaupthing (HF) operations on 7th October 2008. In doing so, he transfered the accounts of the UK resident depositors to ING Direct - thereby protecting them - but left the £550 Million in the with the administrators.
  
• The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has since used a clause in his Banking Bill ('Clause 27') to repay cat charities (who told him cats may suffer), a millionaire (Dave Whelan - who told him that he would create some UK jobs) and small public companies (presumably because that is where most of his chums have their shares!).
  
• Mr Ian Pearson lied to Parliament when he said, on the 6th of November, that their was no reason British Citizens abroad could not hold UK bank accounts. A statement that left UK bankers 'puzzled'.
  
• The UK FSA lied when they denied telling KSF IoM to put huge in the UK bank. They subsequently said they may have 'advised' - a clever play on words - KSF IoM to put 'some' money there.
  
• The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, lied when he said that he protected UK citizens by taking control of Kaupthing HF. I am a UK citizen and I am on the street with a wreaked family, life, career, everything; due to the UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, protecting UK citizens.
  
• The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, lied when he said that he could not instruct the administrators to return the £550 Million - thereby resolving the unfolding disaster that thousands are caught in, overnight - as it was the job of the administrator. The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, used Clause 27 of the 2008 Banking Bill to transfer the accounts of the UK domiciled account holders to ING Direct. The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, used Clause 27 of the 2008 Banking Bill to prepay the account of a cats chanrity. The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, used Clause 27 of the 2008 Banking Bill to prepay a millionaire mate, Mr Dave Whelan. The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, used Clause 27 of the 2008 Banking Bill to prepay public companies. The UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling, refuses to use Clause 27 of the 2008 Banking Bill to repay the £550 Million conned out of the IoM and now being used to payoff cats, millionaires and public companies.
  

And why dont the opposition make a protest of this? Because they are gambling that they can win more votes by bringing it nearer an election date. No thought that thousands are suffering NOW but votes are what it all is.

Pathetic. And they call the UK a '1st World'. The names Brown and Darling will be on my gravestone.

Six months on - Life destroyed by the UK Government

I had been writing the details of the what happening after the UK Government (Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and Ian Pearson) forced the collapse of the IoM bank my families entire money was with.

Due to personal circumstances I've not been able to get online much to detail the events since October 2008.

Summary is that Penny and the kids went back to the UK at the end of November. We had to leave the house we were renting as money ran out and we could no longer pay. My visa had the money taken as one of its requirements. As such, i couldn't work legally in Australia and - rightfully - not eligible to any social safety net. I stayed in in Australia with the hope that the UK Government would realise its mistake and get the money returned to the Isle of Man Kaupthing bank quickly.

I found myself on the streets; getting food from the Salvos and sleeping some nights at the St Vincents shelters.

As the nights started to get cooler and i found myself being cold dossing down under the stars. I moved north to the Brisbane area (thanks to Lorry drivers needing company on long journeys) and have been there ever since.

After Christmas, depression started to raise its ugly head and since then I have felt myself on a steady downward spiral.

Now, as the 6-month aniversary of the disaster looms and i see the UK Government still doesnt give two hoots about us British Citizens I am numb. Whenever i wake up i feel disapointment, lethagy and an overwhelming sadness. I'm not stupid, I know full well that this is full-blown clinical depression and I'm scared. My kids have told my wife they dont want me back and i see no point in continuing with torturing myself.

I sit here in an Internet cafe (I make a few dollars washing car windscreens at traffic lights) reading the news that the IoM Government still have not got a clue what to do and the crass disregard by the UK Government about how their actions have affected people they claim to have 'saved'. It is just so unfair. I had to put all my familes money offshore as the UK banks forcibly closed my accounts when i tried to change my address to Australia, no bank would let me open an account with them without a UK address and then Alistair Darling took the £557Million his Financial Services Authority told the IoM Kaupthing bank to put in the UK.

Part of a happy, hard working and close-knit family; i am now alone, on the streets and with no future. One or two UK MP's have tried to make the Government see sense but most dont give a damn. It is a scandal of mamoth proportions yet even the UK press couldnt give a damn - maybe it is because there are no spectactular pictures or maybe its because they dont realise the extent of the tragedy. I just dont know.

I just want the pain to end. There is no hope anymore. The UK Government and Brown, Darling and the rest of the idiots are just murdering, lying thieves. And the UK public dont give a damn.

The rent!

For the previous 4 weeks - since the collapse had happened - we had kinda blocked out thoughts about the rent payments. We had already missed 2 payments (rent was payable fornightly) and while every now and then i'd think about it and panic, i was also getting good at just blocking it out and getting on with things. I felt guilty for not contacting the agents and letting then know what was happening, but perhaps fear of what they might do had stopped me.

Now Meridith, the estate agent, was knocking on the door. I cowardly told Penny to get the door, but guilt forced me to stand alongside her as we both answered the door.

The next two hours were hell. We explained everything and Meridith was very sypathetic, but the bottom line was that unless we paid up by the end of November we would be out. It was not Meridith's home and she had to work for the good of the owners. When she left, the family had a group cry. Me and Penny tried so hard to keep a stolic front for the sake of the kids but we were collapsing and self control was draining quickly.

That evening Penny and myself made the dreadful decision for Penny to take the kids back to the UK, for their safety, while i stayed on in Australia. Part of my Visa requirements was the money we had behind us; money we no longer had. My Visa was now invalid and any check by the authorities would mean it being revoked. Not only that, but i was not allowed to leave to extended periods of times for the first two years and we had no idea how long this would stretch out for.

Penny would leave with the kids, and go and stay with her parents. They had spare couple of rooms and while not rolling in money would be able to support the family for a while.

Basics start to run low

Money had started to run out very very quickly. Maybe i should not have cut it so fine between the startup cash be brought running low and bringing the savings bulk over, but we so wanted to have been able to leave it in the UK. Looking back, hindsight is a great thing, we should have brought it straight over, but then we were not to know that the UK Government would bungle things so completely.

I was still working night and day on the website with the guy who knew Drupal. More people were joining and the stories coming out were real tear-jerkers; the UK Government really had screwed up big time.

It may seem callous, but i had taken to wearing ear-plugs to shut out the sound of my family crying. I needed to concentrate and try to get this mess sorted and the tears from the kids - who were quite simply terrified - was a real distraction. Penny was doing all she could with them, but they could sense the fear and panic in us.

One of the first defining moments was when the toiletries started to run out. Things that you take for granted like loo role and soap, when not there are very noticable. Food was still not a real problem as we had had a well stocked larder of staples, the neighbours had filled the fridge a couple of times and i was getting quite adept at foraging. But as the sanitaries started to run out I was forced to start raiding public toilets for paper and soap. Taking a jamjar for the soap and plastic bags for the paper, i'd walk round the local loo's getting rolls and liquid soap. It was soul destroying; how could life have got so bad so quickly.

evening i just sat down on a park bench and cried uncontrollably; i had a massive and terrifying urge to just throw myself off a bridge or something. It was terrifying as i had never ever had thoughts like that; i had always been a happy contented soul who enjoyed work and loved his loving family. But waves of dispare and intense sadness wafted over me. Was i wallowing in self-pity? Should i just pull myself together and get on with it? I just didnt know.

The family fire-sale

I continued to work on the website with the guy who knew Drupal. Hosting transferred to him as it would make it easier to manage. More and more people were starting to post comments (nasty vindictive ones as well as cries for help) and it was starting to become apparent that the IoM Government didn’t have a clue what to do. With a populated of just 80,000 their political leaders are not going to be the strongest leaders in the world (although by that measure the UK should have much better leaders - across all parties - than the spineless self-serving liars it has) and so things didn't look good.

Penny, with the kids helping, started to get a Garage Sale together. The kids could keep three of their favourite toys each and the rest would have to go. This was just tearing us apart; how could a decent parent take kids toys away from them for no good reason? The family was on a terminal slide and both Penny and me knew it.

After the sale, we would take the rest of the stuff to the local recycle depot and start to prepare for Penny and the kids departure. The car (a beaten up Ford Focus) would have to go but we would leave that until the last moment - as usual in western society, public transport cost means it is a domain for those with disposable income.

The kids were getting more and more upset so Penny would have to go to her folks sooner rather than later. D-Day would be coming very shortly and it was just killing us.

Money starts to run out

Money started to run low very quickly for the family. Before the UK banks had forcibly closed our accounts we transferred small amounts (as they took huge commissions and therefore wasn’t economical to do it that way) to help with setup expenses - food, rent, transport, clothes, school kits etc... When that stopped - after the accounts were forcibly closed - the clock started ticking; i had transferred a couple thousand pounds to tied us over but it was only a small amount, as i knew it would only be 3-4 weeks maximum before the savings money was either available or had been transferred. As soon as the money was taken (by Mr Darling of the UK Government) we stopped ALL spending. Around here at this time of years lots of fruit trees in the parks are dropping and a number of local shops waste vast quantities of food that is out of date. At night I'd started getting food from the bins and fruit from the trees. It felt shameful, but hearing the kids saying they were hungry was worse. We couldn't go to the social here as we didn’t qualify (why should Aussies pay for someone who has just arrived and never paid a dollar in Australian tax?!) and charities are obliged to inform the authorities. The neighbours had found out very quickly from the kids chatting to kids and clubbed round to fill the fridge with food – and even a 6-pack of beer! – to help out. While a God-send, it was sheer humiliation; with all the local neighbours in the living room I had to stand and fully explain what had happened. All the sympathetic noises were very ‘nice’ but I just squirmed; I/we had always paid our way through life and had never had to be dependant on anyone else. I just wanted the ground to open up and swallow me up.
Penny and myself sat down that night and getting slightly hammered on the beer and wine (another neighbor had brought a bottle of Shiraz for us) we made the dreadful ‘default’ plan. A lot of tears were shed that evening. We were surviving on my scrounging but we couldn’t carry on like this – for the safety of the kids more than anything – and the rent would become a real problem. Penny and the kids would return to the UK, using the last of our money and any we could borrow from her parents. Penny’s parents were not well off but had said we could have a couple of thousand pounds if needed. I would not return with them. It was a very hard decision but we could not afford to fly me out as well and Penny’s folk didn’t have much room. My parents did not know about our situation and, on the advice of my brother - my father was not in good health , we did not want to stress them. It also meant that if we did get the money back before Christmas (we didn’t believe the IoM and UK Governments would allow British families to suffer so much once they found out what was really happening and that we had had no choice in using offshore banking) then the Visa would not be invalidated by my leaving the Country. I would just have to live rough. I’d done it as a grubby backpacker twenty years previously, so could do it again; wouldn’t be pleasant but I certainly wouldn’t die of hunger and St Vincents could supply a roof some nights. It was a miserable and sleepless night. We loved each other so much and neither of us wanted this, but there was nothing we could do, the kids safety had to come first.

Ozforex

The weekend and Monday didnt bring any promising news. The IoM and UK Governments were firmly sticking their heads deep in the sand and i was obvious that this would not be quickly resolved.

I phoned Ozforex, fighting to keep back from breakdown on the phone, explained the situation (to which the person on the other end said he was aware of thankgoodness) and said that I would have to 'close-out'. He agreed and said that Ozforex would do the reverse exchange; I had a terrifying 20 minutes waiting on the phone - I could be liable for thousands of pounds here, it was just sheer terror. He came back to me, luckily for me the pound had fallen again and Ozforex were able to exchange back with no loss. I thanked the guy, hung up and just broke down uncontrollably.

That was the first time my wife or kids had ever seen my cry. Both kids joined in the wail, but Penny was able to keep it together. What the hell was happening? The family was falling apart and there was absolutely nothing I could do. I have never been a control-freak but always liked to think I could help bad situations. But this was so very different; I had got us into this mess and couldnt do anything to help. Yet again I had to run to the loo and be physically sick.