Published: Wednesday, 3rd February, 2010 5:43pm

And Another Thing opinion column

The president of Iceland Olafur Ragnar Grimsson knows a thing or two about finding a way through the economic morass of the last year or two.

Iceland was the prime victim of the recession with the country's stock market losing 97 per cent of its values. Unemployment rose from less than one per cent to 8.6 percent in just under two years. Iceland's three main banks clocked up $80 billion in debt, 16 times Iceland's economic production

And Mr Grimsson knows all about the sacrifices made by ordinary people in emerging from the depths of that economic despair.

But more importantly, he seems to understand, in layman's language, that you can't continue to screw the people and expect them to come up trumps.

He put it more stylishly when he told the Irish Times on Friday that western democracies had through years of extraordinary economic growth somehow forgotten "that premise of our democratic system - that we have to be guided by the will of the people".

His next words should be pinned above the desk of every Irish minister. "We have not been chosen to be masters of the financial universe.

Presidents, ministers, governments are there to serve the people, not the financial markets."

He was specifically referring to a controversy surrounding €3.8 billion owed to the UK and the Netherlands for deposits lost in the collapse of one of Iceland's three major banks. But this could, just as easily, have been applied to the Permanent TSB's decision to increase mortgage rates.

It's predicted the move will eventually be followed by the other banks. And our Government, reneging on its duty to be guided by the will of the people, is set to wash its hands of this fiasco.

In case the Government needs reminding, the people have provided a €400m guarantee for all banks, including Permanent TSB; ploughed in an €11bn recapitalisation to the NAMA banks (not including Permanent TSB) and are now expected to buy the impaired loans for €7bn more than they are worth, in the vain hope the market will pick up.

Of course, we cannot expect banks, for ever more, to operate on less than commercial imperatives. But surely, there should have been some sort of cooling off period; a respectable period of time before the banks were allowed to return to their rip-off ways.

Back in July last, Permanent TSB, before the finalisation of NAMA, upped variable rates by 0.5%.

At the time, the Government bleated that the increase reflected market realities, and that it wasn't going to interfere with the commercial operations of the banks. Well, too late! When we sold the family china to bail them out - they gave up the power to control their own destiny. When they pushed this country to the financial precipice, they relinquished their right to be regarded as competent business operations.

If we had known the NAMA would almost immediately be allowed free rein to screw their shareholders (the taxpayers), then there would have been a stronger argument to let them sink; to rip up the banking system and start afresh.

In my mind, if any of the NAMA banks has the temerity to increase variable mortgage rates, the response from the Government should be simple. We own them - let them eat cake.

Treacy and Cullen issues expose media hypocrisy

There was a strange juxtaposition this week of media self-righteousness, commercial gain and sheer neck in the media reaction to two big stories.

I'm referring firstly to the media sniping about apparent Garda moves to prevent Jean Treacy, the former lover of Eamon Lillis, from being photographed. The decision by Gardai to provide her with what appeared to be preferential treatment by bringing her to and from the court through an underground tunnel does merit scrutiny. Questions should also be asked as to whether this was a reasonable use of taxpayer's money.

But the reality is that the media fury was simply a backlash by a howling pack deprived of their prey.

The national newspapers wanted her picture simply so they could invoke lurid headlines. Yes, there was a public interest involved in the case, in the narrowest meaning of that overused term. But it was minimal.

And if the media was really concerned about matters of public interest, how can it explain its low key response to the worrying issues raised by Minister Martin Cullen when he outlined the horrendous experiences endured by himself and his family during the Monica Leech controversy.

Speaking at a seminar on defamation law in Dublin, Cullen described how elements of the media followed members of his family and how his eleven-year-old daughter was "bullied" by a journalist.

I have no knowledge of whether such incidents occurred in the manner in which they were described but I have no reason to doubt their accuracy.

But, instead of exploring the issues of media behaviour and privacy concerns, the same newspapers which bayed for blood over the Jean Treacy controversy neatly sidestepped the substantial points raised by the Minister by focusing on his regrettable choice of language.

The depth of feeling which obviously prompted a Government minister to compare his experience to daily being raped was not, to any real extent, explored.

Of much more concern to the media pack was showing the world the picture of a young woman who had an affair.