Don’t Mention The….

The BBC carries an article on the unusual success of Iceland. The trouble for the BBC is that Iceland’s success comes from pretty much doing the exact opposite of everything the BBC has ever believed:

In the late 1980s, it was a highly-regulated country and its prosperity depended on the fishing industry. Reforms in the 1990s resulted in the deregulation of the economy and banks, opening up the financial markets and allowing the sector to expand rapidly. Its economy is now dominated by services.

"In the mid-90s Iceland still had a relatively raw economy," says Neil Prothero, economist with the Economist Intelligence Unit. "The reforms allowed the financial sector to expand rapidly, this has encouraged a strong entrepreneurial spirit in the country."

Ah yes. So, deregulation helps the economy prosper.

Because it is remote from the rest of Europe, Icelanders are encouraged to look outside their own country.

Or, to put it another way, there’s no need to be ‘at the heart of Europe’ (in any sense) to prosper in international trade.

But that’s not the biggest thing:

It is part of a strong Icelandic national identity to feel you are a match for the rest of the world, despite the size of the nation…

Because you feel you are far away you make an extra effort to take part in the rest of the world, but you maintain a strong sense of home," says Ms Birgisdottir. "There is always an umbilical cord to Iceland. We are proud of who we are….

There is a strong nationalist movement in Iceland but it not denounced like other movements in other countries.

Call it what you want. National pride. A sense of community. Unapologetic partriotism. Whatever, but it the one thing that enrages Leftists more than any other. In Britain we have the have the cultural cringe, open borders and the inevitable product, balkanisation, all cheered on by the BBC. So now Auntie penning paeans of praise to a country that’s rejected exactly the kind of multi-culti nonsense that the BBC treats as holy writ. Anyone know what ‘chutzpah’ is in Icelandic ?