During a brief press conference held this afternoon (Tuesday 4^th Nov) - to allow the Chief Minister to issue his response to the comments made by UK Chancellor, Alistair Darling about the IOM at yesterday’s UK Treasury Select Committee hearing - Mr Brown emphatically said he has full confidence in the members and chief executive of the Financial Supervision Committee and the Treasury Minister, Mr Bell.

The Manx Herald had put to Mr Brown that Lord Turner, Chairman of the UK FSA, had suggested it was essentially a bad decision by the FSC and the directors of KSF (IOM) to transfer the £550m of assets to the UK division of KSF, which subsequently went into administration, and asked if he still had confidence in the FSC and Mr Bell.

Mr Brown said yes he does.

The Chief Minister, although he denied the government is going cap in hand to the UK for money, to compensate the depositors of KSF (IOM) for the ‘loss’ of the £550m, does seem to expect the UK government to ask the Icelandic government for it.

The Manx Herald wonders why the Icelandic government would agree to coughing-up when they didn’t loose the money and whether this is just another, perhaps predictable, attempt by the IOM authorities to divert attention away from their own failings.

The conference had commenced with the issue of a short statement setting out how ‘unfortunate’ Mr Brown considers Mr Darling’s labelling of the IOM as a ‘tax haven’ and his “surprising” call for a review of the ‘relationship’ between the IOM and the UK.

Mr Brown says that he has written to the Lord Chancellor, and Jack Straw, Minister for the Department of Justice, seeking clarification of the situation; particularly as an agreement reinforcing the relationship between the two countries was only signed in May 2007.

He also pointed out that as recently as September 29^th of this year another agreement had been signed in respect of tax co-operation.

A clearly upset Mr Brown added that he has also written to Mr Darling and the Treasury Select Committee to address the misinformed comments, and the apparent lack of knowledge of the IOM, and the steps the IOM has taken to distance itself from ‘bad’ ‘tax havens’.

Mr Brown said that Mr Darling didn’t seem to appreciate that the IOM has been recognised by organizations, such as the OECD and the IMF, as a responsible jurisdiction and how much money, in terms of VAT receipts, the UK gains from trade with the IOM.

Mr Brown agreed with a question from another member of the media, that the IOM’s ‘spin doctors’ are not doing enough to counteract the negative press from the Island’s detractors and to get the Island seen in a more positive light.

Unless a deal can be struck with the authorities in the UK or Iceland in the next few weeks, which is currently looking highly unlikely, the future for KSF (IOM), and its depositors, looks pretty bleak.