Icesave, which I don’t think we’ve discussed much before in this space, is Iceland’s proposal to pay back Britain and the Netherlands to the tune of $5.3 billion or so, to refund money those countries gave to depositors who had savings in an Icelandic failbank.

The plan was crafted by Iceland’s Social Democrat-Left Green coalition government, and they actually put this to a vote instead of just doing it. And that means it’s probably going to get soundly rejected:

Opinion polls indicated that a strong majority intend to reject the $5.3 billion plan to compensate the governments of Britain and the Netherlands for money those governments paid out to depositors in their countries who lost savings in a failed Icelandic bank.

“I voted no,” said Rognvaldur Hoskuldsson, a 36-year-old machine technologist, after casting his vote Saturday morning. “It makes no sense to say yes when the UK and Dutch have put a better deal on the table in talks this week. Also we have to send a message that these countries are not going to profit from this situation.”

Now I can’t imagine why they would be upset – if someone came to your house and asked you to give up a quarter of your salary to some fat-cat yield-chasers from out of town, you’d jump on that opportunity, right?

Because of Iceland’s tiny population, around 320,000, the original deal would have required each person to pay around $135 a month for eight years — the equivalent of a quarter of an average four-member family’s salary.

That’s a step too far for many ordinary Icelanders who resent forking out the money to compensate for losses incurred by potentially wealthier foreign investors who chased the high interest rates offered by Icesave.

I find myself wondering if the country of Iceland engages in any of the type of farming business that requires pitchforks, because this seems like the kind of thing that would encourage you to take one up. My understanding is that there have been two serious riots in that country in, like, ever, the first in 1949 when they joined NATO and the second last year when everything went kerblooey:

So, we’ll soon see how this vote goes, and if it’s a harbinger of things to come when the bill for other failouts comes due. Oh, and Iceland’s backup plan for when Icesave gets defeated? There doesn’t appear to be one, which means the backup plan is, evidently, to take their lumps and see what happens. Which means: they don’t get into the EU, and their country’s credit rating dives into the s**tter, but for your average guy in Iceland, big deal.

I’m still hoping for a giant benefit concert with Bjork and Sigur Ros, myself.