Sorry for the OT post, but there's some highly knowledgable people here, who I trust to give a reasonable answer .. ;)
I live in Doncaster, work for the council as a caretaker and am in the South Yorkshire Pensions Trust scheme, run by or for Doncaster Council. The finances of SYPT were such that even when the Icelandic banks were being downgraded and (fairly obviously to those who know, apparently) were on the road to ruin, they still deposited £10 million, a few days before the crash.
Why don't we (British councils etc) use our own (British owned) banks?
I have little clue anout finance and banking systems, other than my current account and household stuff, so a dimwits explanation would help .. ;)
Cheers.