Saturday, April 14, 2007
More Trouble at't Mill for Gordon Brown
It looks like Gordon Brown faces more trouble tomorrow from the Sunday Times who reveal that he ignored the advice of the Banlk of England and went ahead with selling more than half the country's gold reserves, when the price of gold was at the bottom of the market. The decision cost the country £2 billion.
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28 comments:
£2bn. Wow. Remind how much the tories spent propping up the £ on black wednesday? £25Bn? Now that's prudence.
Didn't we already know that? I seem to recall it didn't take long after the event for this to be revealed as a very stupid thing to do.
I do realise, however, that it's all part of the campaign! Interetsing that the Murdoch lot are so keen on snagging Labour. And that Brown is contemplating life outside politics too. (See Dizzy)
PS: It should be "More trouble at t'Mill for ....". Have you been on the Cinzano again?
Ian, actually it was £3.5 billion, but I am glad you equate the two.
"£2bn. Wow. Remind how much the tories spent propping up the £ on black wednesday? £25Bn? Now that's prudence."
Economically illiterate. The money (£15 billion rings a bell) "spent" from our foreign reserves on Black Wednesday bought pounds, which dropped in value by 15% and then recovered years later. That decision cost us at most 15% of £15 billion which is about £2 billion.
And Gordon Brown supported our ERM membership too, which made his production of a photo of David Cameron on Black Wednesday at best hypocritical and irrelevant and at worst lying.
This is really not new - there was a debate on 25th January at Treasury PQs - see http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2007-01-25b.1540.0&m=1916.
But I suppose when the press is on the rampage the idea that news in any way needs to be current is not really important.
Perhaps US Pollster Frank Luntz should be asked to repeat his Tony Blair's legacy focus group exercise for Newsnight(there's a video on BBC online news, politics section, now) with Mr Broon as the subject?
I know that this prog was filmed in Birmingham, but it is mighty puzzling that Newsnight's apparently random sample was comprised of around 90% nulab voters. Hard to imagine that level of nulab over representation these days even if they'd hunted high and low for nulabbers. Even Luntz seemed surprised by the number of nulabbers - and that they all detest Blair so much.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/default.stm
Auntie Flo'
If only it was ONLY GBs problem.
Problem is; its not our mill and we did not give it the problem, but we will be paying the repair bills for the rest of our, and our childrens lives.
Apart from that. Nice day for the time of year, dont you think?
Well it's certainly another easy and convenient stick to beat Broon with. Problem is that it entirely misses the real reason for the sale which had nothing whatever to do with 'getting the best price'. It's purpose was simply part of a concerted and ongoing G7 action to SUPPRESS the gold price as a necessary means to maintaining some degree of faith in the alchemy of the Dollar-based fiat currency system.
In that respect it is undoubtedly viewed by the UK's G7 partners as something of a self-sacrificing success - though at the time, Broons immediate motive was to get his hands on additional current account readies.
AND HASNT BROWN COST US PENSION SAVERS £100 BILLION
Brown has cost shopkeepers suppliers,and Public Houses as well as Licencees off and on a fortune in the last two weeks in staffing costs adjusting prices and ticketing because of his money grabbing tax hikes from his budget.
Even Tesco was not exempt.
Anyway the customer always pays.
All this was over the busy Easter shopping period.
Brown must never be the Prime Minister because of incompetence.
Did anyone see Broon on News 24 at the IMF, shabbyish suit unkempt and uncombed hair, looked as tho he hadn't shaved properly, and his smugnesss and for the camera "smile" when someone said they agreed with him was unpleasant .
Is that all? Cheap at the price. What is real the cost of VAT Carousel Fraud per year? Even the Treasuruy admits to £2.5bn p.a. so it has to be a lot more than that.Then there is fraud and incompetence in Tax Credits at about the same official annual cost, the countless billions poured down the drain in failed I.T. projects, expenditure on the NHS tripled to little effect,ID Card costs yet to come ... The list is almost endless. Losing £bn on gold sales because the Chancellor and his crew didn't (and still don't) understand markets, having never so much as run a whelk stall in their lives is a mere bagatelle
Is Gordo being set up as the fall guy for the May election rout, one wonders?
Maybe Tone will be around for a little longer than we suppose; long enough to effect a handover to that nice, young (and ever so pliable) Mr Miliband.
against advice again whice he tried to stop and he is out of the uk again
how odd this happens.
Surely the 'wealth of the nation' is in its intangible assets, like the knowledge and intelligence of its people ? £ 2 billion is a very small pimple on the arse of a very big elephant.
Or are you just jealous that Gordon is considerably more intelligent than your good self ?
Broon said at the start of his interview. "It was a private meeting, based on an expected event that he happened to be available."
1. Broon’s people would have been lobbying hard for this to happen
2. GB kept saying it was informal and unexpected. GB was in the US on business, I assume Bush wasn't having a day off, so how can it be informal and private. We're paying Broon to be there.
Perhaps of most important was Broon’s somewhat sarcastic comment about Dubya and Blair. 'Great admiration for what they are trying to do." The use of ‘they’ is key here. Methinks Broon will be doing something different. If he gets the chance that is and the other stories held in the chiller aren't brought out to further tarnish the Chancellor's reputation
Apologies, I meant to add the interview on BBC TV today.
"Surely the 'wealth of the nation' is in its intangible assets, like the knowledge and intelligence of its people ? £ 2 billion is a very small pimple on the arse of a very big elephant. "
It's less to do with the figure and more to do with the incompetance. Although £2 billion is far too large in my opinion.
What's your point Iain! it's not like it's real money - Gordon can kick some hard working families when he wants some more.
Nobody's come with the numbers for the PFI's yet. My understanding is that our great, great grandchildren will be paying for these services/buildings long after they have fallen down. He's like our one "A Tosser"
It was probably a great blunder, but I don't see an unambiguous way of costing it. Wouldn't you have to compare what he got for the gold with what he would have got if he'd sold it at some other time? How do you choose that 'other time'? It all sounds very subjective to me, which might explain the surprisingly low estimate of 2 bn.
This idiot runs his office as bad as I run my bank account! I can't wait till the next general election to do my bit & help vote them out! YWF
If a commodities trader had dumped gold this way, he would have had his ticket to trade pulled while they investigated why he was trying to make the market.
Did anyone short the gold price around the time it happened?
It certainly was the Sale of the Century!
apart from the fact of selling in a low market he announced the sale before he sold thus depressing the price more, unlike Australia which slipped its sale onto the market achieving full price.VERY PRUDENT
Roadrunner:
That was my point. If you want to sell a large quantity of a commodity, the sane method is to consult some experts on the market on how to sell without crashing the price.
The crash in price was offensive to a number of producer countries, such as South Africa.
Why was the stupid option used? Was somone in the know shorting gold?
Even Reuters has it in for Gordon (look at the photo) - and that says a great deal.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUKROB48540820070415
Selling gold at the lows, raiding pension funds, cosying up to celebs.
Small beer compared to the inestimable damage our dear Chancellor has done to the regulation of employment.
Making the Bank of England independent. That's it. One sound policy in ten years.
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