Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Brown Says Tories to Blame for Gold Sale!



I've been getting emails all day about Gordon Brown's comments blaming the Conservatives for the fact that he sold much of our gold reserves at the lowpoint in the market. Just watch this clip from Sky News. Incredible. The man has no shame. Selling the gold was unnecessary and most commentators at the time could not understand the government's reasoning. To blame the Conservatives for his own economic misjudgement and mismanagement tells us all we need to know about this increasingly discredited man.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Latest news from Sky:

PM Gordon Brown blames Tories for extinction of dinosaurs, 'unnecessary deaths' in Pompeii, annexation of Sudetenland, Czarist pogroms, the Peninsular Wars and not solving the Schleswig-Holstein Question.

He added: "I know it is right that Stanley Baldwin brought Bubonic Plague to the British people, and I will be eternally vigilant to ensure that Benjamin Disraeli is not allowed to set the City of London on fire again."

Anonymous said...

So what's the diagnosis? Delusional disorder? Clinical insanity?

Anonymous said...

The pathetic twerp. He cocked it up and nobody was to blame but him.

The Creator said...

Take a look here:

http://thedailybrute.blogspot.com/2008/04/why-gordo-is-never-wrong.html

Poor old Gordo.

Tries so hard.

Gets it so wrong.

And note, too, another clunking PR blunder for which, inevitably, he will be hammered.

Poor Gordo. Poor, poor Gordo.

Anonymous said...

I you assume he is bonkers then it's a perfectly rational decision.

Anonymous said...

This is the Treasury press release.

http://archive.treasury.gov.uk/press/2001/p30_01.html

"the Treasury had met its objective to sell in a fair and transparent manner while achieving value for money"

Anonymous said...

All these lies by Brown but never really challenged by Boulton. A trainee journalist could have done better....oh but then they're linked through marriage aren't they?
When will a REAL journalist, properly briefed, throw back at Brown his false claims etc.?

And why are all the media colluding with Brown on the CPI rate of inflation, with no mention of the RPI, and the 3rd index---the prices in the shops and at the petrol stations?

Anonymous said...

Please checkout the Euro flag Illuminati link.

Always a frown........Gordon Brown.

Absolutely brilliant.

Who's done this? Where can I get it?

Anonymous said...

If, god-forbid, NuLab lasted for 1,000 years would the errors in 995 years time still be the fault of the Tories?

Roger Thornhill said...

I know lying in the HoC is hard to nail down, but Slackjaw has just told a whopper, complete with BS garnish about the Euro in broad daylight.

...so we traded in lovely hard gold to buy, what? Euros? I consider the man a traitor already, but another act of treason should just mean an even slower despatch for this monumental moron.

Anonymous said...

Not sure about blaming the Tories, but this was not such a bad decision.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Obviously you can criticise the manner in which the Gold was sold; but the broad principles were absolutely sound: i) diversifying our reserves to reduce risk (it's not like we sold ALL the gold); ii) capitalising on a brilliant moment to buy Euro's which have risen about 70%+; iii) having more flexibility to intervene in the currency markets; and, iv) receiving interest on the reserves.

Obviously the subsequent rise int he price of Gold made it look stupid, but as any fule no: at any given moment the value of a good in a market is equally as likely to rise as it is to fall.

Big Andy

Ross said...

At the next election Labour should use Shaggy's "It wasn't me" as their campaign

Man in a Shed said...

If we have a whip round I'm sure we can stretch to a straight jacket for him. ( Is there any provision to remove a prime minister in the case of insanity ? Surely there should be as he has command over the UKs Nuclear weapons ! )

What's interesting is that he keeps telling these lies - it could be he has no concept of what the truth is ! ( Handy if you want to be a socialist of course ).

Just watched Brown's interview with John Snow on C4. He even manages to wind up Channel 4 news and tick John Snow off.

I wish every voter could be made to sit through that interview just before they vote - Labour would be wiped of the map.

Anonymous said...

what a total disgrace this buffoon is..

Now he says it was all the Tories fault selling the Gold at the bottom!!Accountants at Grant Thornton reckon that Culpability cost taxpayers 2 billion by selling 400 tonnes at the bottom of the market."the timing of the decision was ludicrous," said Peter Fava, then head of precious metals at HSBC. "We told them [the BoE] – you are going to push the price down before you sell it." That's just what happened, of course. Gold sank by almost one-tenth on the back of Gordon Brown's decision to announce his sales ahead of time. - "I was surprised they had chosen the auction method," adds Martin Stokes, a former vice-president at J.P.Morgan. "It indicated they did not have a real understanding of the gold market.
Clueless or not, however, it didn't matter. The Bank of England had no say in the matter. It only got to advise the government on HOW to sell the gold. The fact of the sale itself had already been decided by the Treasury. And since then, says the Times, the government has since defied calls to release minutes and emails written at the time. The Times says it's because the experts warned the government to hang onto its gold.

ps - And China, reports the Sunday Times, was an eager buyer of Britain's gold at Gordon Brown's giveaway auctions.

- "Several Asian countries including China are named by an insider as having bought the gold 'on the cheap' from the Treasury," says the paper. "The Chinese may have made more than £1 billion from Brown’s botched sell- off."

John Trenchard said...

swear to god - that HAS to be one of the most incredible pieces of political evasion and lack of responsibility since the time of Harold not worrying about the approaching ships stuffed full of Normans...


i am literally speechless.

John Trenchard said...

anonymous @ April 15, 2008 7:48 PM

please do read this blogpost by Burning Our Money

all will be explained... in summary, it was a cockup of monumental proportions. it's only because of a compliant media "lobby" that are fucking useless at their jobs that this is not as well known as Black Wednesday.

Anonymous said...

Big Andy - April 15, 2008 7:48 PM

You might want to get your facts straight before you say "at any given moment the value of a good in a market is equally as likely to rise as it is to fall."

This diagram clearly show Gordon bought at a 30 year low. He is as Guido puts it - a Moron.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/6650/aaxt7.gif

Anonymous said...

"Man"? That's a bit strong, isn't it?

Also, he appears to be wearing lipstick during the interview. The stress must be really getting to him...

Baldwin said...

I have followed the gold price since well before Labour came to power and it was obvious to me at the time that the decision to sell was wrong. The price was very low, and made lower by Brown's phased auctions.

The man is a devious incompetent.

He can't even get his words right.

Greg said...

At least he isn't manically grinning in this video.

Anonymous said...

javelin @8:21
Surely you mean sold?

Bill Quango MP said...

The full 'Gold'interview' transcripts from Sky


It was the Tories who failed to sell the gold earlier, that led me to have to ask the Treasury to sell it. Actually, now I remember, look at the minutes, it was the Bank of England who sold it.Not me at all! In fact I wasn't even there. I believe I was in Wales or Peru so it couldn't have been me. And anyway, I didn't have a key to the vault. ..Eddie George, he was the one with the key. I love gold..look.. my wedding ring its gold. I would never sell it. I never sell anything.. I don't even know what gold is.. Is it like paper?
Didn't Tony Blair sell it.. I mean he was Prime minister wasn't he. He must have been the one, he was in charge..its hot in here isn't it? Yes I remember now.Tony came in and said there's some Chinese at the door who want to know have we got any spare gold. He then went down to the vault and gave it to them..yes that's right just gave it to them!
I wasn't there, someone just told me that.. but it is true..its still hot in here I'm sweating a bit ..anyway .. Ed told me. Actually I bought gold.Yes i did, you know,when the price was really really low.. i bought erm.. 2500 tonnes of it, but I kept it a secret so the price wouldn't tumble. Its in a drawer at home.No I mean erm I put it into Northern Rock. You remember? That Bank that Dave Cameron took into temporary private ownership.. can someone open a window?

Anonymous said...

TRUMPETER'S QUIZ: Which of the following makes most sense?

A.'It was a wise decision, necessitated by the folly of the previous administration.'

B. 'It was a cock-up for which I am not to blame.'

C. 'Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy.'

Anonymous said...

This man was just on ITV news, and was asked what he is going to do to help people deal with the rising cost of food. His answers, in no particular order, but all on this same point:

"It's a global problem..."
"I come from an ordinary background myself..."
"We have raised the winter fuel allowance..."
"We have raised the child benefit allowance faster than originally intended..."

Now I see why he was so keen to give us all his 'vision'.

hatfield girl said...

Man in a Shed, Brown certainly does not have command over UK-based nuclear weapons. Be reassured, that remains firmly under United States control.

Anonymous said...

"Hindsight is a wonderful thing"

but all the other balls ups wannabe dictator Brownshirt has made are not!

The corrupt idiot needs a
good slap!

Roger Thornhill said...

Gordon announced the mass gold sales well in advance, so enabling the gold market to short sell, lower the price and snap up the bullion when it finally arrived on the market.

Gordon prudent? my painted arse!

Anonymous said...

The most remarkable thing about Gordon's woppers is not that they are so shameless but that there is nver any chance that anyone will believe them.

Anonymous said...

No, it was Mrs. Thatcher's fault. Or possibly Lady Porter.