Brown's badly-timed sales of gold reserves cost Britain more than Black Wednesday
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail:
"Black Wednesday, which is frequently raised by Labour as an example of blithering Tory incompetence, was estimated by the Treasury to have cost the country £3.4billion.
Yesterday, the House of Lords heard of an even bigger cock-up by Gordon 'Mr Economic Hero' Brown.
Lord Glentoran, an unexciting Conservative peer, had a stinger during daily questions.
It was this: 'How many tonnes of gold have been sold from the UK reserves since 1 May, 1997; how much revenue was received from the sale of those gold reserves; what would the gold be worth at current prices?'
In other words, did Gordon Brown sell much of our gold reserves at the wrong moment? What was the grand total, spondoolicks-wise, of his galloping incaution?
Lord Davies of Oldham, a likeable Bryan, had the task of replying. He said the Government had sold 395 tonnes of gold since July 1999. The sales raised £1.9billion. At today's prices those sales would have been worth, er, £5.7billion."
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