Selling Britain by the Pound

[Acrylic-bob]

Last week it was the scrapping of pensions credits, estimated to have cost the taxpayer £100 billion, that painted Gordon Brown as less than honest and a good deal less than prudent.
The Tories, when in government, were often chided by Labour for "Selling off the family silver". Brown seems to have gone one further than that. Not only has he sold off the family silver, he has sold off half the family gold reserves - 400 tons of it - as well. Against advice from the Bank of England, while both he and Blair assured Parliament that the sale took place with the advice of the Bank. The sale took place at a time when the price of bullion was at the bottom of the market, the price has since trebled, and the sale has lost the country an estimated £2billion.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1654931.ece

How anyone can believe that this bunch of fools, liars and incompetants have been good for this country is beyond me.

[g jones]

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Last week it was the scrapping of pensions credits, estimated to have cost the taxpayer £100 billion, that painted Gordon Brown as less than honest and a good deal less than prudent.
The Tories, when in government, were often chided by Labour for "Selling off the family silver". Brown seems to have gone one further than that. Not only has he sold off the family silver, he has sold off half the family gold reserves - 400 tons of it - as well. Against advice from the Bank of England, while both he and Blair assured Parliament that the sale took place with the advice of the Bank. The sale took place at a time when the price of bullion was at the bottom of the market, the price has since trebled, and the sale has lost the country an estimated £2billion.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle1654931.ece

How anyone can believe that this bunch of fools, liars and incompetants have been good for this country is beyond me.

It's also beyond me how you can possibly believe anyone else could have done better over the last decade. And how much BofE gold bullion was used to prop up the £ during the ERM fiasco?

Have a walk around Hyndburn at the investment. Look and then compare and contrast with the Tory years. TB et al may not be my flavour of Labour and criticism where due, but where's the serious alternative?

I don't agree with 'Surrey talk'. We should weigh up what's best for Hyndburn. Labour has pumped probably far in excess of £100m into Hyndburn in the last few years. How much of this funding for Hyndburn will still be there under Cameron?

[Neil]

Originally Posted by g jones

Labour has pumped probably far in excess of £100m into Hyndburn in the last few years. How much of this funding for Hyndburn will still be there under Cameron?

So why are many area's of Hyndburn still a dump?

[Acrylic-bob]

Oh come on Graham, lets have a bit of sense here. I am not really concerned at the moment with how much or how little central government has showered on the borough over the last few years, that's another discussion for another day.

The issue is Gordon Brown's fitness for the highest office in the land. And whether we can trust someone who can mishandle, mismanage and, frankly, lie to music about his achievements. The more I hear, the less impressed I become - not that I was overly enchanted to begin with. I could not care what previous administrations did or did not do. Blair and Brown formed a government promising the people of this country the highest standards of personal and fiscal probity. And it seems that every day they prove themselves incapable of reaching the standards they themselves set.

[garinda]

Apparently the Chinese bought a lot of our cut price gold bullion, and have since made one billion pounds on it.

It will be interesting to see who will spin themselves out of this one, Brown or the Bank of England, both of whom seem to be blaming the other at the moment.

[lazeeboy]

Who voted for these morons,

[Mancie]

Yes Bob, lets get back to the good old days when we had proper Chancellors the likes of Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson, Ken Clarke.. and of course that good old fellow Norman Lamont! ah those were the day's... 15% mortgage rates.. the ERM.. inflation rates at 10%.. child benifits frozen.. "if its not hurting,it's not working" was the catchprhase of the day.
The economy under this Goverment is not as good as it should be , but it's a dam site better than it ever would be under a Tory regime.. the Tories have proved themselves to be utterly incompentent at running this country's economy and god help us if they ever get the chance to do it again.

[andrewb]

It annoys me when people blame the Tories for ERM and high inflation/interest rates.. they were the ones who tried to fix it.

Look at the economy today, or 5 years ago, whenever Labour have been in power, they have built on the foundations that the Conservatives laid. It was governments previous to Thatcher that got us in the mess.

ERM would have happened under any leader, it was unfortunate that it happened under Major and the Conservatives but was certainly not a direct result of a crappy chancellor.

[Wynonie Harris]

Originally Posted by Mancie

Yes Bob, lets get back to the good old days when we had proper Chancellors the likes of Geoffrey Howe, Nigel Lawson, Ken Clarke.. and of course that good old fellow Norman Lamont! ah those were the day's... 15% mortgage rates.. the ERM.. inflation rates at 10%.. child benifits frozen.. "if its not hurting,it's not working" was the catchprhase of the day.

Mancie, A-B has raised some serious points here about the recent allegations of Brown's financial incompetence and Brown's and Blair's deceitfulness.

So, how do you respond? With a spirited defence of the Chancellor over these allegations? No, you simply do what you always do when somebody dares to criticize this government you support so fervently by telling us what the Tories did 15-20 years ago! Not really a convincing political argument, is it?

[WillowTheWhisp]

It sounds remarkably similar to HBC selling off the market hall etc. Is the trend nowadays not to have any assets?

[Ianto.W.]

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

It sounds remarkably similar to HBC selling off the market hall etc. Is the trend nowadays not to have any assets?

That idea never made any commercial sense to yours truly, sell a 25 year lease by all means but not the property. As stone bricks and mortar, are the only thing worth investing in, and only the quick fix council seem to be the ones that do not understand this.

[grannyclaret]

Quot