Who Lost The UK £7 Billion ?

It is estimated that £7 billion sterling has been lost by the premature sales of the British gold reserves when prices were at a record 20 year low.

Doesn't seem like a canny move does it?

It has been reported that Gordon Brown has been ordered under the freedom of information act to release information before 30th April 2010 about his controversial decision to sell more than half of the British gold reserves.

The Treasury has been officially censured by the Information Commissioner over its attempts to block the release of information about the gold sales.

When you review what happened there seems to be many elementary or were they perhaps deliberate mistakes?

Firstly statinh in advance that you are going to sell a substantial part of the UK gold holdings shows in my mind a complete lack of financial prudence and indeed market knowledge. Surely no one can really be that stupid?

Or is it perhaps that they had a more devious policy in mind?

By releasing, in advance,market sensitive information, you advise the market and market traders who are your future buyers what your intentions are.

They will be advised then not to chase the price up as there is a pipe line of future supply in place.

If you really want to sell any form of investment or large holding and acheive the best price the very last thing that you would do is to announce your intentions in advance unless you were a total fool. One would want to holds ones cards close to their chest so as to speak.

I have read some of the very limited information that has already been released under the freedom of information act and many of the memos do make interesting reading.

However the memos contain passages which are blacked out by marker pen so they cannot be read in full. What is it then that they wish to hide?

Clearly they are trying to hide something as they have tried very hard not to release these new papers that have to be published by the Treasury no later than the end of April 2010.

This is crucial timing as the General election is some 6 days later on the 6th May 2010.

If they have nothing to hide why do they not just simply release the information?

The decision which was taken by Gordon Brown to sell the gold when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer is generally accepted as a very bad financial mistake by the Treasury and it has been estimated that the loss to the taxpayer is nearly £7 billion.

Gordon Brown and the Treasury have continually refused to disclose the information and documentation about this sale of gold and there have been quite a few allegations that warnings from the Bank of England, at the time, were ignored.

The British public clearly are owed a duty of care and have a right to know exactly what happened and why so much of their money was lost.

The sale could become a major election issue, as it clearly casts a shadow on Gordon Brown's decisions whilst he was at the Treasury.

He is not very popular as he did a tax raid on personal, private and company pensions in that he removed their ability to reclaim the tax on their dividend income. It is estimated that this has resulted in a reduction in value in pension funds of some £350 billion as the effect is cumulative.

Dealing with the sale of gold the facts are simply that between 1999 and 2002, Gordon Brown as thy Chancellor of the Exchequer ordered the sale of 395 tons of the British gold reserves at a time when the market price was at a historic 20 year low.

The secret of all successful investing is timing as to when you buy and when you sell and he clearly got the timing very wrong as far as the British taxpayer is concerned.

The market price has increased greatly with the result that the decision has cost taxpayers an estimated £7 billion.

One of the main criticisms is the widely held belief that Gordon Brown pushed ahead with the sale despite serious misgivings from the Bank of England. It is believed that senior Bank experts were not even consulted about the decision, which was driven through by a small group of senior Treasury aides who were close to Gordon Brown.

Looking at the documents you most certainly get that impression. Many of the names that appear are now prominent figures in the Government. Ed Balls, who is now the Schools Secretary, Ed Miliband, now the Climate Change Secretary, and Baroness Vadera, another former minister, were all close aides to the chancellor of the exchequer during the relevant moment in time.

Very intriguingly is that the Treasury has been officially censured by the Information Commissioner over its attempts to stop the release of information in connection with the gold sale.

The price of gold has increased considerably since Gordon Brown sold more than half of Britain's gold reserves when prices were at a 20 year low.

Gordon Brown told the world of his plan to sell 395 tons ouof the 715 tons that were held as reserves by the Bank of England, and thereby automatically depressed the market.

This is the action of an imprudent man or perhaps some body operating a scorched earth policy.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 Joseph Stalin ordered that soldiers and civilians should start a scorched earth policy to deny the invaders basic supplies as they moved eastward. Gordon Brown is a great fan of Stalin.

On his web site Gordon Brown states that he became truly enamoured with Stalin. I quote "Later, whilst at Edinburgh University studying for my doctorate, I became truly enamoured by the works of Joseph Stalin and wrote several essays and gave seminars on the progressive policies of Stalin as well as Mao Zedong and their important and lasting contributions to the world we live in. I still have a deep admiration for Uncle Jo today"

So his deep admiration for Stalin may explain why he is so keen to destroy the British economic system. Perhaps his true loyalties are not with the ordinary working man in Britain but with the Red Flag.

Just look at the cover of the Labour manifesto and it has a very communist look to it indeed.

To summarize how the loss arose:

The Gold was auctioned in 17 sales between 1999 and 2002, with market dealers paying in the region of US $256 and $296 an oz. Since those sales the value of Gold has risen dramatically.

The market value is currently in excess of US $1,100 an oz actually being US $1,150 on Friday 16th April 2010. The proceeds from the sales were apparently invested in a mixture of currencies including the US dollar, Euros and the Yen. None of those assets have performed anywhere like the value of Gold.

In subsequent years, the majority of other countries have been buying gold again in vast quantities. It is believed that certain countries are sitting on considerable profits and indeed some of them have cashed in substantial profits having bought low and sold high at our expense.

I do hope that these documents are released so that the public can see the whole truth and nothing but the truth of this rather strange transaction.


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The Author writes many articles on politics and for further information one of his web sites is at Gordon Brown Pension