I have to agree with Pete.

So many people slate Labour but this was a global problem. Labour could not control the world despite what the tories would have us believe!

My parents grew their business during the labour government, paid off their house and we had lots of nice holidays. I certainly wouldn't want to change that!

To be honest, I don't think it matters what government we have. We are reliant on the world economy to start picking up. Because nearly ever country (that matters) has a lot of debt, this will not happen for some time. I'd say at least another 5 years before enough debt has been cleared to allow the world to grow again.

The only difference between Labour and the Tories is how they 'divy' up our taxes.
They do not have the power alone to pull us out of recession, despite what bull**** they keep spouting.

 

Not this one again,

How can we buy from China, oh I know , let's remortgage our worthless houses lol

 

This thread has just gone boring

Yawn

 

Don't read it then!

Les

 

But you were still engaged enough to post again?

Very strange behaviour ........

 

Is talking about fuel duty increases ever exciting then?

 

They could have resisted overborrowing us into a massiv national debt in an effort to convince us that they were really running the economy well,while they were ruining it....again.

Les

 

Well said, no doubt Comrade Lewis will be here shortly.

 

While the world was borrowing to fuel growth, you would have wanted the UK to have stood against it and said that we must live within our means??

Yeah, right ......... not one Political Party would have done that - NOT ONE!

 

What was the phrase?? Oh yeah Fiscal Prudence!!

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!! What a load of tosh!!

Gold reserves, where be our gold reserves??

 

Again ...... you use hindsight to appear wise - but, you aren't kidding anyone.

 

Thats your dept, kidding people and fooling people into thinking your infact a Labour supporter. I bet you love the support for the Tory party as infact I believe your a fully paid up Tory party member!!

 

I stand to gain handsomely from the Tory party ....... but they are no good for the vast majority.

I do not support any Party, in fact.

 

Ah come on now Pete, unlike you to sit on the proverbial fence.

It must be after all you have said you don't want to admit that you are a Tory!!

 

He's a member alright.

 

Surely if the previous government had been more prudent with our cash, this would have lead to an increase in the value of our countries currency, making it our exports less attractive.

I thought exports were helping us to get through this crisis.

It is so easy to just point the finger and shout 'You're rubbish!' with no alternative solution. In fact, I dislike that more than most politicians.

 

He only sold half of them. And ironically he did it to bring down Government borrowing.

If they are the solution to all ills, then why are the Government not selling the rest now? We still have 310 tonnes of the stuff (worth around £11billion -I.e not nearly enough, even if Brown hadnt sold it it would be worth worth £22Bn)

What is this Mailite fixation with the Gold reserve? If Brown had not sold it, it is very possible we would have been in even worse shape because the borrowing level would have been that much higher.

 

Again it's not what they did, its HOW they did it.

If you want to sell gold you do so when demand is high, as you get more for it. What Brown and his clowns did, was to broadcast 6months before hand they were going to sell 11bn of gold, so this made the price drop to naff all, as the market was expecting a large sale.

They had 2 options, sell when the market price was high (any 4year old child can tell you thats better), or keep for a more turbulent time ahead. As now the price is near record levels, due to the uncertainty in the money markets due to the Euro.

Basically they couldn't organise a **** up in a brewery, even with the brewery supplying bar staff, glasses, and written instructions.

 

Mr. Brant,

I shall leave it to you to remind our Tory fans here about just how much money their so called economic experts spent in a 24 hour period in 1992 trying to prevent no more than a loss of face by trying to keep the UK in the ERM when the world, his wife and hitherto undiscovered tribes in the Amazon rain forests knew we were going to have to leave it! Oh and overnight they put base rates up to 27% too LOL!

They are all the bloody same! Useless!

 

Oh and scarily who was Lamont's political advisor at the time of 'Balck Wednesday'?

 

.

The Gold price at the time of the sale announcement was $282 per ounce, so the total reserve was not worth £11bn, it was worth around £4bn. At the time of the first sale (the actual sales were spread over three years) the price of gold had dropped by 10% due to the announcement that they were going to sell some gold off as you say. But Jim it was 10%. Not going from a potential fortune to nothing as some would have you beleive. We were in the middle of a booming market. Gold, as a commodity was low because thats what happens to commodities when there is more money to be made elsewhere.

The UK got $275 per ounce on average over the auctions. Considering the start point was $282 per ounce, where is the lost reveneue? You pick a point to sell and you sell.

If you sell your house now, you don't look back in 10 years time and say "**** If I sold now I could have got double what I sold it for".

And I ask again, what value does a load of gold sitting in a vault have to the UK tax payer? What benefit is it? Should the UK government sell the rest of the Gold now?

Plus as F1 has pointed out, the ERM fiasco cost the tax payer £3.3 bn. And that was real money, a real loss, we had to pay that back.

 

I don't doubt it Pete, but it was Labour wot did it!

Les

 

apparently we did it at a very advantageous $ exchange rate too

 

What would the cumulative interest rate have been for money owed had they not sold the gold at that time?