I hope the Poll Tax riot that destroyed the tories isn't the last politically motivated show of strength from the middle class*.


*(Last to know. First to pay)

Mike, Medway, Kent

nick leeson was prisoned for loosing 800million .. and this is alot worse .... can anyone see where i am going with this ?

aamir, manchester,

he should be stripped, tarred and feathered and set loose to fend for himself in central London.

kerry bates, portland ,

My question has to be does the BOE now have a toxic position in respect of the gold leasing programme?

I suspect that the remainder of the reserves have been leased out to various bullion banks and remain in default. As a UK resident I just hope that the custodial, ie; that in ownership of other nations has not been leased as well. Something is afoot though with Brown pleading with the IMF to put some gold onto the market and the Rothschilds pulling out of the London gold pool after two hundred years.

Jonathan, London, England

Gordon Brown is to face questions in parliament -
How about asking Gordon Bown how much of the country’s remaing gold reserves have been leased out?
Does the Bank of England have any of the country's
remaining gold reservses in their vault at this time?
I bet the Chanellor would prefer to not to reveal the answer to this!

takai, Santa Ana, USA/CA

Gold is supposedly a "barbarous relic" (Lenin thought it was good only for lining the loo, we are informed.) It just sits there, not even earning interest. Neither does the fire extinguisher, but only the worst fool rents his out for a little extra income- and gold is the ultimate fire-extinguisher. The great philanthropist George Soros could not have single-handedly waged war against the British pound and earned for himself the equivalent of several million ounces of the stuff if the British had maintained enough gold with which to defend their own currency. But the Queen smiles sweetly at the world from the face of it and promises to reimburse the bearer "one pound" for it. A pound of what?

Robert, Houston, Texas

I'm really glad this is out in the open. Selling half of our gold right at the bottom of the market is one of the main reasons I personally rate Gordon Brown as a terrible Chancellor. Gold is real money, not fake paper money which can be inflated to oblivion and destroy the spending powere of people's savings. Brown should resign over this.

Nick Hatton, Letchworth,

Deport this person to Scotland where he can wreck the scottish economy. While your at it, deport all the scots in the present government and ban them for life from the UK.
They are all SNP 5th columnists, and Blair is as culpable knowing what they are doing to the UK.
How many more huge blunders does this lot need to make before something is done about it...?

Dave, Groningen, Netherlands

Great comments, everyone!

The "comments" after the articles are usually more interesting than the original Times articles and this discussion is no exeption.

Arthur Gibson, Melbourne, Australia

The man's grasp of the most basic of economic principles is zero. He's a buffoon of monumental proportions. And now he's going to be PM. God help us.

Hold an enquiry about this gold and get rid of the useless twit.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

There isn't enough information to say whether he was right or wrong. We don't know why he did what he did, nor does the article really say that the Bank was opposed; merely it was annoyed at not being consulted.

"The gold sell-off is seen in the City as Labour’s equivalent of “Black Wednesday”, "

There is no equivalent, black Wednesday represented a massive failure of government policy (shadowing the ERM ). It caused massive economic damage because interest rates were forced so high as to damage the economy. Brown merely lost a lot of money, but until we have a clear reason for why the gold was sold then, we cannot judge. Who knows, maybe a Tory chancellor would have sold then too.

Neil Murphy, cromer,

The rogue trader lost $1.6 billion and he was imprisoned. Our chancellor lost £2 billion and he wants to be the next prime minister. What a case of unfair justice! Is the chancellor simply not good enough or why has he made so many mistakes in his judgements? It is also quite glaring that the chancellor neither listens nor learns from those that have superior understanding and knowledge of the economy. I can only imagine what would have been said to him if this was the apprentice on tv.

Femi, Essex, England

The prudent Chancellor. Yeah. Right. having messed up the economy since 1999 when he started to hammer the middle earners to pay for his mistakes, Brown has hidden behind his bullying spin machine.
Brown and New Labour are a busted flush. The teenager Milliband, a Brown Noser (collective term for friends of Gordon) won't save them.
Just give us a government with common sense that does what we want it to do.

ian, bath,

If you look at Gordon Brows record the one thing that he has achived is the increasing of MPs pension by 25% in 1998 after deciding to decimate, our hard earned pensions, in 1997.

As with Tony Blair/Gordon Brown who said no one should have a pension pot of more than £1,000,000, but it is alright for him to have one of £3,000,000+. This is someone who is suppose to represent the small person. Heaven help us of they starts to represent the BIG person.

Just look at Neil Kinnoch and his wife who went from nothing to a fat Euro salary and he was charged with stamping out crime within the Euro parlament.

DBKK, Cheam, Surrey

The decision also soured relationships between the UK and the other central banks in Europe who had to mop up the mess caused by this precipitate decision by Gordon B.

neil robertson, Dundee, Scotland

i'd like to know why the only time we can hold politicians to account is at a general election, Surely the people of the U.K have some form of legal right to demand ( through lawyers etc ) that when such a calamity in finances occurs the guy responsible can be held to account? No wonder people are leaving in there droves, we the people have become far to pasive, what happened to standing up for good honest fair values instead of this corrupt spin machine we see. Im not an idealist, the 21st century U.K is going backwards - values , standards , beliefs and attitudes and the sooner i find a desert island the better!

mark franklin, manchester,

Gordon Brown couldn't run a piggy bank, so let's hope he's not let loose on running the UK.

But then it wouldn't really matter, since it's not his money he's losing, its ours.

E I Addio, buenes aeres, argentina

All of this was pointed out by Pewkatchoo in 2002 (revised and updated in 2006) including the pensions debacle. See www.pukiemon.com and the story behind it at www.pukiemon.com/pensions_story.htm. It has taken the mainstream press an awful long time to come down on this chancellor, so I think there must be a reason for that.

pewkatchoo, glasgow, UK

A country's gold reserves represent a resource that secures it's sovereignty, and independence.
The worst thing that can happen to Britain is to have Brown as Prime Minister. He is a clown. (unfortunately Cameron cannot be trusted either). No government is better than bad government. It is the same everywhere - stupid, image centric, politicians who will take pop-stars seriously, but who won't listen to qualified, capable advisors in case the advice might not suit them. Same here, same in Britain, same everywhere....
Never mind Brown's entry criteria for the Euro, everyone in Europe thinks he is an idiot, who is a danger to his own people. The British people can reflect positively on this-imagine if he had been prime minister for the last ten years....

Allen, Kildare, Ireland

I have in my possession a letter from Peter Stoppard, the then Editor of The Times, claiming that this paper's reporting will remain unbiased despite it backing New Labour in the 2001 elections.

Since then Anatole Kaletsky's support for Brown has been unwavering, even through the recent Treasury crisis surrounding his theft from our pensions.

What is happening? Is The Times preparing to cross the floor in the upcoming elections? If so, will someone please tell Mr Kaletsky; he may embarrass himself even further and scribe a defence of yet another disgraceful Brown decision made on the back of narcissistic tendencies and an arrogance that still attempts to rebut criticism.

Edwin Thornber, Bucharest, Romania

For those who want to better understand the reason behind the sales, I suggest you read this:
http://www.gata.org/node/104

Quote:
"The United States is desperate to maintain the privileges associated with the global Reserve currency but has recklessly disregarded the responsibility of guarding the Dollar’s purchasing power. It has called upon allies to support the Dollar either by selling their Gold Reserves as shown in the USA table or by buying US Debt paper as the Asian Central banks have done. They have now reached a dead end. Those who once had Gold Reserves now have empty vaults and the Asians now realize their vaults are full of irredeemable debt."

Jon, Tokyo, Japan

Myopia, incompetence, silly walks. The damage done to the UK's remaining bullion holdings was greater than the proceeds of the ill-timed sale. What a supreme blunder. However, to be just a bit fair, the original purpose of the gold reserve was to be useful for just such a rainy day. Too bad about the timing. Gold will continue to flow from weak hands to strong(er) ones. The decline of the West is alive and well.

Andrew Omansky, NYC, USA

The complaint against Gordon Brown is political and not supported by facts. I have a posting on the subject on www.thegoldwatcher.com. If Britain lost money on gold it was more because Thatcher did not sell at $850 in 1980. Brown made a reasonable decision to rebalance the country's finances. In hindsight the timing was bad. But at the time his decision was not ill advised

john katz, london, u.k.

Only backs up what my dad always said - anyone who votes Labor is stark, raving, bonkers! Many of them however won't even realise the implications of this blunder as they are too financially illiterate to understand. God bless the masses.

Graham, Washington DC, dc

The private pensions robbery and the gold sale losses have now at last been exposed, so let's look at another Brown disaster, In 2002 he auctioned the 3G mobile phone licences for £22billion. this huge sum of money had to be paid by the mobile phone industry and of course passed on to the consumer in higher phone bills. I wonder how much less mobile costs would be today if Brown hadn't been so greedy.

mark cooper, southampton, uk

Imagine if this guy had had to make provision for his own pension out his wages. He is the worst money manager ever! He knows how to sell off his assets and borrow more to spend, spend, spend! He leads the band of people who are in personal debt. The folk who receive all the benefits that Brown has handed out should start tightening their belts because it will have to stop as the country is bankrupt and the World Bank ain't going to be funding his social policies and pay for more pen pushers to be employed by the government.

Helena, Milton Keynes, Bucks

This is another failure of the Blair Government, and it shows Mr. Brown is completely unfit to become Prime Minister when Mr.Blair goes.

David Rumsby, London, United Kingdom

Why on earth, in this age of enlightened scientific progress, are governments tying up collossal amounts of capital in one of the world's most unproductive assets? Surely the time has come for us to leave the lucre where it belongs, miles underneath the ground?

Tom, Edinburgh, UK

Another perfect reason that politicians should have as little as possible control and influence over other people's money. Taxes should be lovered to a minimal level. Just to fight crime and support basic social and healthcare net.
Comparison with a hedge fund manager is just plain nonsense. Nobody is forced to invest into a hedge fund. But everybody has to pay taxes.

John, Toronto, Canada

curious to know WHO bought that gold?

may be someone who is perhaps pushing for him to become PM ? what else is to sell ?

funny thing always he talks about EURO, in fact 40% was invested in $ which has declined another 20% and Yen which also declined....dahhhhh...

AJ Down, Chicago, IL, USA

Anthony Brennan of Colchester. How very astute of you. It hadn't occurred to me but Brown's economic miracle is, of course, based on flooding the country with paper money in ever increasing quantities and buying goods on credit, using the inflated house prices and low interest rates to borrow. We all know that inflation is nothing like what the government states but around 8% to 10% per annum according to your shopping basket. The price of gold would highlight this fact so it had to be suppressed. Another of Nu-Labour's economic miracles.

Richard, Alicante, Spain

This is another example of the complete shambles demonstrated by G. Brown. He is supposed to be the 'greatest Chancellor in history'; on the contrary, this combined with his theft of pensions, 'he is the biggest burglar in history'. He should be sacked for his bloody minded attitude towards the British people. He is a complete incompetent.

B.Garvie, Reading, UK

I wouldn't trust Gordon Brown to go to the local shop for a loaf of bread. He'd buy milk and lose the change on the way home.

We've had a decade of his fiscal mistakes all designed to keep him looking good while he waits for promotion into Blair's job.

Charles H, London, UK

The Media has been a lap dog for this Chancellor including The Times. So many people were very angry with the decision to sell off gold at the time but all you guys in the media kept saying how clever Brown was because he gave the Bank of England independence. Not true. the Bof E committee are his place men and women and they were not asked if he should sell Gold . They were only there to monitor inflation. The truth is out about this guy who is not so smart and has a hidden agenda.
He does not like the English.

John , Lisbon, Portugal

Just another example of incompetence by our closet communist goverrnment.

Frank Wilson, Plymouth,

I seem to recall when Gordon Brown was first reported to be preparing the gold reserves. At that time it was revealed that the intention to purchase Euros as a replacement 'reserve'. It seems to me that Britain has been lending the Euro much more support than it readily deserves since this goverment was first formed. I'm sure many more questions will need to be answered in the near future. The truth will always out.

Brian Griffiths, Bethesda, Gwynedd

Today gold is at $685 = £350 per ounce.

Check out www.gata.org for all the facts on gold.

Some there think that gold will reach:
$1,000 = £500 per ounce
or
$3,000 = £1,500 per ounce.

If this happens then how much will the UK treasury have lost?

Dave, Exeter, England

Why does every comment here believe this to be a mistake. The cause and effect are evident so it is unlikely to be a mistake more a deliberate attempt to keep the price of gold down. Even the method of sale (upfront declarations of sale of vast quantities of Gold was guaranteed to depress gold prices). The question is why was it the Chancellor's policy to depress the price of gold?

The simple answer is that the price of gold is an unbiased benchmark indicator on the value of fiat (ie paper money). The much lauded economic proficiency of this Government has been based not on sound economics but on financial trickery. The gold price is a clear indicator on such trickery.

The reality is the last 10 years the story has been economic properity. The reality is that by vast increases in the money supply (up on ave 13% pa for the last three years) and China's deflationary exports, and by manipulating inflation numbers has masked an economic reality.

Anthony Brennan, Colchester,

Only two billion? That is only a years salary for some hedge fund traders.I know which economic absurdities should be concerning us all.

Keith R. Pirelli, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

Obviously today it looks a best decision to hold your assets, especially commodities, but a decade ago the global situation was very different. There wasn't a huge outcry because nobody knew any different.

Justin, Wuhan, China

Everything this creature does is underhand. The stealth taxes and the sale of gold fall in to the same category. They are not things the ordinary man never sees or can relate with. Brown thought his actions would go un-noticed.

The next thing is commitment to a 50 year Triodent replacement nuclear base in Scotland. When Scotland goes independent they will want rent. He is setting up the Scottish economy to be finianced by England for the next 50 years.

Wakey Wakey England........

Peter, Bristol, England

Brilliant,what with this and the pensions fiasco ,he would have been fired from a private company long ago.But he gets to keep his job,just shows what standards the govenrment set themselves.
Should make a perfect Labour prime minister,whith his great powers of judgement.

Iain Milligan, Dubai, UAE

It will be intersting to see just how much coverage the BBC give to this.

Pete , Chester, England

Isn't hindsight wonderful- for journalists. Unfortunately, politicians of every hue have to make decisions- rightly or wrongly, with or without "advice", which can only proved to be correct with the benefit of hindsight.

david, bexley, kent

Eric: "He sold the gold, did he?. So what - Thatcher had already sold everything else, she just got sacked before she got round to the gold."

Eric, Thatcher sold the nationalised industries to us - we profited; Brown's sold off OUR gold in bulk lots to foreign banks and foreigners. If Brown were a poker player using his own money, he'd be down to his underpants in no time.

John Gibson, Birmingham, UK

Mr Brown is a Labour party politician. And Labour Party politicians know NOTHING about financial competence. They never have and they never will.

Anthony, London,

The position for Brown on this matter is likely to get much worse as gold rises higher and higher in ensuing months, maybe eventually into the thousands of dollars, and will remain as a constant symbol of his own ineptitude to haunt him.

Kevin Rabin, Taipei, Taiwan

Regarding the Brown gold debacle report, David Miliband did not write on the DEFRA web-site:
“The report confirms our concerns that the window of opportunity to avoid dangerous prime ministerial change is closing more quickly than previously thought. It is another nail in the coffin of the ABG deniers and represents the most authoritative picture to date, showing that the debate over the science of Gordon Brown being a good Chancellor is well and truly over."
.

Jonathan Spencer, Croydon, UK

I thought the bank of England was independant to make it's own decision's

Lynden Hall, kettering, England

I have never liked the guy but it's interesting that all this bad news comes out while he's going for the PM position. Now I may be imagining things but this should tell all the labour voters more about the party itself

John, Salford, England

Gordon Brown has a thing against gold. It's been well publicised that he has also been heavily campaigning for IMF gold to be sold to settle third world debt.

Jon, Brussels,

Hindsight is a wonderfull thing ,but just were all these gold experts when Brown was selling our gold.
Still most of the money lost is still chicken feed when compared to that lost by Major and Lamont, best to accept the fact that most of our parlimentry representatives dont care how much tax payers money they waste as they can always get more for themselves whilst leaving us poorer.
Maybe we should demand a law be brought in to make them personely responsible for the loss of tax payers money then they might sit up and take more interest in what the rest of the country has to say.

Dave, Mold, Flintshire

You need to watch what Brown does NOT what he says. On the pensions "simplification" a new 55% tax was introduced for those who save enough to retire. However MPs are exempt from this tax..Animal Farm re read might help the understanding on policy Can this man be trusted with a bigger job?

M Forbes, Auckland, New Zealand

This also brings up the question of what happened to all the money Brown greedily grabbed out of the sale of telephone licenses?
All of us are still paying a premium on our bills for that theft and we have seen no return on the money.

Minnie Ovens, Los Angeles, Ca, USA

Did anybody know he gave £25 million pounds of our money to help open the euro central bank in germany , even though it was of no use to the uk. YES, that was our money he gave away.
phil

phil, grimsby, england

Just to correct George Edwards, the euro has reached 72p, back in May 2003, and he'll be relieved to know that the gold sales were around the time it was 60 to 66c, so the Treasury will be showing a profit on that. It's the dollar that has been the disaster.

On gold sales, it must be remembered that this basically is with hindsight. Back in 1999 most analysts were predicting lower gold prices, and indeed most of the world's mining companies were selling enormous quantities of gold forward, ie they preferred to take the price then than risk getting lower prices later.

The real failure was Geoffrey Howe or Margaret Thatcher, who could have sold at $600/oz back in 1980/1981, and made huge profits that could have been invested in bonds, which would have made enormous profits again.

James, Londno,

Many of us complained when gold was sold off, and we complained just as bitterly at the attack on pensions. However many elements in the media have for years continued to extol Brown as a competent Chancellor.

All he has done since he came to power is tax and spend like a typical Labour politician. However the worst thing of all is that this Chancellor has taxed consumer debt. Most of the £1.3 trillion that's owed in mortgages etc has disappear ed into the Chancellors coffers.

But the real nightmare will be when all of the PFI commitments and the public sector pension liabilities are honestly calculated. That will be another £trillion or more.

I can't imagine this man taking anybody's advice. Some Prime Minister! Oh for independence from Scotland.

James, Newcastle,

Far from being a suitable candidatefor the Premiership, Brown should resign as Chancellor for the pensions theft, the gold theft and the yet to be fully disclosed PFI. Some legacy!
All in all it has been rather a bad week for the Browns both with and without an 'e', i.e. MOD, BP and our dear Chancellor

J. C. White, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

The only reason that Brown got away with it at the time was because most of the media and that includes the Times was so in love with Blair and New Labour that critisism was vertually unheard off. Our media has got a lot to answer for by clinging to the shirts of the likes of Blair and Brown and not holding this Government to account over the past ten years. Now when things are going pear shapped the incompentence and deciet of this Government is slowly being revealed

chris, woodbridge, suffolk

The money did not end up in the Treasury. Prudence/Renewal Brown allegedly used the money from the sale of the UK Gold Reserves to purchase the US Dollar, the EURO and Japanese YEN. If it was the US Dollar then I fear we have lost even more over the last 5 years. Who said the man was a good Chancellor?

Kenneth Armitage, Suffolk, England

This is just another example of Gordon Brown's meglomania.
This government has destroyed the pensions system and sold the " family jewels" at rock bottom prices.How Brown could even be considered for the job of Prime Minister is beyond me.

James Currie, London,

So the family silver has been sold off on the cheap too !
I think this says all that is necessary about Brown's alleged economic miracle.

Roger, Rock, Cornwall, England

The furore this stirred up at the time quickly died down. There are some interesting possible effects the gold sales might have had. As significant supply to the market around a cyclical low, it will have supported a sound technical base for the long subsequent advance. It may also have helped postpone and slow the pace of that rise, giving it greater technical strength. Looking at the counter-party effect, insofar as the gold price is an indicator of inflationary expectation and level of confidence in paper money, that would have helped set the scene for a sustained asset-price boom (such as that in residential domestic property), having greatly slowed its initiation. With deflation in consumer goods prices from far eastern supply, and falling food prices from over-production, that has contributed to the dream scenario of an economy fuelled by consumer borrowing against house equity prolonged beyond expectation. It’s said there’s no gain without pain...

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

I hold a six figure sum of gold - I feel morally obliged to keep as much of my assets outside of this hideous global banking system we have. I was buying gold just as Brown was selling it - and it just goes to show is some minnow like me could read the signs that gold was definitely at the start of a bull run, fuelled by monetary inflation, then Brown certainly knew what he was doing. I for one can't wait to see this scandal go public. How come someone can lose £2bn and not have to account for it? Simon

Simon Ralli, Leeds, West Yorkshire

He sold the gold, did he?. So what - Thatcher had already sold everything else, she just got sacked before she got round to the gold.

eric, harrogate, ukHe

Life is full of winners and losers. Some of us, the winners, invested in gold and gold shares shortly after this debacle. It's to the losers, like Brown, that we owe a debt of gratitude.

John East, Lincoln, UK

the greek democracy had a cup of hemlock for people like Brown to prevent further carreer.

alex, saarlouis, germany

Gold is the bane of the government because it represents honest money, so it must be suppressed art all costs.

Kevin Rabin, Taipei, Taiwan

The gold price has been manipulated for years by the Central Banks to try to show fiat currencies in a good light, and stop people rushing to gold as a safe haven. Brown is involved in this, and that is why he sold off gold at such low prices hoping to drive it even lower. The Bank of England does not come away from this, however, with clean hands.

Kevin Rabin, Taipei, Taiwan

ADScott: spot on. Our governments and regulatory bodies make the most elementary (deliberate?) 'mistakes' that are obvious to interested amateurs, and the media say nothing. Then, five, or seven or ten years later - or after some related scandal that occurs as a consequence - the story blows up and becomes an event, way too late to do anything meaningful about it. Recently, I have read stories about "20-20 hindsight" with regard to the subprime crisis in the US. But you didn't need 20-20 hindsight to see the subprime disaster building in the US, just as you don't need it to see the same problem (even bigger, if that is possible) building in the UK over the last few years. When it all goes pear-shaped, the media will have a field day, but they have been utterly irresponsible during the credit bubble and must take their own share of the shame - so on most issues of the day. G.

Goel, Edinburgh, Scotland

This was seen at the time I seem to remember as in order to give the BoE funds to pile into the Euro to please Blair who was always rabidly pro-Euro. If indeed the funds were invested in the Euro at 72p, then we have lost another 5%, as the wretched European currency has never reached the "Official" EU rate against sterling.

George Edwards, harrogate, UK

Selling the gold was a political, not an economic, decision. Brown wanted to let the Americans know that he was totally on their side, like Blair. The USA has long since held a crusade against gold.

He could not care a fig for the interests of the country. He was only looking to show to the Americans that he was a good poodle too.

Just like the idiotic policies of the US in the Middle East, their policies regarding gold are unwinding rather fast. $1000/ounce gold is just a matter of months away.

Alfred, Ryde, Isle of Wight, UK

I am no markets guru but even I could see that gold was cheap at the time. However governments are always making this type of mistake. The gold was sold at market price and the money ended up in the Treasury, so no story.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

As someone who has long argued for the stabilising quality of gold in investment portfolios, and who was buying gold shares with both hands when Brown was selling bullion, I am amazed that the press has taken this long to catch up with our truth-hating Chancellor.

But I believe you are still missing the real story. The financial markets were facing meltdown in the wake of Long Term Capital Markets debacle and the price of gold was soaring. The solution as seen by the US Treasury was to supress the gold price through central bank selling. Rubin looked for volunteers ( the US could not legally sell its gold) and up popped Poodle Brown, ever eager to satisfy the powers in Washington DC with his Leninist views on the value of gold (something only good to line the walls of lavatories.) The British taxpayer is once again paying the cost of its socialist masters. The story has been well documented over the years by the Gold Anti-trust association in th US.

William Thomson, Manila, Philippines

In 1999 what was as incredible as the sale of half the country's gold at an average price of USD272 per ounce, was the total lack of criticism in the financial media. At that time, the estimated cost of producing an ounce of gold was in the region of USD250 per ounce. Furthermore gold had been in a long bear market contrived by the major central banks to protect their fiat currencies. Only a fool would sell gold in such circumstances. Perhaps the financial media will in 7 years time pick up on the fact that the Federal Reserve Bank suspended issuing M3 figures in March of 2006, i wonder why?

ADScott, Bangkok, Thailand

Gordon Brown rightly deserves the title of "the rogue chancellor"--
because you have seen nothing yet ! Look at UK's property market!
I would make a lot of money by taking opposite positions
of Brown"s decisions. All traders should take note.

Ian, spore, spore

Soros should have bought the gold, then he would have made another billion on the bank of England.

Mike, Long beach, us, ca

Gold and silver are honest forms of currency.

The thought Mr. Brown could become the Prime Minister of the UK gives me the willies.. This bullion blunder should disqualify him from holding his current office..

There is no reason why we will not return to a gold and silver standard of currency. In the meantime though, poor fools without some form of hard currency holdings are going to become impoverished by the rampant currency debasement game some central bankers see fit to play..

The remonetization of gold and silver in the world currency system is a certainty.

Yours in distrust of paper currency...

Jeremy P Vancouver British Columbia Canada

Jeremy, Vancouver, Canada

Anyone with half an eye and half a back side wouldn't have pulled off such a financial blunder --- easiest the most stupid move in the last 200 years, and this guy could end up as Prime Minister? No wonder the Western World is in the mess it's in! I"m a grade 10 drop-out and I would have told Brownie Boy that he should be buying gold instead of selling it. Needless to say, I have profitted hansomely having invested in junior gold shares

Eric, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada

Why has it taken so long for the country to wake up to this scandal. Anyone with half a brain and certainly all business people of my aquaintance were of the view that the selling of the nation's gold at that time was an insane act which in the medium to long term would cost us dearly. Brown has been like a runaway train, taking the nation's wealth and the taxpayer's money on an endless downhill ride, answerable to nobody.

B.J. Carroll, Hong Kong, China

You're not alone. The boobs in my government (Canada) sold off our gold years ago, before Brown. We're so proud to be first in anything!

Joseph, Toronto, Canada

I'm no great fan of Blair, but I'd rather have ol' "Teflon Tony" as PM than Mr Gordon "Stealth Taxes" Brown. His raid on our pensions was carried out despite him receiving expert advice to the contrary, and the result has been ruinous and unforgivable. Now we see another example of his arrogance and fiscal short-sightedness. Labour have just lost my vote come the next election

Joe Dever, London, UK

Brown has been one of worst Chancellors in living memory bailed out by the reduction of costs of consumer items through globalisation exploiting cheap labour in LDCs (China), deliberate allowance of immigration- illegal & legal- to suppress wage inflation and this period of cheap money to which Brown was himself a determined supporter.

The purchasing power of the pound has more than halved since 1997 and in my estimation this was theft of the value of peoples savings and was very deliberate to boost Brown's inflation led and inflationary economy.

Just on Gold & Pensions he should resign.

It was our Gold and we employ this disaster.

DMM, Eastbourne , UK

gordon brown picked the absolute bottom of the gold market and everyone thinks this looks bad now...... wait till we all think back to this decision when gold is at $2000 an oz...... also a time when economic power has moved from west to east .... along with significant central bank gold holdings... Gordon Brown along with the Reserve Bank of Aust and few others could be recognised in the records of history in a very unflattering way for this extrordinarily near sighted act.

thanks to the Times for bringing this out to wider audience, bring on more governmental transparency

peter, perth, AUS,

This decision also cost jobs - in Africa. Migrant labourers were sent home from mines affected as the price dipped temporarily as a result of this decisions to dump gold by Gordon Brown. Miners marched on Pretoria - to protest.

The other blunder around the same time by New Labour which also had a negative impact on the poor in Southern Africa was the decision by Brown's Treasury and UKDfID
to sell off majority shareholdings in the Commonwealth Development Corporation which even Mrs Thatcher had spared recognising that it generated profits for the ODA overseas aid budget and had done so since 1948. The CDC had years of experience in agriculture but when Mr Brown took power the organisation was instructed that African agriculture was "no longer part of CDC's core business". The rest as they say made poverty history.

neil robertson, Dundee, Scotland

I seem to remember some connection that the sale helped support the newly established Euro currency which was in the doldrums? Does anyone remember that side of this story?

Julian williams, Narberth, Pembs

In the company I work for, this awful decision was condemned at the time. Why did it take the press so many years to start digging this up?

James, Derby, UK

My goodness, this loss was nothing compared to the loss we have suffered due to the great Barber gold sell off in the Sixties !
Under pressure from the US, which had started to accumulate large deficits due to the Vietnam War, we sold off three quarters of our then huge gold reserves which had accumulated over hundreds of years for the paltry sum of thirty five dollars an ounce.. I do not have the figures here but at least ten times more gold was sold than Brown did.
Working out the figures a loss of over 20 billion is likely as the price is twenty times higher now than we received.
At the time France came under the same pressure but De Gaulle famously stated that not a single franc of his gold would be handed over to the US.. In fact he did the opposite and redeemed
French held dollars for gold !
Let us also not forget the huge silver givaway in 1946 when we took in all our silver coins melted them and handed them over to the US (again !) in payment of war loans !

morris, Bangkok, Thailand

I'm surprised it took so long for this to come to the fore. i remember at the time looking at the gold price and reading the views from various analysts in South Africa pointing to the UK selling off its gold to buy Euros and Dollars. This Labour govt has proven itself to be hopelessly incapable of managing the economy. Look at the track record of the old labour people such as Ken Livingstone and see how the bureaucracy grows and the taxpayers money gets wasted. The Olympics, Trident, killing the pension funds, wasting our gold...the list goes on.

Naz, London, UK

Is Gordon an undercover SNP agent?

Simon Jeffries, Berlin, German

Well i have to ask why he sold "MY" Gold anyway?

I don't remember seeing any better roads or any other infrastructure recently?, yet again Gordon raids the larder and wastes the spoils, my children and grand children will have to pay for this mans incompetence

Pete, Aldershot, uk

Yet another Gordon Brown blunder. When will the British people wake up to this stealth tax chancellor and see him for what he is?

E Gudgeon, St Athan, Wales

How many more Brown mistakes does it take?
We know he can spend it and get poor value for our money.
We did not know he can loose as fast as well.
Is there more we should know?

charles, cannes, france

Well, not such a golden touch, are you, Gordon? Finally it is all unravelling; you inherited an improving economic situation, levied all your stealth taxes, blew the lot on current-account public services spending (NOT 'investment'), and then have been revealed as ignorig advice from Civil Servants on pensions, and from Bank of England on gold. The ONLY thing you have done that has saved us from absolute disaster is to give the Bank of England the freedom to set interest rates. And that is a kind of 'negative' action, really. So, well done Gordon, on, er, nothing that you have actually done yourself. Smoke and mirrors....

mark, london, uk