Britannia Radio

07.04.2010 Why did Gordon Brown sell our gold? In recent days The Daily Telegraph has been making enquiries about the sale of our  gold reserves ten years ago. Despite using the Freedom of Information Act they are  having trouble getting to the truth. For reasons we can all work out for ourselves the editor failed to use the following letter  which was intended to clarify the facts for him and his readers. Sir, There is no mystery about Gordon Brown’s sale of British gold reserves. I set out the facts  on the strength of well-informed sources in my book Vigilance – A Defence of British  Liberty, published in 2001. The Maastricht Treaty lays title claim to all the UK’s gold and dollar reserves. At the time of  the sale the recently-launched euro was struggling to establish itself on the currency  markets. Receipts from the gold sale were used to buy euros, which propped it up for a  while but failed to stop the slide. However the transaction simultaneously met a large part of the demand that all the UK’s  gold and dollar reserves be passed to Frankfurt while neatly avoiding physical transfers  in fleets of bullion trucks driving to the Channel ports. A huge potential political flashpoint  had been smartly sidestepped. As many of your readers already know, such deceit is the normal modus operandi when the  EU (and the British government for that matter) knows a proposal or directive does not  have popular support. Gordon Brown lied when he claimed it was a purely commercial decision. It was intended  to show support for the euro, and it started to meet the UK’s treaty obligation to transfer  our national assets to the ECB if the UK were ever to join. It also assumed that the result of  then promised referendum on joining the euro would be in the government’s favour. It is highly unlikely that the Labour government would have won the 1997 election at all, let alone in a landslide, if they had said that they intended to sell a significant proportion of  the UK’s gold reserves – whatever the reason. After the sale, gold represented a mere seven per cent of total reserves. Previously it was  17 percent. And all without anyone being asked, agreeing or voicing a view. By  mid-2000, British taxpayers were sitting on a loss of some £26 million. Now it is many  billions. yours etc Ashley Mote With hindsight, perhaps I should have added a footnote to the editor pointing out that  my sources at the time were impeccable. One of them was even inside the Bank of England. I might also have added that the physical gold was held in the Bank of England on behalf of  the EU for some time after the sale. Where those ingots are today I don’t know. To respond to, or comment on this Email, please email ashley.mote@btconnect.com Click www.ashleymote.co.uk to visit the site now.