[Rhadamanthus]

Selling the gold reserves, continuing inflationary policies, raising taxes, banning hunting, continuing 'sin taxes' on alcohol and cigarettes, banning smoking on private property, raiding pensions, massively increasing spending, and continuing the welfare state. I don't think it is at all fair to criticise them for what they didn't do. There is only so much a government can push through in a legislative agenda.

What did they do right? Peace in Northern Ireland, mainly. Intervention in the Balkans, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, keeping Trident, pursuing dialogue with Europe and the USA, amongst other things.

[FDR]

(Original post by Libertarian_Walrus)
How can you put so much faith in paper money? It is worthless if it is not backed by an asset (e.g. gold). The reason why gold prices soared after is because our currency devalued, as we had less gold reserves.

Paper money isn't worthless though - It is an accepted store of value because all traders in our economy accept it. If no one accepted it, it would be worthless, but the fact that everyone does means it has worth.

I'm no expert on the gold standard, but I don't see the point of it, because the value of gold fluctuates a lot, therefore the value of a currency pegged to gold will be very volatile. Also, a pound pegged to a certain amount of gold may not always buy that quantity of gold, because occasionally governments may change the peg.

[FDR]

(Original post by Rhadamanthus)
What did they do right? the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq

Trolling?

[A.J10]

(Original post by RyanT)
Which part of letting in 6 million people in the last 15 years was a part of being "in the wrong place at the wrong time" ?

Many of our current problems can be traced from the sheer stress that migration has placed on the state.

I didn't mean in regards to immigration, I meant that any party would have looked bad in the bad economy.

[callan]

(Original post by pseudonymegg)
urm Gordon Brown sold all Britain's gold reserves and cost taxpayers about £7 billion! Good thinking Gordon!

You know what made it worse... Nigel Farage had a go at him for selling the reserves at low and he started laughing in front of the European parliament. Made me angry

[Snagprophet]

Labour got everything wrong. They got us into a moronic war for over a decade, they buggered our gold. If I could earn money by hunting labour voters or politicians then I certainly would have a new dayjob.

[Libertarian_Walrus]

(Original post by FDR)
Paper money isn't worthless though - It is an accepted store of value because all traders in our economy accept it. If no one accepted it, it would be worthless, but the fact that everyone does means it has worth.

I'm no expert on the gold standard, but I don't see the point of it, because the value of gold fluctuates a lot, therefore the value of a currency pegged to gold will be very volatile. Also, a pound pegged to a certain amount of gold may not always buy that quantity of gold, because occasionally governments may change the peg.

I agree, at the moment the paper money is being accepted, however I wonder how long it can go on. How long can the government go on fooling the people?

Gold has real value, the fiat money is just paper with a number on it. If paper money had real value then we could just print it and print it without devaluing the currency, which isn't the case.

The point you made about value of gold fluctuating isn't true under a gold standard monetary policy. In fact the value of gold and the currency would remain stable with very little inflation, and risk of hyperinflation impossible. At the moment, however, you are right price of gold does fluctuate, but the reason is because devaluation of currency, high inflation and low interest rates.

[Reedus]

I could write a lecture on this topic but as this a thread I shall have to be brief?

The labour party have always favoured high spending and to a certain degree nationalisation. This focus drove the labour government in the 1960's to the brink with almost countless workers strikes and we saw for the first time the historic relationship between the unions and the labour party being strained. Labour have consistently ignored the fact if the government can't live within their own means the public are bound to follow suit.

Which brings me to 'New labour' the party designed to bring mild labour and conservatives together what a cruel deceit. This period of history has turned into one huge scandal of the likes only witnessed in the states. Ironic considering Blair and bushes relationship. Blairs decision to give powers to Europe has heightened the anglo europe conflict, whilst also selling off our gold reserves and spending to the highest percent of our GDP recorded.

So to put it briefly labour have always gone wrong it is just this time they have simply left a larger mess to clean up.

[AnHuman]

(Original post by FDR)
'record lows?' Yet another idiot on this forum talking *******s. At the time it was nearly $300 per ounce - it used to be around $30 an ounce in the 60s.

Brown sold the gold reserves at a time when the price was following a long term downwards trend, and many other treasuries and central banks worldwide were looking to get rid of it and put the money into more productive assets. The only legitimate criticism is that Brown couldn't predict the future price, in which case we should be lambasting him for not putting all the government's money into Apple shares. It's a non argument.

Announcing in advance the day & price it was to be sold at, that is a legitimate criticism.
This is the Gordon Brown that believed he could (& had) brought an end to "boom and bust" - this smacks of hubris and/or naivity. His fault was not the straw man of 'not being able to predict the future', it was not being able to plan for the future, by misanalysing the present.

Also selling half the gold when as a nation we have comparatively tiny gold reserves, was not smart:
We are 17th in terms of gold reserves, just behind Saudi Arabia and just ahead of the Lebanon. We have a total roughly half that of the Netherlands, and under 1/10 of what Germany holds.
These stats if anything make our gold situation seem slightly better than it is, because tbh the important number is not the gross total, but the ratio to the total value of currency in circulation it's technically backing up.
As a % of GDP our gold reserves were already HIDEOUSLY LOW, and after Brown's fire sale, even worse.

[jacketpotato]

(Original post by AnHuman)
As a % of GDP our gold reserves were already HIDEOUSLY LOW, and after Brown's fire sale, even worse.

I really don't understand why you think countries should be competing to hold high gold reserves. 1931 called and they want their gold standard back.

With hindsight, the price was low. But noone knew the credit crunch was coming. You need to remember the gold was sold at a market price. If it was obvious at the time that the price of gold would go up, then people would have bought gold and the price would have gone up. This is how the the commodity markets work.

[bkeevin]

(Original post by AnHuman)
Announcing in advance the day & price it was to be sold at, that is a legitimate criticism.
This is the Gordon Brown that believed he could (& had) brought an end to "boom and bust" - this smacks of hubris and/or naivity. His fault was not the straw man of 'not being able to predict the future', it was not being able to plan for the future, by misanalysing the present.

Also selling half the gold when as a nation we have comparatively tiny gold reserves, was not smart:
We are 17th in terms of gold reserves, just behind Saudi Arabia and just ahead of the Lebanon. We have a total roughly half that of the Netherlands, and under 1/10 of what Germany holds.
These stats if anything make our gold situation seem slightly better than it is, because tbh the important number is not the gross total, but the ratio to the total value of currency in circulation it's technically backing up.
As a % of GDP our gold reserves were already HIDEOUSLY LOW, and after Brown's fire sale, even worse.

Most of what you said about gold reserve is true but your analysis is so biased. If that reserve was so important then Italy or France would never come at 3rd and 4th place in the world with almost 2 1/2 times more reserves than China!!! Infact even Portugal has more gold reserves than Saudi Arabia or Britain. You got to admit that China, the Saudis or Qatar would have bought far more gold reserves if it was that important since they are so cash rich and keep lending us their money.

As a percentage of GDP Japan keeps way less gold than Britain and their economy has not gone to the dogs because of that. Infact the pound sterling became a bigger world reserve currency from 2.9% in 1999 to 4% in 2010&2012 of total world currency reserves. So the the impact our selling of the gold would have been negligeable since confidence in our currency got stronger.

What criteria are you using to proof the UK is suffering/suffered because of it? Bearing in mind the proceeds were reinvested in interest bearing currencies rather than letting the gold bullions remain idle?

[Ps3SuperSRG]

Apologizing to bigoted people

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my GT-I9100

[FDR]

(Original post by AnHuman)
Announcing in advance the day & price it was to be sold at, that is a legitimate criticism.
This is the Gordon Brown that believed he could (& had) brought an end to "boom and bust" - this smacks of hubris and/or naivity. His fault was not the straw man of 'not being able to predict the future', it was not being able to plan for the future, by misanalysing the present.

Also selling half the gold when as a nation we have comparatively tiny gold reserves, was not smart:
We are 17th in terms of gold reserves, just behind Saudi Arabia and just ahead of the Lebanon. We have a total roughly half that of the Netherlands, and under 1/10 of what Germany holds.
These stats if anything make our gold situation seem slightly better than it is, because tbh the important number is not the gross total, but the ratio to the total value of currency in circulation it's technically backing up.
As a % of GDP our gold reserves were already HIDEOUSLY LOW, and after Brown's fire sale, even worse.

Why are you under the impression that we need to have any gold reserves at all? Gold is a useless asset to hold as it pays no yield or dividend, and is actually costly to hold as it requires paying for it's storage.

[unclej]

War
lies
They were/are all tories in red ties

[Fynch101]

(Original post by King Kebab)
Creating a benefits culture
Hunting ban
Dumbing down education standards (This is not just a Labour issue like many others)
Harriet Harmans equality bill
Not legalizing gay marriage
Giving the Bank of England independence
Raiding the pensions

Why on earth did is this something labour did wrong?

I dare you to put forward a sensible economic argument.

[123maz]

they ruined the economy, then left Britain in ruins.
This is a major factor why university fees were increased, to clear up Labour's mess.

[ukip72]

I previously posted something basically accusing Labour of getting everything wrong, which I stand by. But the Census 2011 figures have been released and show that the main thing Labour got wrong was mass immigration. The Labour governments really were the definition of f***ing scum.

[Rhadamanthus]

(Original post by FDR)
Trolling?

I appreciate how it may seem that way, but I genuinely believe that the liberation of these countries from the dual grips of the Taleban and Saddam Hussein was a good thing.

[Friar Chris]

The real difficulty in answering OP's question is not trying to find actual answers.

It's remembering and filtering down to a single post a reasonable amount of answers in concise enough detail to read in a TSR post.


An easier question to exemplify the same point for the boards would have been 'What exactly didn't Labour get wrong?'.

[bkeevin]

(Original post by 123maz)
they ruined the economy, then left Britain in ruins.
This is a major factor why university fees were increased, to clear up Labour's mess.

A labour supporter can equally throw the very same lame arguments at the former Tory administration by saying that they were wreckless with our economy since both Thatcher and Major kept increasing public spending, our debt and an ever increasing deficit every year before they left. New Labour was simply clearing the Tory mess when they introduced the tuition fees and sold our gold to repay the Tory debt!!!