Brown defied Bank of England warning over his £6bn gold giveaway

Daily Mail
"Gordon Brown rode roughshod over resistance from the Bank of England to order the disastrous sell-off of Britain's gold reserves, secret papers have revealed.Treasury documents released under Freedom of Information last night suggest that the Bank was reluctant to sign up to the sale of 395 tonnes of gold at rock-bottom prices in a series of auctions between 1999 and 2002.The deals, struck when Mr Brown was Chancellor, are thought to have cost Britain £6billion, almost double the £3.3billion cost of Black Wednesday in 1992 when the country crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.Senior officials are said to have warned that the timing of the sale risked losing money for the taxpayer."