Gold digging

Gordon Brown long proclaimed his economic competence; the fact is that he should not have been entrusted to run a whelk stall.

In 1999, against all advice, he decided to sell off 60% of the Bank of England's gold reserves. But being an idiot, he announced the sales well in advance, so that the price of gold was at a historic low when he sold. Indeed he sold at a price that was actually below the price of production of gold ; in consequence 80,000 South African gold miners were made redundant.

The current price of gold is four times the price at which Brown sold it.

(Oh, and by the way, it wasn't Brown's gold, it was OUR gold - yours and mine)