London dealers called it “appalling”; gold-mining bosses “bloody unhelpful”; and tabloid front pages “catastrophic”. Central bankers in Europe were outraged. So was Parliament. The UK Treasury – run by Gordon Brown, New Labour’s “iron chancellor” – had suddenly declared on Friday 7 May 1999 that the British state would sell up to 60% of our gold reserves, starting two months later. The gold price sank by 3% on the news, on the way to two-decade lows soon called “the Brown bottom” by bullion traders.
“Why so fast, and why so much?” demanded one
