Labour Lies Decite and Spin
December 21, 2008 by Ken
Filed under Political Humbug
With the relatively recent debate in the media about our great presidents comments on Britain joining the Euro, it might be instructive to look a little more closely at the events leading to the ERM debacle, the day Britain left the European exchange-rate mechanism on September 16, 1992, and the Bank of England reputedly spent £27 billion of reserves propping up sterling.
All that went on in those days should be open to public scrutiny, it was after all the total failure of Majors attempts to take us into the Euro, that caused this debacle in the first place.
I have always felt that Lamont was the fall guy for a policy he was forced to continue by a Prime Minister who previously had been the chancellor and whos support of the policy was the main cause of the problems.
Because Major was playing the EU game, he fully expected the other EU countries to help out, but that is where he made a mistake, because when he tried to contact the other European leaders to beg for support, they were strangely unavailable, and would not even answer his relephone calls, leaving Britian to face the markets alone.
I know nothing about the international monetary trade, but have always believed that was the time when the the EU could and should have stood by one of its main supporters in Britain, therby showing their determination to present the united front they keep telling they want, and at the same time backing the introduction of a single currency in Britain by showing us the benifits of the system.
The Labour party spinners have continually harp on about – how bad it was under the Torys and do we want to return to the bad old days days of 15% interest rates- this lie has never been nailed by the Torys who presumably are to embarrassed, and it has therefore become a modern (excuse the term) Myth,
There was 15% interest rates under the Torys but only once and only for five hours on one day and that was Black Wednesday:
11am Norman Lamont raises interest rates from 10% to 12% after frenzied selling of sterling on the exchanges-
2pm Rates go up to 15% as £27 billion is speculated on propping up the pound.
The net loss is put at between £4 billion-£10 billion
7pm Mr Lamont withdraws from the ERM and drops the second rate rise.
The whole problem was created by our Prime Ministers determination to join the Euro and the ERM was the precursor to that move.
