You know who your friends are
February 4, 2005 by Ken
Filed under The Best of the Rest
You know who your friends are
The so called row over the papers covering the events leading to the ERM exit, 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, 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 when he tried to contact the other European leaders they were strangely unavailable, 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 Union could 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.
On the election front the Labour party have continually harped on about how “bad it was under the Tory’s and do we want to return to the days of 15% interest rates†this lie has never been nailed by the Tory’s who presumably are to embarrassed, and it has therefore become a modern (excuse the term) Myth, there were 15% interest rates under the Tory’s for five hours on one day Black Wednesday at the Times makes clear:
11am Norman Lamont raises interest rates from 10 per cent to 12 per cent after frenzied selling of sterling on the exchanges
2pm Rates go up to 15 per cent as £27 billion is speculated on propping up the pound.
The net loss is put at £4 billion-£10 billion
7pm Mr Lamont withdraws from the ERM and drops the second rate rise.
