Nigel Farage, leader of British political party UKIP is nothing if not outspoken and he describes governments who have bought gold as clever and those who sold it ‘idiots’.
Author: Lawrence Williams
Posted: Monday , 17 Dec 2012
LONDON (Mineweb) -
Eric King’s King World News has become a significant mouthpiece for the U.S. political right and for those who preach monetary orthodoxy including a positive role for gold. With his recent interview with UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage he not only found an ideal participant, but one whose comments made for some very quotable headlines which will have pleased his audience well.
For the record, UKIP has just been ranked in a recent poll as the UK’s third most popular political party – after Labour and the Conservatives, knocking the Liberal Democrats into 4th - although as yet it has no elected Member of the British House of Commons. Farage himself, along with some of his UKIP colleagues are Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) the party having done better in European elections than in domestic ones with 12 of the UK’s 73 seats in Strasbourg. Despite their MEP position, Farage and his party are against European Community membership for the UK – hence the party’s current popularity given a sceptical British public regarding the EEC in general, exacerbated by the huge Eurozone problems currently being experienced by most of those countries participating in the common currency (the Euro).
Ostensibly King’s interview with Farage centred around the Queen’s well publicised, and televised, visits to the Bank of England’s gold vaults with the stacks of gold bars thus shown indicating that there is indeed a substantial amount of gold located there, although its precise ownership remains a guarded secret. The visit was seen as something of a publicity stunt by the Central Bank and the government to prove the existence of the Bank’s gold given the amount of speculation about its provenance and presence in some circles.
But commenting further Farage – in perhaps a very pointed swipe at former Labour government Chancellor and Prime Minister Gordon Brown (of I saved the world fame) and his sale of half the UK’s gold reserves back in 1999-2002 (when the gold price was at a low – forever to be called Brown’s Bottom) - described governments and Central Banks which sold gold over the past 10-15 years as ‘idiots’ and those who have been buying gold as ‘clever’ and that for the most part they don’t just buy a paper claim to their gold, but ‘that they’ve physically got the stuff’ – not necessarily true, but a good soundbite.
Farage is not an economist, but a very skilled and charismatic politician and one who may well hold the fate of the UK’s future government in his hands with most UKIP supporters coming from the Conservative party which could considerably weaken their performance in the next UK General Election. However this does not mean we should discount his views on gold and precious metals. Probably more economists have got gold and its price path wrong than right. So saying Farage is obviously a believer in gold noting “I don’t change one iota from my main view which is that at some point in the next few years the price of gold will be very substantially higher than it currently is.” More>>
