Magpies1959, whilst it may seem, on the face of it, that the selling gold reserves by Brown was a mistake (the price rose significantly afterwards), it needs to be looked at in a different way. Countries hold gold reserves as a way of controlling exchange rates and for contingency purposes. They actually, except in those circumstances, don't do anything to benefit the country. It's a bit like keeping a Rolex in the draw. Of no value unless you sell it.

If you want to talk about asset stripping, you should concentrate on such things as council houses, and the public utilities, which were sold off to enable the government of the day to offer tax breaks. The same can be said of the revenue from North Sea oil. The lack of council housing has been a major contributor to the shift from home ownership to renting. In the region of 60% of ex-council houses are now in the private rented sector earning profits for landlords at the expense of tenants. The privatised utilities pay huge dividends to shareholders (money which could have been going to the exchequer), whilst providing negligible service in, for example, the water industry which is responsible for polluting the UK's waterways.