I ALWAYS thought that the gold in the Bank of England belonged - if only in theory - to all the people owning the banknotes that promise to pay "on demand" their worth in nuggets.

But now we find Chancellor Gordon Brown acting as if he can do what he likes with it and announcing - sinisterly, on a Friday afternoon when you are more likely to find an MP in a Thai massage parlour than at Westminster - that he is selling more than half the country's stack, £4 billion-worth, leaving Britain with the lowest gold reserves of any major country.

What do we get for it - for all those banknotes in your purses, wallets and bank accounts to fall back on as security?

Well, according to some, you get a betrayal of the government's pledge to let the people decide on Britain's entry into the European single currency as this move is laying down the path for entry.

But even if not, it is surely a poor deal. For, said by the Treasury to be bringing about a "better balance" in Britain's bullion and currency reserves by increasing the amount held in foreign money, we learn that the revenue will be spent in a 40-20-40 split on US dollars, Japanese yen and euros.

But note that last one, the euro.

It was announced only last week that just thinking about it can bring on depression.

No wonder. Since its launch in January it has fallen in value on the world exchanges by 10 per cent and only a fortnight ago sank to its lowest-ever level against the pound of just 65.68p.

I am not an economic expert, but I have nous enough to know that if the Chancellor is planning to replace the pound with a sick currency - against the wishes of most of the country, too - he is even less of one than me. And even if he isn't and is simply buying weak and wonky euros as supposedly better security for sterling than gold, then there is something in the stab-in-the-back line floated from No.10 to devalue his bid to be PM - that he is psychologically flawed.

Or barmy, as I'd put it.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.