Treasury releases 1992 ERM papers

[emad]

BBC

John Major and Lord Lamont have welcomed the release of Treasury papers which they say puts the cost of Black Wednesday at £3.3 billion.

The pair were prime minister and chancellor when Britain crashed out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.

The papers were published on Wednesday after a Treasury document was inadvertently e-mailed to the BBC.

The Treasury said it regretted that the BBC had revealed some details it had not wanted to be in the public domain.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4250399.stm

[emad]

1. Times:Treasury accidentally leaks Black Wednesday debate

By Chris Johnston, Times Online

The Treasury has withheld some sensitive documents from the papers relating to Black Wednesday, according to an internal email mistakenly sent to the BBC.

...


Details believed to have been withheld include allegations of "open warfare" between John Major and his Chancellor, Norman Lamont, and an apparent admission that Britain spied on France.

Officials were also apparently afraid that full disclosure would set a precedent, giving weight to Tory requests the release of up-to-date economic forecasts, the documents emailed in error to the BBC reveal.

The leaked papers expose the internal Treasury debate about the details which are not being disclosed, Radio 4's Today programme reported this morning.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1476716,00.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. One day, the government will get the idea of this e-mail thingy

"The affair of the leaked Treasury documents is the second debacle in 24 hours to be caused by an email inadvertently sent to the wrong person. Alastair Campbell, the former No 10 communications director, was yesterday forced to say sorry to staff at Newsnight after accidentally sending the BBC2 current affairs programme an abusive message meant for someone else."

God knows, Campbell has enough people he feels like abusing.

Can't you just wait for all our medical records to be computerised by the Department of Health?

[emad]

2. Guardian: Row over Black Wednesday documents

Row over Black Wednesday documents

Matthew Tempest and agencies
Wednesday February 9, 2005

A tranche of documents relating to Black Wednesday are to be kept secret, according to the BBC, as the Treasury prepares to release around 300 papers on the debacle tomorrow.

According to an email apparently sent to the corporation in error, officials will hold back key documents because they ostensibly suggest Britain was spying on France's economy and because they may cause current Treasury economic models to be disclosed.

...

The document sent to the BBC, apparently by mistake, discusses the Treasury's response to a request from the Financial Times under the Freedom of Information Act for paperwork relating to the events of September 16 1992. On that Wednesday, sterling crashed out of the ERM as the government spent billions of pounds trying to prop up the currency and raised interest rates by 5% within four hours.

.......

It also refers to the government's "hype about economic miracles" and to division in the cabinet: "The open warfare between the chancellor and the prime minister made it especially difficult for the markets to decide what the effective objectives of the government were."

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foi/story/0,9061,1409057,00.html