As Britain goes to the polls, gold says "Goodbye" in fine style to the man who dumped half the UK's reserves on the market in May 1999...

HOW SWEET of gold to mark Gordon Brown's last day in power with a new all-time high against the Pound Sterling.

He did so much, short term, to dent the former. But his famous "prudence" - in truth, an abject misreading of both economics and history - has in fact worked to destroy the latter instead.

Perhaps today's valedictory jump...leaping 3.7% to touch £805 an ounce...was just one last blow-off to mark Brown's political passing. But the gold price in Sterling looks more ironic than toppish given his legacy of debt.

The man who sold over 55% of the UK's reserves 11 years ago - advising the market two months in advance so it could get itself short...and in fact lending out one-fifth of the UK's total reserves* so gold-sellers could do precisely that, as well - had come to power with gold trading around £200 per ounce.

But rather than leaving gold prices lower...as his ill-advised sales (well, Goldman Sachs-advised, in fact) did at first...the Irn-Bru chancellor has instead given long-term British gold buyers 23% gains for every year of his prudence.

Cheers, Gordon! We might (grow to) miss your smile. Thanks to your fiscal incontinence, however, it should be a few years yet before we miss your impact on gold.