Nine hundred and forty years ago King Harold II of England made a long march from London to York. He got there in about a week. Napoleon took a little longer to get back from Moscow…and was almost the only one who made it.

But the record for taking an army for a walk probably goes to Mao Zedong. In 1934 his defeated Communist Army was on the road for two years…and six thousand miles…before regrouping in Yanan and going onto the offensive against the Kuomintang Nationalist Army in 1936. By 1949 they had won and set up China’s Communist State.

The English Ruling Classes were too preoccupied with their own little World War and impending imperial implosion to pay much attention…and History Teaching in English schools reflects this Global Provincialism. But here is a picture of Chinese singers dressed up as Red Army soldiers performing during a ceremony last week at Changsu in Hunan Province to mark the 70th anniversary of Mao’s Long March. What would Mao make of China today?

David Walker spent the summer of 2001 pouring over Treasury files, Monetary Committee transcripts and Central Bank annual reports. Three weeks before Lower Manhattan’s Twin Towers were reduced to rubble he posted an article on the Metropole Café website entitled The Gentle Art of Conspiracy. He had a curious tale to tell.

On 11th August 2001 he had been visiting with folks at Norges Bank…Norway’s Central Bank…where he discovered that Norway’s entire 33.5 tons of gold bar reserves had been placed at the disposal of the Bank of England for the express purpose of lending them out to others. We should take Eddie George away from his roses long enough to get him to tell us just who exactly these others were…and why they were so anxious to get their hands on Norway’s gold.

Most people realise that the world’s gold bullion no longer crosses the oceans in the holds of Treasure Galleons. Instead they are pushed around beneath the streets of Zurich. Gold is physically moved by JCB around the vault. One day a particular pile of ingots are labelled America…the next day they sit with the heap marked Germany. This makes a lot of sense as it cuts back on the need for marine insurance. But what is curious is the way these transfers of Gold Holdings between Central Banks and other institutions get put through the books.

It was not the movement of the gold bullion that shocked David Walker but the price of the transaction. This proud Viking Nation was handing over its gold to the Bank of England at a 20% loss. It is one thing to be beaten fair and square at Stamford Bridge but Harold Hardrada must be turning in his grave at the way the fortune he accumulated is being squandered.

An accounting sleight of hand by the name of Fair Value is employed. ‘Norges Bank,’ to quote from the bank’s annual report, ‘values gold and securities at fair value. This is in line with changes in Norwegian accounting legislation and accounting practices in other central banks.’ But Note 3 is more explicit.

‘Gold reserves are marked at fair value which is estimated at 20 per cent below market value as gold is traded in an illiquid market.’ It is time for our Westminster Parliament to insist that Gordon Brown is brought to account about his stewardship of England’s Gold Reserves. Our Norwegian friends should be encouraged to do the same in Oslo.

On BBC Radio Four recently I heard the Tory Historian Andrew Roberts explaining how Democracy came from the Greeks, Enlightenment from the French, Roman Law from the Italians, Protestantism from the Germans and Capitalism from the Dutch. The English Genius was to Mix ‘n Match rather cleverly from what others had created to produce the Best of all Possible Governance. What a strange Eurocentric view of the Adventure of Civilisation. China I suppose was too busy inventing gunpowder and making paper to worry about such mundane matters.

I am getting increasingly sceptical about these Big Picture Television Historians and increasingly see them as part of the Public Relations Business and the Political Spin Industry. The state of our History may be much more serious than the state of our Science.

Andrew Roberts went on to say that the English had the good fortune to have had the right revolution at the right time. A lucky turn of the Wheel of Fortune also led us to chop off a king’s head 150 years before anyone else came up with the idea. What complete and utter nonsense this is. But no doubt it goes down well with the ladies before the gentlemen retire for coffee, brandy and cigars…and get down to the real business of the day.