This video made by Richard Murphy earlier this year is OK except that near the start he claims that because Bank of England £10 notes say that the bank “promises to pay the bearer the sum of £10” that therefor such notes really are a promise to pay.
Now there’s a slight problem there, namely what exactly is the BoE promising to pay? The reality is that if you turn up at the BoE and ask them make good on their promise, you’ll be told to shove off.
That “promise to pay” sentence on BoE notes is actually just a left over from the days when banks (including the BoE) really did have to make good on their promise: they had to supply anyone who wanted it with real gold in exchange for those paper “promises to pay”. But those days are long gone.
So in what sense are BoE notes a promise to pay? Well you could say they are a promise to pay in the sense that they are a totally vacuous promise to pay, but presumably that’s not what Richard Murphy has in mind.
As to what he DOES HAVE IN MIND, hopefully all will be revealed at some stage.
I believe the promise is to take your ten pound note and pay you back in return another ten pound note.
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