Just had a thought, what is there to stop the Bank of England (who I believe print the sterling) printing loads and loads of cash? What would be the disadvantages of this? Could the B of E not just print as much as they liked, what effects would this have? Thanks.

The Bank of England could print as much as they liked and never go bankrupt - the problem is the currency would be seen as increasingly worthless and we'd end up like Zimbabwe with it's billion-dollar notes.

Printing money has to be the most stupid idea ever! when does ink on paper mean anything anyhow, or have any value! Only "real" things are valuable, e.g. Food, Water, House etc...