From the previous section, the European Exchange Rate Mechanism was created in 1979. But, until October 1990, Britain had refused to join the ERM. The two officials of the time John Major and Douglas Hurd convinced the government to join the ERM, introducing the British pound into the ERM for the first time. By joining the ERM, the exchange rate between the British pound and the currencies of other members would fluctuate no more than 6%. The British government followed economic and monetary policies to ensure that the floating rate was maintained (Black Wednesday - The Prelude - Encyclopedia II). Chancellor Geoffrey Howe and his successor Nigel Lawson were both supporters of a fixed exchange rate, both admiring the record of low exchange rates. the inflation maintained by Germany, the management of the Bundesbank and the strength of the German mark. The British Treasury had a policy of obscuring the Deutsche Mark. There was huge controversy among government officials involved in this potential adoption into the ERM with the debate between Margaret Thatcher's economic advisor, Alan Walters, and Lawson, who had arrived at an assumption such as the state, when Walters stated that the exchange rate mechanism was “half-baked” (Kaletsky). All this partisan bickering and endless debate led Lawson to resign as chancellor to be replaced by John Major (Kaletsky). The two government officials John Major and Douglas Hurd had succeeded in forcing Margaret Thatcher to sign Britain into the ERM in October 1990, effectively ensuring that the British government followed an economic and monetary policy that prevented the exchange rate between the pound and other member currencies to fluctuate by more than 6%. The pound has entered the 2-paper mechanism... banks have amassed huge sums of money in an incredibly short period of time. After all this turmoil and intense betting by speculators, Norman Lamont, Chancellor at the time of the crisis, announced at 7pm GST that Britain would leave the ERM and lower the rate to its normal 10%. Other ERM countries such as Italy, whose currencies had reached their lower limits during the day, had remained in the ERM and had instead struck a deal with the EMS to temporarily widen their bands until the Black Wednesday turmoil they hadn't passed. Despite this, the ERM was incredibly vulnerable to speculator attacks on brink economies, it was open season for Eurozone central banks, and ten months later the rules were further relaxed to the point of creating a set of really ineffective oscillation bands. which were useless for keeping member countries under control with the ECU.