the bank of england has bought gbp1 billion of longdated government bonds in its first auction under a new program set out earlier wednesday having offered to buy as much as gbp5 billion the uks central bank said wednesday that it will buy uk government bonds with long maturities on whatever scale is necessary in an effort to restore order to the market for gilts which has seen prices plummet and yields soar since the government outlined a surprisingly large set of tax cuts on friday those daily purchases began on wednesday and are scheduled to end on oct 14