Foundation X: A conversation in the House of Lords

[Carsten Wiethoff]

As has been noted, the speech of Sir James is interesting on several layers, not only by the revelation that a mysterious foundation wants to save the British economy.
One point I struggle with is the mentioning of Foundation X being on the gold standard.

He said that this cannot be right because these people said at the meeting with him that they were still effectively on the gold standard from back in the 1920s and that their entire currency holdings throughout the world, which were very large, were backed by bullion. My noble friend Lord Strathclyde came back and said to me that he had an analyst working on it and that this had to be stuff and nonsense.

So what does that mean? Does it mean that if the "foundation" has X British Pounds in currency (like the promised 5 Billion) it also has the equivalent in real, physical gold in a vault somewhere? This makes absolutely no sense, unless Foundation X would be an organisation issueing its own currency, backed by the equivalent amount of gold.
Can someone enlighten me, what this gold standard stuff is supposed to mean?