The Federal Reserve bank in the US measures the money supply using two formulas, neither of which include your "money from nothing" premise about lending:
http://www.ny.frb.org/aboutthefed/fedpoint/fed49.html As banks lend money, particularly the so-called "signature loans" (credit cards and other unsecured loans), they have to increase their cash-on-hand under minimum capitalization regulations by a corresponding percentage as well, and that only comes from operating capital, not thin air.
As far as inflation goes, a gold standard would certainly help, but would not address every motive in capitalistic economy that drives inflation, i.e., the rise in cost to the consumer for goods and services. The fact is there is no single solution that does that. The US economy was on a gold standard until 1972, and the reasons it was suspended had more to do with competing with other countries than with the domestic economy, and being on the gold standard did not result in "economic collapse".
Your assumptions about the UK banking system being applicable elsewhere are not entirely true either. While there are international standards on minimum capitalization, the US has additional standards in place, and while these standards appear shockingly low to the average person (6% and 10% respectively), they are sufficient to monetize an bank in a way that encourages it to operate in a risk-averse manner in both the short- and long-term. And the US Fed works differently than the Bank of England, as the US Fed is a private corporation, not an arm of the federal government.