Brown's spend, spend, spend during his Chancellor's days has brought us into the current economy we are facing today. His appeal at a Downing Street meeting for the lenders to pass on cuts appeared to fall on deaf ears with HBOS, which owns the Halifax, increasing its rate on some mortgages from 6.09 to 6.59 per cent. Borrowers taking out this type of deal will now pay 46 more a month. On a two-year tracker, the rate will increase from 1.49 points above base rate to 1.99 points, giving a current rate of 6.99 per cent.

Other lenders are expected to follow Halifaxs lead.

If the Government wants the banks to lower mortgage rates to home owners - why not just offer them through Northern Rock? Everyone would rush to the Rock to get the loans forcing banks to match the rates or lose the business? Or maybe the government would then run into bigger credit crunch?

I thought the credit crunch was due to the market forces of capitalism working at its greedy best.

Also, I think the precursor to the sub prime market was partially due to the low lending rate of the Japanese which provided cheap cash sloshing around the world, allowing varioud finnanciers to make easy money!

There is a big rebellion against Gordon Brown now...he is even losing the confidence of his own party...he treats the poor like dirt...even Marie Antoinette offer cake.

I cant wait till petrol is 150p a litre and se what GB has to say.

mitzy

gordon will LOVE IT.....it means huge more money into treasury that he wasnt expecting.....otherwise he'll need to think of other ideas of screwing brits for money

What no petrol in Scotland..?

Mr Chad will be appearing on the walls again soon.
OK so you have to be advancing in years to remember him (hope someone can paste a picture of him to remind the younger 'viewers')

here's some facts to look forward to:

house prices to fall approximately 20% in next 18 months at least. However 2010 will be painful too even after 2009.

Energy prices are rocketing for households.
Food prices are rising fast too.

Inflation real cost has been calculated to be 15.5% AND NOT 2.5% OR SOME NONSENSE.

Mortgage payments are getting shafted by the irresponsible banks. And WE ARE bailing them out with 50 billion plus!!!!

nOW THERE is a petrol strike and already shortages in many petrol stations.
Petrol is predicted to go to 150p within a few months!!!!!

This strike is by a well known lefty union who you would think brown would like.....brown is keeping really quiet about all this.
Teachers are now on strike.
Doctors in scotland re threatening to go on strike.
And police are threatening strike action too as by terrible way they been treated by jackie smith.

Of course taking money from poor and giving to rich in this country doesnt help!!!

Surely it cant be long before we have a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE IN THIS EVIL LABOUR GOVERNMENT

I suggest Scotinvestor for Prime Minister.

Mind, I am thinking of moving to Europe to watch the result.

I like jokes and the government is one of the best..!

thanks fred

for years i have been telling the morons "in offices where i work in oil industry but they get paid obscene amounts oif money and so dont care.....and i know many vote labour.......these are the people labour want now....NOT THE TRUE WORKING PEOPLE.

i studied stalin and soviet union and tsar system prior to this at school....and i have been twice behind the true iron curtain.
i have been going on about how good stalin was in recent few years as he was a ture socialist.....i only do this to labour people but it works a it annoys them.

firstly, there would be NO IMMIGRATION PROBLEMS UNDER STALIN.
there would be no known or unknown terrorists in country too.
there would be no banking crisis.
everyone would have a roof under their head and everyone had a job.

true socialism for socialist people, haha.

Boris for Mayor.

I watched Andrew Marr interviewing David Milliband this morning and he was hopeless, Paxman would have wiped the floor with him.

I see that Caroline Flint as had a makeover a'la Ruth Kelly. A veteran Labour MP has described some of his new women colleagues in the Commons as Stepford Wives with a "chip inserted into their brain to keep them on message".

Petrol to be 150p a litro by June..

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/28/npipe128.xml

trillion squandered
subprime minister living in climbdowning street
stalinist that wants to control everything but can't control anything.
You just need to look at labour in 1979 and 1948-must be a cycle there.

Firstly get rid of the commie Livingstone and vote in Boris.

One of Tony Blair's closest allies has claimed the former prime minister believed Gordon Brown "could never beat" Tory leader David Cameron - as a new poll suggests Labour will lose the next election by a wide margin.

Mr Blair "told me on a number of occasions he was convinced Gordon 'could never beat Cameron'," Lord Levy wrote.

He said the former premier felt he could have won a fourth term had he not stood down last summer.

"But Gordon? 'He can't defeat Cameron,' Tony told me. Blair believed Cameron had major strengths - political timing, a winning personality and a natural ability to communicate to Middle England that Gordon would be unable to match," Lord Levy added.

Mr Blair's spokesman said: "Tony Blair doesn't agree with the views attributed to him by Lord Levy and fully believes Labour with Gordon Brown's leadership can win the next election.

"Tony Blair said when he stood down that he would be 100% loyal to Gordon Brown and that continues to be the case."

Speaking to Sky News' Adam Boulton, MP George Galloway said: "I think that New Labour have got in with a thoroughly bad lot - they were intoxicated with wealth and what they thought was glamour."

Lord Levy's claims heap further pressure on the Prime Minister as he struggles to maintain his authority amid Labour rebellions over taxation and the detention of terrorist suspects.

Mr Brown has been trailing his Conservative opposite number by a record margin in the polls - the latest of which suggests David Cameron is on course to become prime minister with a strong majority at the next general election.

The ICM survey of crucial marginal seats for the News of the World shows 131 Labour MPs are set to be kicked out of the Commons in favour of their Tory challengers.

The Tories are seven points up compared to three years ago, on 40%, while Labour are 11 points down, on 32%.

The poll also found that Mr Cameron is a more popular choice of prime minister than Mr Brown. Some 47% said the Tory leader would make the best premier, compared to 34% for Mr Brown.

Mr Brown faces potential humiliation in his first electoral test in the local and London mayoral elections on Thursday.

Amid predictions of a backlash at the polls, the Prime Minister insisted it was Tory and Liberal Democrat councils that were letting down "hard-working families".

In an article for the Sunday Mirror, Mr Brown said: "Whatever the differences and debates of the past week, I know every member of the Labour Party will be working flat out over the next few days to bring this choice alive to people, and show them why it is vital to get out and vote Labour on Thursday.

"And just as we showed them last week in relation to the 10p tax rate and the support we give to pensioners and workers on low incomes, Labour is always ready to listen to people's concerns, and take action on them."

i watched red ken livingstone on question time last week.....it was hilarious!

i saw him before in past on programme and he goes on about russia etc in past.
but last week he went on about how great london is as it has so many nationalities....250 or something.

but russia was just one main nationality.....russian! if he believes in that ideal, then it means conrolling the people......you cant have your cake and eat it.

its a deep slur on stalin to be compared wth brown......stalin got things done .....rightly or wrongly or brutally, he still did things.....he gave free education.

anyway the economy is knackered here and banks are f??ked......it will take a decade at least to sort this counry out and thats getting some of the best people in......i actually think it will be decades before uk improves .....we have so many society and welfare problems too

Great to watch the live debate with Ken and Boris what a great form of entertainment.

.but wasn't Boris dreadful - he just cannot think on his feet - and very rarely answered the question - pitiful

Can't understand the fuss.
Its a silly little parochial dispute about who will trash the city next. It belongs on local radio (at best) not national TV. It is about as relevant for the majority of the population as who wins the Unibond premier league.
Kens made a ball of chalk of it and so will the next, but who cares. The resident might, but thats about it. For the rest of the country, London is somewhere to avoid going, and Ken made that easier with silly congestion charges etc.
There should be more focus on the problems that face the entire country, not three failed politicains fighting to be Dick Whittington and lead a city, and its loosely affiliated tribes up the creek.
The best possible result, all round, would be no votes cast for anyone. That might demonstrate that the whole office is pointless, needless, failing and a waste of everyones time and money.

i agree hewitt.......most people in uk avoid london.

i went for 1st time in 1999 and was amazed at amount of foreigners and especially folk that cant speak english.....i booked into an establishd hotel and even receptionist could barely speak english. even getting a rain ticket i couldnt understand the guy trying to serve me.

i wont be going to london again even though it has great theatre and sightseeing. well not unless someone cleans the city up which wont happen.

boris did try to answer questions on question time.......even though some people make fun of him, i think boris cares and is actually quite intellectual....its just that in front of tv, he stumbles across words