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?

Frank Field, a leading Labour backbencher has stated that he believes Brown will not lead the party into the next General Election. It was he, of course, that was sidelined after his views against Browns actions on pension funds. He commands much respect and this may be the begining of the end for Brown.

I do feel a trifle sorry for the man--bear baiting and death by a thousand knives comes to mind! on the other hand if you can't take the heat etc...

Labour is totally trash. And its leader is the same too

They've had it, they've shot their own feet off and they treat the general public like we are idiots.

Good riddance Brown in 2 years time, he won't be able to not call the election then because he thinks they will win it :-))

I am reminded of my old mate Denis Skinner (love him or hate him, he at least is true to his convictions) addressing Major in the twilight years of Tory rule.
"For Gods sake, GO. And take the rest of the ragtag and bobtail with you."

I may be wrong but, I can not say that I have heard him say anything similar on this occasion. Perhaps he has lost his voice. On the other hand, I have heard Frank Field say plenty.

All Gordon needs to survive, is another war like the Falkland. Sit on a tank with handkerchief like Magpie, blow up a ship in international waters killing just "a few foreigners". If he does that all the Tories will be out in strength to vote him back in.

The problem is, which country, Syria, Iran. West Bank. The problem Brown will have is persuading himself that it is in the National interest to do so. At least Brown knows where those countries are. The Bush didn't, but "Mission was Accomplished". The right wing policies being suggested above, brought about the present chaos in the American economy.



I think Gordon will still be PM in 4 years time.

That should be no problem withdraw the troops in Iraq and invade Iran after all its only next door and it will teach Iran an important lesson in democracy and give support to Brown in the next Election.

I'm in favor of a new war in Iran it makes perfect sense and Brown is the right man to lead us.

You wish Fred1new. The cat is out of the bag for Brown. Its nothing to do with right wing this and left wing that, that has caused the mess, it has been sheer greed and incompetence and disrespect for anything that seems fair. Don't forget New Labour have been there 10 years. I can not see what help Iraq was to Blair if that is your argument. Its time to see old labour take back the party. At least you can have respect for them and can at least see what they stand for. New Labour would have done ultra right wing Tories proud with their cosying up to the Mega rich. Go on Frank Field give them hell.

Yes thats right mitzy put him in the front line

See politicalbetting.com. Mention of a Times article saying that privately many ministers are now opposed to Brown remaining as Prime Minister. His days would seem numbered. The high turn out coupled with the 18% swing to the Conservatives at Crewe and Nantwitch is probably the final straw. I cannot see them pursuading him to go quietly. To try and save some face, a deputy will probably be appointed under the pretense that he is being groomed to be next leader under an understanding that the deputy will take over in a few months. However, the sooner he goes the better the chances the party has to recover some ground before the General Election in 2010. imho.

Trouble is - the Tory's will have to sort Brown's mess out which may be painful for the UK electorate and they won't be happy.

Brown has led us to believe we can spend forever without any comeback - the Tory's will seem strict in comparison and Mr Typical Labour voter won't be able to comprehend that toughness and strictness is a good thing.

Therefore, the Tory's wil lhave to get back in to sort things out once again and then they will be voted out because we like things easy.....

There's no justice....... only Taxman (Brown) and Boy Blunder (Darling) get ousted......

As for the people who voted for this Labour Government, maybe they could be forgiven for one term, but as we should have all knowed from the 70s Labour will always revert to Tax and Spend, and surprise surprise now we have a financial crisis and recession, we have a huge budget deficit at the worst possible time.

Now I know that this Government wasn't responsible for this recession, like the conservative government wasn't responsible in the early 90s, but at least we had reserves to re-inflate the economy then.

I haven't heard much comment from people who keep voting them in again and again, our economy has been so damaged by this government, as you can tell you shouldn't have got me started on this scotinvester, now I have had my rant I will go and have a stiff drink.

bloodly fools/ i wonder if you lot are any good at shares/??? because it looks to me that you ARE NO GOOD AT POLITCAL RANTS/ they ARE ALL AS BAD AS EACH OTHER/ SHOOT MTHE LOT OF THEM/////FREEDOM YES//////////

God help us.

They put so much teflon on Tony there was none left for poor old Gord

gordon promised reducing civil servants but is taking more work away from private and giving it to public funds....thus increasing numbers...and we have to pay civil servants pensions who also retire early.
most if not all major public funded projects are a mess as they r run by people who aint a clue how a project is run and so overspend by about 3 times.....they cant negotiae deals either.

tony blair has left gordon other problems like now having to secure our safety as every uk person in world is a terrorist target......so costs to iraq and security at home are massive. tony changed society in apathetic uneducated morons....oh ok they are about 10-20% of people in uk that have a brain but that aint much.....i've met so many foreigners in last 2 years that say that uk people are 1 of worst educated countries.
and of course the widespread violence and vandalism.....can u see a policeman....no, thought not.....as they r too busy filling out hundreds of forms.
postAL service is a disgrace too in uk since labour.

agree spitfire, labour never save and tony has made people not save either when in mrs. t day, 8% was saved.
we have housing crisis which is predicted to be the worst since great depression of 30s......but we have huge personal debt now....credit card debt is 17 billion and rising......people never had such debt until this gov came to power.

all this leads onto stock market.......read tonight that average bear market lasts 1 year and comes once every 4 years.....but we had long bull runs in 80s and 90s apart from a couple of years.....guess who was in power....yes, conservative party thats why.

i rest my case

ps: are there any brits left in this shithole of a country

Yeah but he does allow shorting scotty .... that gotta be a big plus :-)

he doesnt understand free market or stock market.......even pakistan has outlawed short selling and angela merkel of germany and italian finance minister are against it.

gb doesnt allow it......he probably just doesnt know it exists....he's a brainless womble thats done nothing in life

apologies to any brainless wombles who may be offended

But this is Tory capitalist theory in practice. The fat get fatter and the lean go to the wall.

The sub prime market was due to fine capitalist theory on practice, grab, greed.lies and borrowing to make more without respect of others. Flog anything for what you can get not necessary for its value. Suck others into the madness.

5 years ago if the government had tried to step in with legislation there would have been the outcry of government intervention. When a moneylender gets caught out, there is immediate cry by people shouting that the government must step in to save the capitalist bacon. Northen Rock is a typical example of bleating tory capitalist policies. It should have been left to go to the wall.

How the the government is responsible for the majority of present inflation points to the blindness of the public who wish to be responsible for good times and blame anyone else for the bad.

I would like to hear what realistic proposals a Political Spiv like Cameron proposes to deal with the present economic problems this country and the world is encountering.

What we are seeing at he moment if the effect of large (international companies) due to their financial sizes, having disproportionate effects on various country economics when they make the make mistakes.

There may be a case for not allowing a company to have a turnover above a certain proportion of the total GDP of a country.