Once again this "government" is showing it's incompetence and shortsightedness by finding short term ineffective solutions to BIG problems. This government are a complete bunch of clowns, except they're not very funny at all!!

Simon jordan, Rye, England

"For it is a broadly based economic recovery, combined with prudent tax, spending, and asset sale plans over the medium term" he [Brown] said.

Asset sale plans? What assets? Please tell me Brown's not eyeing up the gold again.

When it all hits the fan, i hope Nulab haven't secured another term

Steve, Leeds, UK

Mr Brown keeps pointing out that the recession was created entirely in the US. I'm so glad no British banks approved inflated loans at low interest rates for amounts above the real value of homes to people who couldn't afford to pay them back. Because that would have been terrible.

Chris, Farnham,

The really frightening thing is that Brown couldn't see that the ever increasing levels of debt and house price inflation he let happen were unsustainable, and that it was inevitable that we'd end up where we are now. I stupidly hoped1997 was the end of Labour's usual tax, borrow and spend policies.

John , Manchester,

An obscene government peddling an obscene brand of social envy, sole purpose being to get re-elected. 'Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely' - Lord Acton. Brown, Darling and McFall should go home and at least allow us to clean up our mess, which of course they created.

Larry, Sunningdale, England

gordon browns,invited private equity companies into britain too buy up british companies and he only taxed them 18% and that is when these private equity companies or better known as non doms sold their company on,so brown saying he his going to tax big earners more,its just a election gimmick.

thomas, wallasey, uk

Brown is out of touch with reality. At best, his tinkering will have only a marginal effect on the length or depth of the UK recession. The National Debt is set to double to around £70,000 per household within 5 years and Brown's irresponsible borrowing will have to be repaid by generations to come.

Melchet, Edinburgh, UK

Gordon brown is now a yes man, tax cuts now to ensure another 4 years, a full 4 years at no. 10. The majority of the uk will see it in good light, and re- elect him!
After all, we know how good a leader he is. After all he was our "wise chancellor" who sold our gold when prices were worthless!

Lee, Hazel Grove, Recession kingdom

Rex Lester,
you clearly have no sense of how this country operates its tax system. you are taxed in bands so only everything you earn over 150,000 is taxed at 45%

Alex, London, England

Absolute nonsense and utterly divorced from the real world of commerce - a marginal reduction in prices of primarily non-essential goods which will be entirely lost in the huge administration burden on businesses and accountants. Stupid even by Gordon Brown's standards

Benjamin, Gloucester,

I think all your comments are wide off the mark and you are living in gaaga land .the realiy is this is a global crisis and we should be patriotic,Camerons answer is a windbag reaction not a leaders.Tories never remember do all they think is unemployment is an answer to pay,think!

denis regan, harbin, china

i think this show's how little the goverment knows about living on the bread line when you have no money to spend a cut in the vat is not going to help you spend when you got no money.

steve leach, andover, england

Normal service from the left wing. Tax the wealth creators (many of whom might chose to spend more time with there families as a rate of 45% means that the state will keep more of their pay than they do once National Insurance Tax is added) pile up a defict and leave it to the next lot to sort out!

Simon , London, UK

Most of the damage to our economy was done
last year as banks borrowed international money
well above our base rate...........

Our economy will contract back to a more
realistic size. I'm sure Brown knows all
that can be done,.. is to soften the impact.

M . Walker, Nr. Bromsgrove, Worcs.

Labour is a busted flush.
These acts to stimulate the economy are marginal.
2% off taxed goods? Increased tax rates for people capable of using tax shelters? A tax rebate that will be used to save or pay off debts rather than spend?
Its like using a peashooter to bring down a charging elephant.

Geoff Miller, Brittany,, France

Anything is better than just leaving it as it is. I just hope it works because if it doesen't we'll end up having the Tories re-elected, and that would be a complete and utter disaster.

tony, Manchester, UK

Hilary, it's even worse than that, it is a reduction of £2.50 on every £117.50 spent. £100 plus VAT. I imagine that most retailers will use this to increase their margins, much as the banks did with the reduction in base rates.

David Leslie, Perth, Scotland

World markets have given their opinion of Brown's policy for overcoming the economic crisis. The pound has plunged yet again at mid-day by another 1% and still falling.

Richard, Alicante, Spain

If I was a retailer making lower margins this year, I would not pass the reduction on to customers. I cannot be compelled to do so.

The pound shop won't become the 97.87p shop will it!

MS, West Cumbria, UK

Surely the long term affect will be to further categorise the inward trend to overcapitalise on ependiture

james, leicester, uk

S Barnes - The best and most sensible comment that has been made all year, in any publication.

Spot on..

David, London, uk

So who thinks that every single retailer out there is going to reduce their prices automatically for the VAT reduction? Absolutely no way will this happen - it's a logistical nightmare. The retailers will be the only ones to profit, it will be a fiasco to rival decimalisation!

Steve, London, UK

If you look at all the graphs and stats in 1997 then you will see it was all heading in a good direction. If he had left the it all alone he would be the most sucessfull chancellor ever.
he didnt and we are all in the soup.

Doing nothing is a real viable option.

jluisada, birmingham, UK

Isn't it lovely to see how happy Gordon is? Makes one feel the recession is the answer to his prayers!

Mel, Warminster, U.K.

Mr Brown seems intent on blaming the Americans for OUR banking crisis. Let's get one thing clear, the Americans did not tell British banks to fuel the house price boom by lending irresponsibly, Mr Brown you did it, you took the credit in the good times, now be a man an accept the blame when it's bad

Steve, London, UK

"To fail to act now would be not only a failure of economic policy but a failure of leadership." The astonishing thing is that his smugness suggests that he truly fails to see the connection between the mess we're in and his leadership failures. His arrogance is astonishing.

Nick, Rotherham, UK

Hooray for Muppet Gordon. Give people loads a money. What makes him think they will behave differently to the Banks who he has thrown billions at. They are hoarding their cash, so we will follow their example. Shops have reduced prices by 25%, if that doesn't get us to spend 2.5% has no chance.

alan, Carlisle, uk

S Barnes - whether or not one agrees with you that 'High earners should... share the bad' times - on the basis that the top 1% pays 23% of taxes already, any tax hikes may simply mean that the high earners shuffle off to less punitively taxed locations, meaning that we lose out on all their money

pr, South Woodford, UK

What the hell is wrong with this government? As S Barnes' post has pointed out - recession gives us a great opportunity to think about what got us here in the first place, and change our strategy.

The problem is, Brown will hit us all with higher taxes soon. This 45% is a naive decoy.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

"Mr Darling is also expected to announce plans to get banks lending to small companies again".

Shoudn't that have been one of the "strings attached" to the bank bail-out in the first place? Yet another enormous blunder.

Duncan, Bristol, UK

Who is going to be inspired to purchase goods by only a 2.5% reduction on VAT? £2.50 saving on a £100 spend!! Inspired yet?? This came about by gov inspired culture of spend and borrow, the gov is using same formula in a recession. We Just have to wait for the country to be repossessed now!!

Hilary, glasgow,

There is nothing wrong with recession. A recession provides a moment of sanity in a disturbingly basic financial system. With any luck Mr. Browns efforts will ensure that it doesn't affect the public at large. High earners share the good times and they should share the bad - I have no complaints

S Barnes, London, England

Surely Prudence Brown headline should "Tax cut now means lower public spending which in turn means lower taxes later."
As the architect of a bloated government which has not been able to keep within spending limits, people have stopped listening to him!

steve tea, manchester, cheshire

No no no no no

We got into this mess by overspending and borrowing and a short term economic view.

Now this imbecile thinks the answer is more overspending, borrowing and an even shorter term view.

The economy and the markets collapsed for a reason. That reason is still there. Engage brains!

Laura Roberts, London, UK

err doesn't that amount to, if I spend every penny I've got I'll be richer?-not quite sure I follow the logic there

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

The VAT reduction is another Brown inspired fiasco. Overcomplicated by far.
Why not ABOLISH SOMETHING?
Abolish NHI payments for employer and employee is a good way to go. Everyone in work sees an immediate benefit, close the government department and redeploy the staff.

Dave Clemo, Kettering,

I wonder if the Government will increase the tax on bonus payments as well? If not some may take a pay cut to below 150K with the balance paid as a bonus at only 40%

Rex Lester, Surbiton, UK

If the economy isn't helped now the recession will be longer and deeper. This will result in Government spending more in benefits and receive less in taxes as the recession hits. By boasting it now, it will save us loads down the line.Think of all those business's going bust? Tories talking nonsense

Gabe Martin, Blandford, England

What is Mr Brown doing to stimulate manufacturing/wealth creating business in the UK. The (financial) service economy is gone, utilities have been sold so what else is there? It seems fairly futile to provide incentives to spend if the employment base has been flushed down the toilet by Mr Brown.

Ian McDonald, Auckland, New Zealand

Hmm, smart move, NOT! Now all the rich people who incidentally employ LOTS of people will take their cash and their jobs too elsewhere but I suppose it doesn't matter if unemployment figures go up as you can always cover them up by claiming they're "incapacitated" instead. Yet ANOTHER VERY dumb move

Anthony , London, England

Brown is a disgrace - his only mantra is spend spend spend. The UK public have over borrowed, now he is going to raise taxes and borrow billions to try and get us spending ever more. It will all need paying back but he hopes we are all to stupid to relaise until he is re-relected.

TC, London, UK

The sad fact is that had the prime minister recognised earlier that there was an impending recession and taken action sooner then the consequences for UK would have been less severe. It is his failure to face reality that has led to the disaster now overtaking us.

A.Williams, Cradley Heath,

And exactly how does Gordon suggest we measure the effects of his stimulus package? By the height of the wave when the tsunami hits fully? How high would it have been anyway? Impure politics from a deceitful politician.

Let's be clear
Who got us here!

Paul Freeman, London, England