UK NEWS

BROWN DEFENDS HIGHER BORROWING TO TACKLE ECONOMIC CRISIS

Monday October 27 2008 byEmily Garnham for express.co.uk

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(9)

GORDON Brown is defending plans to kick-start the beleaguered economy by boosting public spending and increasing government borrowing.

The move has fuelled heavy criticism from senior economists, who have called the Prime Minister’s strategy “misguided and discredited” and urged for tax cuts instead.

Mr Brown insisted he is right to increase public borrowing to tackle the downturn, despite the latest quarterly public debt figures hitting a record £37.6 billion - higher than the whole of the previous year.

Chancellor Alistair Darling’s forecasts of £43 billion of borrowing this year are already in tatters and some experts warned that debt could balloon to £120 billion within three years.

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We will and can allow borrowing to rise to help restore demand.

Gordon Brown

Mr Brown said: “We will and can allow borrowing to rise to help restore demand and to come to the aid of workers, businesses and homeowners.

“We have already combined targeted support through the tax system - such as the temporary increase in stamp duty thresholds, the freeze in fuel duty and the £120 tax rebate for basic-rate taxpayers - with a commitment to maintain the necessary government investment to enable Britain to benefit from the upturn.

“Through our actions we are both supporting families and businesses now and helping them prepare for the future.

"That is why the responsible course is to borrow now to maintain growth and output and to reduce borrowing as a proportion of GDP as the economy recovers and tax receipts rise again.”

Mr Brown’s speech comes as Labour’s plans to intensify welfare reforms to help deal with the fall-out from the looming recession and get one million people off benefits take effect.

The Prime Minister yesterday predicted that food and fuel bills should start to come down next year as a fall in oil prices eased the pressure on household bills.

He also hinted that the reduction could lead to further interest rate cuts.

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“Now inflation is actually coming down over the next few months and that will mean that it gives scope to all the monetary authorities, including the Bank of England, round the world to make a decision about interest rates,” said Mr Brown.

“I think over the world, you will see people responding to this lower inflation.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

IS INCREASING BORROWING A RESPONSIBLE STRATEGY?

HAVE YOUR SAY BELOW....

HIGHER BORROWING BY BROWN

28.10.08, 6:35am

Has this gormless plonker Brown not heard that
when you are in a deep hole you should stop
digging. As one of the other commets said it's
not him who will have to clean up his mess but
our children and grand children and possible
their's as well. That is the thing with politics,
nobody is held responsible for their actions,
In a private company, if you lose money you
get the fired. But this bunch of free loaders will
just keep going until the last possible moment
and all that time it will be spin and more spin,
and the Country going deeper and deeper in
debt.
And you can bet on it , that some of the people in this country still think Brown and co are doing a good job.

• Posted by: TOMAHAWK • Report Comment

MY APOLOGIES TO MAGGIE...

27.10.08, 6:24pm

Sorry Maggie, you said that didn't you...

• Posted by: TerrifiedCitizen • Report Comment

NOVEL IDEA; INCREASE DEBT TO SOLVE DEBT...

27.10.08, 5:33pm

Brown is apparently being a normal consumer. Reports show that consumers turned to increased credit and borrowing when prices and unemployment went up in order to maintain the status quo; now that's the answer isn't it?

• Posted by: TerrifiedCitizen • Report Comment

NOTHING TO DO WITH ME

27.10.08, 4:19pm

if Gordon brown is not in office when the pay back time comes for all these loans he will not be worried but wasn't it too many borrowing money they could not afford that got us in this financial mess.
It was only recently we paid back the borrowing incurred in WW 11.

• Posted by: Maggie • Report Comment

LOST IN SPACE

27.10.08, 4:17pm

MacDoom has made so many U turns that he is now only going round in circles.

• Posted by: Jgee • Report Comment

STRANGE

27.10.08, 11:38am

I thought that the high borrowing during the so called "good times" is a lot of the problem we have in this country at the moment !

Gormless McBroon, Capt Darling & all the other MP rubbish haven't got a clue, have they ! they clear one debt with the yanks, and they go and get us deep into debt with the Bank of England.

I wouldn't trust them with a childs piggy bank

• Posted by: KarlH • Report Comment