The Last Throw of the Dice . . .

Bank of England cuts interest rates to lowest in more than 300 years

When will it dawn on our "leaders" that a reduction of 0.5% in the nominal rate of interest will have no discernable effect on the economy and its inexorable descent. The issue is not one of affordability - it is an issue of availability.

Only by following the Conservative's proposals by backing a government guarantee of all bank loans will market conditions improve - but then the government didn't come up with the idea. Labour understands that the adoption of a Conservative policy would be an admittal that the PBR was a colossal faliure and, by association, immediately torpedo their clocal untruth that the Conservatives are the "do nothing party".

As the Telegraph states this morning: "It is time the Government threw itself at the downturn aggressively, and that means adopting good ideas, whatever their provenance. This is not the time for petty politics."

Labour would rather we all suffered - whilst its substantial client state remains insulated - than admit its policy failings.