Doesn't really matter to me as i am on a discounted rate until next year. You watch it'll all change when I'm ready to look for a new mortgage! Just my look

Well said Action man.

As an ex-teacher any spare money going into schools would be better spent on text books and enough teachers to keep class sizes to a managable level ie. 30 at most. I would like to see him try to teach when there aren't even enough text books to have one between 2.

Yes Brown certainly is throwing money around like there's no tomorrow & an unlimited 'pot' available! He's not available as he is busy working out with Mr. Motivator! First things first! The economy is the last thing on his mind at the mo!!

Re the v.large bonus to teachers in underpriviledged schools - these schools are probably ones with no control over their pupils. What about the conscientious teachers who have got it right & not allowed their schools to go out of control, and have earned respect from the children due to their hard work & long hours - are they to get nothing! Some teachers are just too lax & allow their pupils to get out of control - are they the ones to be rewarded? Wrong priorities here again Gord!

Another thing - what about the hairbrained idea to open bank accounts with a lump sum for each newborn child with our money? It is the family's responsibility to do this, not ours! Another incentive for unsuitable people to have more kids!

On another note, I do not want to be ungrateful but I got an extra £60 on my pension this week! Now I am not on benefit so why? When I rang Pensions to ask what it was, I was told Brown had given this one extra payment to all pensioners. Now what is the reason for this payment, to try to raise his popularity with the large amount of pensioners & what good will it do? We need a permanent rise to our pensions to put us on a par with other Euro countries. Not a paltry patronising one-off bonus to keep us quiet!! We are not being fooled Gord!

We also need a decent rate of interest on our savings for which we have saved over the years to supplement our pension instead of spending our money on bigger & bigger mortgages as some have done! Then they moan that they have to pay interest on mortgages & some are sarcastic when we complaint about low savings interest in this Forum. They ought to remember our savings are our own saved money which WE have earned & not spent, and are investing for our future (ha-ha). Your mortgages are other people's money which you borrow & have not earned, so you should pay for the priviledge!

Anyway, must go as feet are freezing & need a cuppa after all that - I bet Brown's feet are not cold & I bet he enjoyed his priviledged lunch today! No worries about his heating bill at No. 10, WE pay for that also!

This morning I tried to send e-mail to the No.10 Govt address in an attempt to bring the Forum to his attention.

Guess what? They are working on the site and it will not be available for some time. Now isn't that convenient?

Now GB has a good excuse for not answering the massive criticism of his ideas of handling the crisis.

By now some of it must have reached him but his only reaction is to issue more unworkable solutions. Like today its lets give teachers a £10,000 bonus for working in underpriveliged schools. At least he is consistent in just inventing more ways of spending our taxes on crazy schemes that will never work. He should have a chat with teachers who have or still do work in these schools and he will hear some home truths. Of course it could be another of GB's ruses to steer attention away from the real issue. Remember - 'Stealth' is the way he likes to work.

When I was working I was sent to work wherever I was needed and there were no bonuses. If you feel it necessary to give bonuses, then give it to those who really do the dirty and/or unpleasant work. They know who they are but don't start a stampede.

It is surely true that there are more capable people not in Government who contribute their ideas in forums such as this than all the elected MP's and ahem! "expert advisors". So why not listen to what they say at least, and answer them.

Put it another way - would it be possible to make a bigger hash of the job if you set out to really try and do so?

Maybe G Brown thinks that on GMTV he is less likely to have it pointed out to him that when all this mess started he was the one that held the pursestrings.

lowering interest rates exacerbates the shrinking economy by forcing savers to save more and/or spend less.

I know why we havent had comment from Government on this, well from Brown anyway! He has been too busy with appearing on GMTV & entertaining important people like Mr. Motivator & Dr. Hilary et al at No. 10. Of course with all this important stuff, how could he possibly have time for lesser issues as running the Country or saving it from ruin?? Perhaps he thinks this will distract us & we will not think about such things!

What next? Are we to see Brown in a flowery leotard at Westminster? Uugghhh! The mind boggles. What an apt name our unelected PM has !!!! Good morning.

BOSS1

I have to agree with you over the BoE. The only individual who can do anything about that must be our friend Gordon B. After all, he has filled the banks coffers with our taxes that he will undoubtably start stealing from us. As the people effectively now own the banks why has he not called time on them? If a company is bankrupt and gets resued by pouring money into it, the control of that company passes over to the one holding the purse strings. What is different with the banks?

For years he and his predecessors have constantly screwed up the economy with plunging us into debt, high taxation, selling off the crown jewels in the form of our industry, (little wonder we have high unemployed), stealth taxes, keeping the poor at poverty level, making the scroungers better off than the pensioners and even many in employment, rewarding assett strippers, allowing the fat cats to name their own insultingly high salaries and bonuses - have I missed anything? Oh yes I almost forgot. Rewarding MP's with big fat salaries and tax free expenses that I prefer to call a bonus. Early in my career as a Professional Engineer my salary was on a par with MP's. When I retired It was down to about a half. If I was working now it would be down further to a third. Is it any wonder the kids are not taking up Engineering as a profession.

I have an explanation for this inequality - GREED.

My argument is with the bank of Engand base rate, that has been far to high, it had to come down and has to come down further! It also needs to come down further simply because over the Brown years it has been used as another tax take for the gov. taking money out of the economy. Now what is inexcusable is the banks et all not reducing their rates with BoE base especialy after we have given them lots of taxpayer money. There is a different equasion involved within the system though, as there is no reason why any bank or building society can't pay a decent margin to savers the only reason is that the BoE gave them to much money so there is no competitive need for them to pay more to savers!

After all the debate we have still not heard a tweet from a MP. I wonder why.

With all the anti government argument, and the fact that around 70% of the contributors are clearly not happy with the interest rate cut, we still await a comment from them.

I ask why they are not listening to the opinions of the electorate. We are all entitled to our views, so let us hear theirs.

I too paid 15%+ in the 1980's for my mortgage and like you have low interest on savings now but I don't think it will last forever. Despite the government assuring us (LOL) that low interest rates are the answer to everything. It doesn't appear to be working. Look at the news, everyday another business goes into administration with more job losses. How is that helping?

BOSS. I am pleased you picked up the TAX bit of my last moan. I had to smile this morning, Not because it was funny but another glaring example of the government running around like headless chickens, as they annouce incentives to employers for taking on the long term unemployed.

This can only be another waste of our money. I would have thought it obvious that if employers really need to take on staff they would allready HAVE done so. Especially when most are having to lay off workers.

I can't imagine an employer falling for a few £1000 handout then paying out in excess £10,000 in wages and insurance unless they need to.. Anyway, they would want to select the best candidate to suit their requirements.

Just another example of our elected leaders not having a clue of what the crisis of their doing is all about.

We need to send a clear message to Gordon Brown to pass on to his government. "PLEASE STOP WASTING OUR MONEY AND START THINKING OF HOW TO SAVE IT - NOT SPEND IT!!!!!!!"

You got it in the last lines of the last paragraph correct : TAX all governments and polititions for many reasons take too much money from low wage people then waste it ! Why do you wonder at the so called black economy? With a lot of folk that is the only way they can survive if they do not qualify for state aid.

Time to sum up I think!

So we have two camps. One are the borrowers. The other the lenders. We could have guessed the outcome of a poll without all the venting of our feelings in this forum.

Let us take a general concensus, One camp welcomes the interest rate cut, the other does not. OK in the YES camp there are arguments depending on what type of mortgage they have. Again fairly predictable.

Wiuthout trying to ruffle more feathers. The borrowers should not expect to have the use of other peoples money without paying a fair return in exchange. Likewise the lenders should not expect to fleece the borrowers. OK so far but what IS a fair rate?

Let us start at the bottom and suggest a rate of 0% for lenders and borrowers. Borrowers will not be able to buy a house as the pot is empty.The lenders money is under the mattress.

Now let us go to the other extreme - this can only be a guess since it is hypothetical. Lets go to 15% for lenders and 20% for borrowers. No one can afford to have a mortgage since they would never afford to pay it off (dont they call that renting???????????). Lenders would be overjoyed but they will not be because no one can afford to borrow and the banks would not be able to pay the interest and go bust. Lenders would loose their money. Now that sounds familiar, I must have heard that somewhere! Sorry thats me being facious again.

So, somewhere between these figures there must be a a figure that is both fair to the lender and the borrower. Can I suggest that the current rates are too close to the 0% for lenders, and invested savings will soon dry up. Whoever dreamt up this crazy way of getting the economy moving must believe in faries.

The fair figure must be enough to interest the lender but not too much to scare away the borrower. Really this is so simple thinking that it makes you wonder why we are in such a mess. Does anyone really NOW beleive the downward spiral in interest rates is fair to BOTH camps. Remember the chicken and the egg. In money terms there can be no money to borrow if there is none to lend. The lender holds the ace card. They want a fair return or they can withdraw their savings. There are allready groups of people who deal only in cash and they pay no tax. Could there be a whole lot more very soon?

Hi All.

I am in the position of having a fixed rate mortgage at 5.6% and some savings in a building society Isa, the fixed rate mortgage currently costs me £530 a month which is fixed for another 3 years, with interest rates dropping I have been looking to see if I can save some money as I am not tied to a penalty if I drop out of the fixed rate (luckily), however the rates that are around at the moment means I can reduce my payments to approx £501 which is a saving of £29 the problem is you have to factor in the fees, if I switched it would cost me a grand to do it, this would take me 34 months to claw back so it is not worth it, I think people forget the fees when considering moving mortgages, this makes it not worth moving at the moment so as I am stuck on a fixed rate above what is current and as my savings are not earning anything then no I do not welcome the rate change personally but if it works to get the country solvent again then good but I do not see how cutting rates and encouraging people to take more debt on will help in the long run.

God Help Us