Never will Brown be able to claim that he intends to break away from the spin and deceit of the Blair era. His final budget has confirmed him to be part of the problem, and not its solution.

Roger, Berkhamsted, UK

Does The chancellor think we are idiots ? I f we allow this deplorable government back into leadership then he will have been proved to be right. To subsidise lower taxes for the better off by raising them for the less well off is a very mean and callous act. Do we want such a sad , pathetic , boring man to run the country? I certainly do not and shall strive hard to see that this will not happen! Gordon you are a sad ,sad man whose motives are transparent even to the least of us ! I'd say your time is up. What are we doing letting the Scots rule us in this way?

Patrick Nuttgens, Newon Abbot, Devon

The reason only 25% think Brown acts like Stalin is due to the state of our education system. Most young people do not know who Winston Churchill is, let alone Stalin.

Finbar Taggit, Victoria, Seychelles

What we wanted was a simplification to our complicated tax system. We got it BUT Gordon thought he would sneek in major tax rises at the same time.

Stop treating the public like idiots and bring us some responsible politics!

Richard, Plymouth, UK

Thank you Mr Brown, your final mindless budget will ensure that you have no future in number 10. You can only fool most of the people some of the time! What little respect you have for the British people!

Clive, London, UK

I used to think that "The Budget" was to explain to the general public how last years national figures turned out' And how the chancellor expects next years figures to turn out, allowing for various tax changes,and some new ideas like 'green taxes'. But now we are presented with a mathematical puzzle specifically intended to baffle and mislead even very well informed members of the public. Furtheremore just what right has the chancellor to present his own political ideas some ten or even fifteen years hence. Any sensible politician knows guessing the future is a very dangerous game!

DAVID VINTER, LOUTH, LINCS, UK.

How do you call an election before one is due? I am so appauled at this Government and ashamed to say I voted them in . . .

Tracy, Bury, Lancashire

10 years is a long time to keep the wool pulled over people's eyes. Blair has given him plenty of rope and look what he seems to have done with it.

mike, Midlands, UK

Labour was formed to look after the working Man's interest..
But with the deadly Duo in charge, Brown & Blair,You wouldn't
think so.Brown increasing the Tax on the very people, they were formed to represent.And Blair allowing millions to stay in this Country.
To increase the competition. for the workers jobs .And now saying we have to do something about congestion.

A Walton, Leicester, England

Gordon Brown has shown that he is the greatest Magician, his sleight of hand is unbelievable. What is worse is his sheer arrogance in saying people will not be worse off. Has he any idea at all how people scrimp and save on fixed incomes in this country today. He and he alone has made our tax system and credits into a degree needed to understand it.
Why would that be, well of course so that he can do just what last week produced.

Council Tax is another area where the treasury have tinkered, by reducing the money to local authorities, they are even more hard pressed to balance their books.

Never mind our Tone is in europe today signing us all away forever. This country is truly sinking with this rotten adminstration, roll on May!

Anna, Teesside, UK

'Brown doubles taxes for poorest'

Replacing the 10% rate with 20% is exactly that.

SO why hasn't that appeared on any front page yet?

MarkS, Leeds,

So much for the party of the workers. I live in the north west and £18k a year is a salary that most jobs do not even go near. And yet, Gordon Brown seems to think that i earn too much and he needs the money to pay for high earners.
I rent my house as house prices are too high, my job doesn't have a pension and local buses are just not very local.
Now i have to pay more in tax, along with my council tax increase.
What happened..!!!

Milton Friedman, st helens, merseyside

The complexity of the current tax system was created by Brown and this does little to improve the situation. I feel sorry for the pensioner and the low paid workers who will suffer with the abolition of the 10% rate just to give the illusion of a tax cut.

A James, Croydon, Surrey

Gordon Brown has blown any chance he had of garnering my vote with this last budget.

In subsequent interviews, he has attempted to say that it was a very serious budget aimed at greater fairness for "hardworking families" and at achieving greater social equity. Yet all the knowledgeable commentators are saying that the opposite will be the case.

If he thinks the budget is so serious, why did he treat it as a blatant piece of political theatre? I don't think the Conservative Front Bench were really thrown by his final income tax reduction announcement.

Joe Jones, London, UK

I am 67 years old with reasonable pension and not qualified for age related increase in pension for 65 to 74 age group. I will be worse off by about £40 a year.
I am more worried about low paid single workers those earning less than £17000.
I am terrified by the likely effect of abolishing 10% band on poor widows, partcularly those who are living alone and have moderate income say £10000 to 13000 which bring them into paying tax. Many of them do not know how to claim all the benefits.
I urge Mr.Brown to rethink about abolishing 10% bracket.
I have traditionally voted labour, but I will not do again if Mr.Brown becomes PM.
KT
North East Lincolnshire

Kirit, Grimsby, North East Lincs

Brown has been managing the economy in an extremely irresponsible way for all but the first two or three years of his rule. In a prosperous country during a period of sustained economic growth, taxes have been very substantially increased, yet most public services find themselves so short of money as to be incapable of even providing the basic necessities. The amount of waste is truly mind-boggling: why on earth, for example, is the government spending millions upon millions changing the name of the judicial committee of the House of Lords to the "Supreme Court" and moving it to what used to be the Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court, when its function, powers and composition remains exactly the same? This has been a government of form over substance for the last ten years.

James E. Petts, Slough, England

The Brown Budget might be an insult to the intelligence but "New Labour" have been getting away with these insults ever since they were elected. The very term "New Labour" is on a par with the average washing powder advert.
I can only presume that the majority of Labour voters don't have a great deal of intelligence to be insulted in the first place. I have a friend who wouldn't have voted for Hague because he was bald.....

Steve Blencowe, Northampton,

Brown is a very deceitful man, as evidenced by his budget which was intended to give the impression he was cutting taxes, but in reality wasn't. His comments afterwards that he was reforming the tax system are a deceit - he created much of the current complexity and if he was honest he would have said at the beginning that he was changing the taxes to reform them. We still have a huge budget deficit in the middle of a boom, and when the inevitable slowdown occurs there will be no money to offset it. Not only that, we will be forced to cut govt spending and raise taxes when the government should be doing the opposite. If there was a slowdown next year or the year after say, then the deficit would rise by 30-40 billion within a couple years as tax receipts fall and expenditure rises.

Neil Murphy, cromer,

This Budget is nothing more than an insult to our intelligence. We have been over-taxed and insulted by this Government's attitude towards us for years but now they can't even conceal their "wheeling and dealing" sufficiently to avoid detection for 24 hours.
They have got away with insulting us for far too long.

Chris, Shawbury, England

Its time for a change of government.
Too much for too long.
Gordon Brown is a stale egg, causing a stink wherever he goes.
Prescott can't keep his eggs in the basket.
Tony Blair is star struck and cannot choose safe collegues or friends well, and the same goes for his wife.
The rest of them are spinning so fast they don't know what they are doing.
Time to go - all of them.
Change for changes sake is the safe way forward.

py, sw, essex

The budget was a Scam, with the alledged tax cut proving to be nothing more than a smoke screen for increasig stealth taxes.

Steve Benstead, Glasow, UK

I think he is a mixture of Robin Hood and the Sherif of Notinham. On one hand he wants to distribute wealth but somehow he is ruthless in his tax collection and policies, which sometimes he makes those who are not the poorest but are working very hard to survive pay very high duties through all sort of hidden taxes.

As Prime Minister we hope is not as has been described, (Stanlin). We already have suffered this with Mr Blair.

Pepita, London, London

I suspect Mr Brown will surprise everyone as PM. After all, when Mrs Thatcher became leader of tjhe Tory party, Rab Butler said "We don't, ermm, have to take this Thatcher woman seriously, do we?" ... and look what happened to her ... 3 general election wins in a row.

K Philips, London,

To Dick, in Aberdeen, Brown has not increased corporation tax for SMEs as you state. In fact he has increased it by 15.78%.

Ben, London, UK

If Brown was hoping that his budget would impact positively on Labour's fortunes in the forthcoming Scottish Elections then he's made a huge error of judgement.

98% of Scottish businesses are SMEs and wee Gourdie just increased their corporation tax by 3%... Smart eh !

Dick, Aberdeen,

Were I Conservative politician, I would be praying that Brown becomes the next leader of the Labour party. This will also result in him receiving even more exposure which will not work in his favour. At the same time, the ridiculous myth of his being a financial wizard will be eventually seen for what it is - a myth.

geoffrey speller, HaleBarns,

After Gordon Browns budget speech i would have thought the obvious question for the opposition to ask would have been what happened to the 'Golden Rule'? (trumpeted in all previous budget speeches). The Golden Rule has been quietly shelved, it is now a fraction of its former length and somewhat tarnished, follows a familiar pattern, clobber people with an ever increasing tax bill, borrow increasing amounts on the world money markets, and yet feel able to commit to £80,000,000,000 of spending in the previous week (renewal of Trident and the Olympic Games). I thought Scotsmen were supposed to be frugal, this guy now reminds me of people that get a visit from the bailiffs ( But that's because their taxed to death, not because their profligate) only its not his furniture that will be repossessed its ours (Our Schools, Hospitals, Dentists, Transport System, etc).
Simon, Leeds U.K.

Simon Ulrick, Leeds, U.K.

It is now becoming clear what a disastrous mistake Labour would make by replacing Blair with Brown.
Blair has the charisma to make Labour look acceptable; Brown emphatically has not.

Dave, Southampton, UK

The decline in middle aged middle class voters supporting Brown is hardly surprising. His preoccupation with child poverty is merely encouraging yet more feckless single mothers to give birth whilst we are expected to support them via our taxes. These children, who have grown up under a labour government will, in turn, assume the state will keep them. Meanwhile, our children, whom we have supported throughout university, have a mountain of debt, and cannot themselves afford children or housing. Does he think we have a bottomless pit? I have voted labour throughout my life. I never thought I would yearn for a Tory government, but I cannot wait for Cameron to win power. We have had enough of Labour!

Sophie Broke, UK,