This should be fun. Unemployment with a country full of foreigners taking the jobs. Now we'll be keeping all the economic migrants on the dole. Well done Gordon.

judy, Liverpool, england

Brown Brown Brown... Out Out Out!

percy mbekanbu, Sedgefield, UK

Prosperity over the last 10 years has been built on on $3trillion worth of personal debt. Brown managed nothing except to get everyone further into debt. He is not wanted and the his only option is to tax and waste money. Stop spending the proposed $9BN on Africa for starters and give us a general election.

steve, chester, cheshire

Vic, Bradford,, "sold over half of UK gold reserves when the market tanked."

What happened was that the government actually announced the sale before hand which caused the price of gold to plummet... has to be the most stupid move in the history of sales. Of course the price is going to plummet if you announce you will be putting more gold into the marketplace... unless of course they wanted it to plummet so they could sell a little but buy a lot at knock down prices... unlikely to be the case knowing this government!

Graeme, Edinburgh,

Agree with pretty well all the comments above and Matt from London makes a particularly good point.

There is a huge difference between 'Leadership' and 'Management'. Blair and Thatcher were leaders, Brown and Major however are/were both Managers.

My money is on him never winning an election as PM...

JJH, Stratford on Avon, UK

When Brown was following Tory policies (the first couple of years) the economy was doing okay. Since he put his great clunking fist on it, it's been all downhill and I've been waiting for the chickens to come home to roost. I shan't be buying as much this Christmas - my pension is index linked to Brown's fictional inflation rate, while my council tax, fuel, utility and food bills are rising by the real rate (and Brown's income tax take is about to double next April with the abolition of the 10% band in favour of 20%). As for being taken seriously in Europe - give me a break! If we withdrew and stopped paying that grossly inefficient monstrosity called the EU (remember the accounts haven't been signed off for 13 years), we'd be quids in! We should emulate Norway and Switzerland; they're hardly poor!

Andy, Whitchurch, England

Gordon Brown is a the classic Chief Financial Officer who should never have been promoted to CEO. He lacks the strategic vision and risk taking qualities needed to lead. He is about as inspirational as Steve Maclaren. Gordon, you should have been an accountant, how did you ever come to lead our country?

General election now.

Matt, London, England

Interesting Scottish breakdown.

SNP - 32%
Labour - 31%
Con - 16%
LD - 16%
Green - 3%
UKIP - 1%
BNP - 0%
Other - 1%

May be small but it reflects the latest YouGov poll for Scotland only - SNP 32%; Lab 32%.

Is another of Gordon's legacy going to be losing Scotland entirely?

And the predicted economic downturn hasn't even started yet.

James M, Glasgow,

When Blair lied to all of us at least he lied honestly. Brown just lies without conviction.

ex labour supporter, essex, uk

Gutless Gordon has proved in a very short space of time that he was great at introducing stealth taxes, ruining pension schemes, starving British troops of adequate funding and being the Invisible Man whenever trouble arose but when it comes to running the country he is the probably the worst prime minister in centuries.

Richard , Greater London , England

Why oh why are our senior politicians so anti Europe. In 1973 we had to do a U turn to gain entry into the Community and the way the Euro is strengthening it won't be long before we are required to do another.
For as long as we allow references to America being our principal ally to go unchallenged we will always be thought of as America's trojan horse in Europe.
It's time we realised we are only America's ally when they want us to be so. Readers have only to cast their mind back to the Granada incident to see that.
The fact is, we shall not be trusted in Europe until we abandon our grandiose ideas and accept our limitations in the modern world.

Michael Smith, Medway, England

The economy did well in the last 10 years despite Bean, not because of him. He was just lifted on a rising tide like the floating turd he is.

Redcliffe, London,

Lets put the facts straight about Gordon Browns management of the economy and get rid of that misconception that he did well. Firstly Brown was handed a very positive balance of payments from John Major and it was the Tories that created it NOT Brown. Secondly Brown had a fire auction of British gold at knock down prices losing tens of millions of pounds in the process. The next stunt he pulled was to destroy the best private pension provisioning in Europe by raiding them and stealing several billions from private pensioners whilst gold plating his own and that of the civil service. Finally, in spite of all this extra money he'd scammed from the country, he had to resort to financial subterfuge on a par with Enron & Worldcom to try and hide his excessive spending on crackpot Labour programs. Only now with the collapse of Northern Rock has the real truth become public that his 10 years as chancellor were nothing more than a clever con trick. This is the real Gordon Brown !

Mike, Alicante, Spain

Why is Bottler Brown continually referred to as "having built his reputation on the management of the economy" when he has no reputation to speak of? This idiot promptly raided our pensions to the tune of at least £100bn within months of winning office and sold over half of UK gold reserves when the market tanked.

The only reputation he deserves is one of a sly, incompetent, ham-fisted, self-obsessed, gutless, spineless, weak-willed, indecisive, bone-headed, stubborn, power-crazed, tax-and-waste cretin who wouldn't be capable of running a bath let alone the world's 5th largest economy. If he had any balls, and I don't mean his equally witless chum Ed, he'd do the honourable thing and call an election.

Like Bliar, it appears that The Bottler has the same deluded tunnel vision, believing he is "doing the right thing" regardless of public opinion and will do anything to cling to power. He says he wants to be judged on policy, I say he already has a shameful 10yr record to be judged on.

Vic, Bradford,

Pricing Generation Y out of the house market to satisfy the large electorate of baby boomers and make them think they are "rich" is a creation of Brown's going back a decade.

Now that he is being found out, he has nowhere to run.

Bring on the house price crash and bring on Brown's downfall.

Chris, London,

I am amazed to read that if the economy does slide (and it certainly will) then less than one third of people will blame Gordon Brown. Wake up guys!

Nick O, Varna,

Gordon 'Bottler' Brown's government lurches from crisis to crisis, like a drunken elephant in a glass factory. Meanwhile, the next election draws ever nearer.

However, we should note that Brown has managed to perform
one miracle. He has made Tony Blair look good.

Mark, Bedford,

We have had some rotten Prime Ministers in the past. Compared with the present incumbent they were all brilliant.

Frank Leader, Bournemouth,