Brown and Darling seem to assume they have a moral right to our money as taxes. They do not. It is a social contract between the state and the people - we pay tax and they provide services. This government has failed and failed and failed again to meet their end of the social contract

Peter, London,

Small businesses are called"The life blood of the nation." So can someone explain why we are brainwashed on a 24 hour basis by stock market movements? The massive fluctuations of prices demonstrate the irrelevance of what is now a casino bearing little relationship with value or the real economy

peterfieldman, paris, france

We have an unelected Prime Minister who is running an incompetent government, does everyone forget the bad decisions Gordon Brown made when he was Chancellor, ie selling off the country`s gold reserves at a rock bottom price or the fact that he raided peoples pension funds! STOP RUINING THE COUNTRY.

Leroy, London, UK

With an election only 18 months away, Broon is again increasing his client state, who will be told at the election "the Torys will cut your benefits, and he will be believed because the welfare state does need drastic surgery.
This makes me very afraid.

KW, Bognor Regis, England

I note that Brown/Darling is cotradicting Osborne on the claim that those on £19,000+/- will lose out. Do I not remember that B/D also contradicted the claim that removal of the 10p tax band would mean hardship to the poor when it first came out. Tthey are having to recompense
I know who I belie

M. Cawdery, Portadown, Co. UK, EU(thanks to Brown)

Now people go shopping instead of paying their mortgage
so
CEOs award themselves large bonuses due to small increase in spending due to their strategt
so
Bankers award themselves big bonus as it is always "their" idea .
so
People who spend the money in the shops lose house due to foreclosure

jim, london,

This government will bankrupt Britain. Apart from wasting £billions in Iraq/Afghanistan the government still plans to waste further £billions on silly ID cards and prior to 2012 another £9billion+ on the Olympic Games. I wouldn't put these incompetents in charge of a child's piggy-bank.

Rog J, Portsmouth, uk

From what I've been able to gather the increase in duty a fuel, drink and cigs covers the 'stimulus' of VAT for 13 months and then turns into a new Stealth Tax. The remaining tax increases relate to poor financial management through the recent boom years...

Nick, Bedford, UK

Would somebody please explain to me how Mr Darling's proposals will encourage, for example, a construction firm in Bolivia to buy a fleet of JCBs from Uttoxetter? Or an overseas merchant shipping company to place an order with a British shipyard?

M. Anthony, Derby, UK

Does the Debt calculation now include Northern Rock and PFi losses or do those continue to be 'off balance sheet' ?? When the regulator is fiddling this hard it must be hard to know right from wrong - No wonder the banks got away with their financial mismanagement for so long.

Nick, London, Uk