Stupid, Stupid Stupid. I never thought a Government could destroy a country so quickly. How much longer do we have to put up with this incompetence. Will somebody launch a campaign for regime change in this country because I cannot take any more from this bunch of clowns.

Bruce Mcaaw, Grantham,

Zimbabwe...Weimar Republic pre-WWII. economic policy of the worst kind. might as well burn the paper that this money is printed on. and as to Govt. managing to get something as finely honed as this right.
this Govt has not a clue...of either history or current economic affairs.

david kirkham, uzes, france

Brown does not need to print anything to create more money, he just does the usual: Spread a few numbers around, add the odd nought here and there. he lost his grip on the relation between money and value years ago. we all happily spend numbers without touching any paper money,

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

Yes Sam. we export nothing and import much.

Printing money will devalue the sterling that means everything we import (buy)will cost us more not less.
Already CE manufactures are saying prices could rise as much as 30% to offset the devalued pound.

Dustin, Bridgwater,

Can anyone tell me how the UK would be any better off if the Tories had governed during the last decade. You are kidding yourselves by blaming Blair/Brown...things would be no different regardless of who was at the helm. This is a crisis of the western world as a whole.

Mick, Cork, Ireland

I struggle to understand the cynicism that consumes the british taxpayer. Yes inflation might happen, but since we export next to nothing a crippling deflation could be round the corner, and printing money,controlled properly,is an effective way of reversing this. Lets calm down shall we children.

Sam Rae, Manchester, UK

Isn't this what Robert Mugabe did to create worthless currency?

Mark, London, UK

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Watch out for inflation - it will hit like a tsunami.

Roger Slade, winchester,

This is a bad idea for reasons a small child could understand.

Stuart, Aberdeen,

Ah, so Darling is considering the inflation busting method of as a "sensible contingency plan" by printing more money!! If I am not mistaken, this has been an identical philosophy as used by the Zimbabwe government!!! Ho-hum and down the tubes we go!!!

Alan, Basingstoke,

Is this what we have come to? Just like Mugabe in Zimbabwe, just keep printing money. People like me who have avoided debt and saved over the years for a comfortable retirement will be made to suffer for our good sense while the spendthrifts benefit. Crazy!!

Gazza, Sydney, Australia

Graeme, Thatcher destroyed manufacturing or did it destroy itself? You really think we could compete on costs or work ethics with China and Asia? Give me a break, you don't get it. Look at Detroit now if you want the evidence.

Robert, Bracknell,

Governments and central banks will do all they can to stave off the threat of deflation through inflationary measures such as these. Longer term, it is inflation rather than deflation that will become the primary issue. Gold is the best protection against this.

C Whitehead, Sydney,

This government doesn't realise that their ideas and announcements are now part of the problem, not of the solution - they scare not only investors, but the general public. With expectations of high inflation at a time of increasing unemployment, people's spending reduces even further. Madness.

Francois, London,

Print it on toilet tissue, why don't you Darling? Can I use my Monopoly set in the shops now, please? That boring crowd, the IMF, will sort out your mess later.

John Mitchell, Midlands,

Sorry Samantha - please don't look to the previously founded-in-common-sense US dollar to save you this time. We've taken a collective leave of our senses. I hear tell news is coming down the dragon will no longer fund our rediculous deficits. We will be printing as well. Hyperinflation indeed...

Mike, Dallas, USA

Neil, You have spent the last penny from the so-called colonial savings. As UK industry and production have been paralysed for so many years, there remains nothing. Did UK Govt. ever spend some serious money for any foreign country except for those “investments” (oil/military). BNP..story complete.

Manojkumar K, Liberton, Scotland

If inflation means that my savings will be worth less in future, I need to cut my spending and save more so I can still afford to feed my family. However, if I can be allowed to print my own money, I promise to spend it all and not save any of it. I am sure everyone else would agree to do the same.

John, london, UK

Printing more money! what a joke! - Learn from History people, look at Germany in the 1930s? printing more money, will just cause prices to explode and money itself to become worthless. I could also mention the current financial situation of Zimbabwe. If you print more money, say bye to the Sterling

Duncan, Kettering,

As one who brought up a family during the 80's & 90's, perhaps my memory is clearer of those times than some of your other correspondants. Increase in Vat from 10 to 15%. year on year increases in car tax, perscription charges, oh and then there were the interest rate hikes.

Mr AK.Stacey, Hayling Island, UK

In contrast to other large EU economies, the UK’s economic growth has been driven mainly by consumption funded by cheap credit. Desperate measures like printing money or unreasonably low interest rates may defer the crisis, but not solve the problem and result in a further devaluation of the pound.

Christian, Cambridge, UK

The other part aspect of money supply is the velocity of money. Since the credit crunch the velocity of money has gone down, so you need more of it to fund the same level of economic activity.

John Small, Faversham, UK

This must be why Gold sovereigns are rising in value so fast on ebay.
Brown must be taking economic lessons from Mugabe.

Richard , UK,

What doesn't Mr Darling just post the designs for pound notes as Acrobat files on a Government website and we can all download and print our own bank notes in the comfort of our homes?

David Owen, Sydney, Australia

I have just bought a new mattress, now I'll be able to stuff it full of money out of my savings account !!

Ken, Orpington, Kent

Lee -the approach taken by the Tories in the 90's meant a relatively small recession. They sorted the country out which the Labour government exploited through 11 years of reckless spending. I think doing less and getting back to some old fashioned principles is exactly what’s needed.

Richard, London,

This is great news for the savers of the country. I might as well go and burn my savings. Lesson learnt next time I will join the tide of reckless leverage loans.

John, Egremont, Cumbria

Inflation is caused by an over supply of money in the system - printing money wont cause inflation because it wont get out here. the banks will swallow it up to shovel into the black holes in their balance sheets.so unless they hand it out on street corners they are going to have to print a lot.

david devonport, Great Yarmouth, UK

Whats wrong with deflation? Let prices fall. It will eventually lead to people buying again then prices will rise. Its supply and demand which drives market forces. Printing money sounds a bad idea and will actually fuel inflation. Look what happened in Germany when they did that in the 1930's

Richard, Leeds, UK

How anyone could ever vote Labour again after this disaster has panned out fully will be a mystery

Every Labour govt in the end destroys the economy & this one has done it so completely & utterly it will take years to repair

Inflation and high interest rates = more job losses and repossessions

Guy, London, UK

This is a joke right? The once 'prudent chancellor' is going to print money to get himself out of trouble? Worked really well in Germany didn't it? We are utterly doomed.

David, St Albans, UK

Poisoned chalice, spite, childhood induced hatred of all things English, Brown's revenge? Some of the reasons why Brown's legacy will take a generation to overcome. After the 1930's depression we had an 80 year boom, This, Brown engineered, bust could last as long.

Terry, Radstock, England

I have yet to be convinced that deflation is so bad, Japan had deflation without getting into dire straits.

Dave, Liverpool,

It will take three years to induce inflation and provided you can hang on to your property you will be quids in. The people who will suffer are pensioners, but Brown pays little regard to them anyway as he and the Cabinet will enjoy indexed link public pensions.

Paul, Lincoln, UK

Printing money, just what we need from the Brown team, everyone is talking, which is another way of splitting the blame if it all comes down. Japan did the same with catastrophic results.

alan, Guisborough,

Forgive my ignorance but what is the mechanism for introducing more "free" money into the economy. Will Mervyn King open an upstairs window and throw wads of money into the air, perhaps. Reminds me of only fools and horses.

paul, bridgend, wales

clearly, zanu-labour are adopting 'mugab-enomics'
perhaps the last person to leave britain, would be kind enough to turn off the lights?

paul holdstock, doncaster, england

Assets purchased by government have a nasty habit of turning into liabilities.

Chris Gillibrand, Brussels, Belgium

With the desperate state that we are sinking into Brown should do the honourable thing and resign. He has controlled the economy for more than 10 years and the public should be given the choice of him or someone else to take the country forward. He is unelected as prime minister.

Mike, Midlands, UK

The journey to third world status begins.

michael, london,

This is crazy and will lead to the ruin of this country. Again reward the greedy over leveraged borrower and punish the responsible and hardworking man.

If they do this I'm buying oil and food to stock pile since we will not be able to afford anything in this country in a few years!

Duncan, London, UK

here come the 15% interest rates

stanno, Bristol,

Is Darling taking financial advice from Robert Mugabe?
Here comes the one billion pound note.

ubabaroy, liphook, england

Ah yes, because hyper-inflation will really solve our problems

Victoria, Belfast, UK

Hmm, the words Weimar and what was the other one again..., oh yes, hyper-inflation, spring to mind.
This has scared me slightly, perhaps I would be better places to take out all of my savings and transfer it into US dollars to avoid it becoming worthless,

These are sad times

Samantha , Milton Keynes, United Kingdom

Not exactly a wise way to deal with our current economic situation. We are in a recession and any government policy will have little impact. We just have to weather it out and have to hope that the treasury won't panic.

Measures like this will only damage the economy in the long run.

Chris, Belfast,

Please, please can we have an election pronto before Brown and his cronies completely destroy this country with their crackpot schemes.

David, Nottm.,

I think it's time Parliament was recalled.

Eleanor, south, UK

Total, utter madness.

I wish for once, Brown and Darling would admit that all their prior ideas have failed us.

They are hell bent on destroying what little credibility sterling has left. Our pound will soon be worth less than Zimbabwe's currency at this rate.

I just want Brown to stand down.

Mark, London, UK

all the more reason to vote BNP so at least we have a government that will look after us British and not waste billions on foreigners and foreign aid and a bloated civl service stocked with foreigners

Neil, Chessington, UK

if we print more paper money gordon brown has got what he and is govt have always have strived for to join the global third word country

page, ipswich, suffolk

So what is the solution? A full-scale depression? Maybe if Margaret Thatcher hadn't destroyed our manufacturing base we could have exported our way out of recession but seeing as we don't actually make anything anymore and are now a service sector economy we are limited in our options.

Graeme Thomson, Glasgow , scotland

What has to be done has to be done. They can see deflation on the horizon and see this as a great way of reducing debt and keeping inflation.

Do not trust the tories at all.. How can anyone save out of a all of this - that is madness. They did nothing in the 90's and let the country down

Lee, Leeds,

Printing money is a sensible option, but the printing ought to be directed towards reducing oil and gas dependancy, so the economy moves towards a more sustainable direction, and its growth is capitalised. Heavy investments in alternative energy should soon follow.

http://dariomore.blogspot.com

Dario, London, UK

They printed more and more money in Germany between the 1st and 2nd world wars and ended up with a 3 million Mark postage stamp. another example is present day Zimbabwe. God help us all

Lou, Birmingham, UK

Proof, as if it were needed, that EVERY Labour government wrecks the economy of this country before the electorate come to their senses and throw them out of office.
Historians will be gasping in utter disbelief when they write up the Blair/Brown annals covering 1997-2010. Complete ineptitude.

R.McGeddon, London, England

Surely the waste that has been seen with the VAT reduction needs us to consider how we tackle this recession and if throwing money at it will resolve it. Talk of banks lending at the same rate as before is ridiculous, and now printing more money is mad - also does the EU allow this?

G Morgan, Worcester,

After selling off most of the family silver at knock down prices the Government now wishes to buy septic assets at over-inflated prices. So welcome tats as public assets and hyper inflation that penalise the prudent , pension savers and the old. Why is the Government against these people?

S Yogarajah, Harrow, HA3 0JP

Printing money means large inflation in a couple of years. Beware failed politicians saving their skins at our expense!

Colin, Shrewsbury,

Madness! And do you really believe Gordon Brown will later raise interest rates to control the resulting inflation whilst the economy is still in depression? This is Zanu Labour of desparate last measures and soon to be hyperinflation as it prints money to pay for its public sector cronies.

George, London,