We cannot blame Gordon for causing the US financial problems - only for putting us in bad shape to weather them. Perfect storm. End of a populist/labour era AND a massive financial crisis.

Steve Bush, Cirencester, UK

"We" always have enough money to bail out these companies, but when they fail to deliver back any financial benefit, "we" have to dig into our pockets again.

Nobby Clark, Perth,

A note from Australia. Federal taxes reduced in last budget. Govt surplus at record levels. Banks OK. Credit OK. Unemployment very low in resourse-rich States - lots of jobs! Food prices stable. Energy prices stable.
Time to change something in the UK?

Oliver, Normanton, Australia

Of course taxes will rise. Did anyone ever think it was about anything other than finding a way to increase revenues, knowing that the public would never dream of being contumaneous about it?

Paul Downes, Milton Keynes, UK

Its a basic tenet, where theres money theres a fiddle. Always has been always will be. So why is the financial system not policed with a rod of iron. As for paying key staff bonuses telling them their services are no longer required is a wonderful focuser of the mind.

Ron, Penrith, Cumbria

A very unhappy country. A shattered country. Nigel of Lincoln calls it. I'm starting to agree & my heart is dying within me about it.

L. Bond, Gillingham, Dorset

The real issue is the budget deficit for 2010 and 2011. Anyone who believes that the economy will recovery before 2012 is being naive. On present form a budget deficit of over £80 bln is a possibility for years 2010 and 2011. What a complete New Labour mess.

Costas, Cyprus,

So the government borrows huge amounts of money, and the people dutifully accept higher taxes. But then as the government slowly sells off the debt associated assets, the government gets another infusion of cash.
The net result, the biggest tax hike in history with everybody nodding in agreement.

JohnW, Oldham,

Thank God that the Lehman staff in Britain will receive no further pay! Are you really suggesting that they should??? Did we keep paying the miners after closing their pits? 'White collar' is not always a special case.

Eric Skelton, Cardiff, Wales

How is this tax bill to be paid? No government will dare to raise the basic rate to 25% . Some suggestions: Increased tax on income over £100,000 and again on income over £500,000; increased stamp duty on houses worth more than £500,000; increased tax on luxury cars;a windfall tax on banking bonuses

sheila, Leicester,

Anyone blaming Thatcher is a comlete idiot from the far left. The mess we are in is because of people taking advantage of the system. It can also be traced to our politically correctness in letting anyone!! get a mortgage regardless of the ability to pay the loan back

Terry Lee, hounslow, middx

Oh dear. The wheels have definately fallen off for good old Gordon. Time to cut spending. Social security would be a good start. Get the parasites doing something useful.

If i was a clerk at Lehmans i would be helping myself to the PCs etc right now. If they want to steal, they can't complain.

Anthony Lester, Brum,

Thatcher is the real evil genius behind this crash
Dennis O'Shea, Dover,

Ha! What planet are you on?
Thatcher wouldn't have interfered, she would have let the market play out. She wouldn't use hedge funds as a scapegoat (they have NOTHING to do with this!). She wouldn't have got us into this mess.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

Gordy said he would abolish boom and bust. He has failed miserably as we seem to have bust without having bust first. As a middle income earner with no children I am sick to the back teeth of having to subsidise the wanton and the wastrels that Zanu NL want to give my tax moneys to.

Nigel Gronvy, London,

When will it be realised that greed is in fact a serious mental illness? Short sellers and overpaid managers and civil servants who vote themselves fatter wallets every year can only measure their worth against the amount they have swindled. They contribute nothing to society. Cure them. U no how!

Ronald Bargett, Ipswich, England

It looks like I should follow my pychic's advice after all, and don't return to the UK. It was bad enough to read about the high crime, cost of living, property prices, missed government targets - [housing starts], rascism, ageism the list goes on.
Who's crying now? DO Expat China.

david ojah, Weihai, China

Kate Dickson in Hastings - you should think yourself lucky, a lot of people would love to be on £30K a year and get all the key worker benefits you teachers get. If you can't afford to live, just think how the 1000's of other workers survive on real world wages of 12K to 14K a year.

Lee, Portsmouth, England

people who use thier home as an investment caused all this and deserve all they get. thats what you call GREED.

big dave, glasgow, scotland

So failing companies get free money, failing individuals ( ie the long term unemployed ) get free money, and this failing government gets an inflation busting pay rise. UK is now a nation of losers. Why strive or work hard ? Taxman will take all.

frank, swindon, uk

Perhaps all the sops that wanted gun control in this country will now realise why the Americans have the Second Amendment in their constitution.

Labour have looted the country and will now all retire nicely on our earnings, unless We The People arrest these gangsters!

alex, Surrey,

The dealers, managers, salesmen, directors must have known that sub-prime had the potential to sink them but the bonsuses just too big to risist! Greed motivates and our regulators ie the FSA, the Bank of England & Treasury with Gordon at its helm completely failed to tame that beast in the
City.

Graham, St Albans, uk

David in Doncaster, Thatcher killed off manufacturing in the UK, Thatcher ushered in greed is good and deregulation. Thatcher is the real evil genius behind this crash and it's consequences. Brown, Darling and Greenspan simply followed her lead because the public wanted them to.

Dennis O'Shea, Dover,

willie mac, Arden, Scotland
Entirely agree with you but I seem to remember that the problem lies with the Scottish MPs - Brown and and Darling et al. You can have them back with our condolences.

M. Cawdery, Craigavon, Co. UK, EU

While those who have caused this current problem will continue to get huge salaries/bonuses and avoid paying full tax on them, the 'little' and daft taxpayer continues to subsidise them with increased taxes. But this is the culture of the UK, to give benefit of many types to those who do not pay.

hel, Norwich,

These executives and so-called experts deserve prison, not bonuses! Their irresponsible greed will inevitably be paid for by the millions of "little" people trying to bring up families and to save sensibly for their old age on salaries that are well below the million-a-year mark.

Chris , Hünenberg, Switzerland

Having virually killed off manufacturing, the Government has made the country almost totally dependant on consumerism and finance. Now the stock market has crashed, we're stuffed, the country's stuffed and the worst is yet to come.

David, Doncaster, UK

Companies are already leaving because Taxes are too high. It is time for people to realise that the Golden age we had happened because of the groundwork done by the last tory government and slowly over the last 10 years this incompetent government has ruined our competitive edge.

Kurt, London, England

The banks should be taxed the 5p to the pound not the public and they should be forced to reduce the interest rates, this has been caused by reckless trading not by the public.

Sherell, Shipston,

Spectacular, Boom to Bust, under GB. I have been prudent with my finances never over stretched myself. But I have to pay for the greed of others. private sector is already contracting, when is the government going to learn and stop wasting our taxes, and get rid of all the non jobs&deadwood.

Laura, Livingston, UK

Peter, Aldershot - Single people DO pay more income tax than married people. I am single (not -complaining/my own choice) & over the years I have found that someone who is paid less than I am, actually takes home more pay, because they are married with kids.

Paul , Coventry, England

Gordon refused to deny tax increases on the Andrew Marr show this AM. He is borrowing massively; tax rises won't come this side of a GenElection; the next Govt will be left with massive debts. It won't be Gordon sorting out the mess he created - he'll be gone with the wind that will destroy Labour.

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

If that's the case the Government will also have to Budget for thousands of children currently in private schools to return to the State sector.

Phil Taylor, York, UK

Janice from London asks "does Brown think we are stupid"? Yes, Janice, of course he does. All politicians, socialists in particular, think we are too stupid to run our own lives and that those lives must be run for us by the all-knowing benevolent hand of the State.

Huge, Bedford, UK

I'm going to have to stop shopping in Waitrose at this rate.

Chris Laity, Cardiff, United Kingdom

" choice between slashing gov spending or putting up taxes". i know which they will go for they will never cut their expense accounts so you will never see them take lunch to work ! as for giving them money for a house in london so they dont have to go home the gov should own them and mps have use

paul , halifax, uk

"I will not allow house prices to get out of control and put at risk the sustainability of the recovery."

Gordon Brown, 1997 Budget

Fred, Moray, Scotland

of course taxes must rise if we are not to have -hyper inflation a la Zimbabwe

peter c, Devizes, Wessex

Rich greedy traders gamble money down the toilet pick up massive bonuses buy loads of property fast cars etc. Banks lose investments because their mangers were so greedy they didn't bother! Now because the Government didn't bother regulating the markets correctly we the tax pay bails they out!

Harry, gravesend, Kent, UK

Start cutting public spending. For a start end the Barnett funding formula and leave the EU that will cut £44 billion, then there is the £167 billion that is spent by Quangos a year. There is plenty of room to cut waste in the public sector.

Stephen, St. Ives, England

Brown's right about the Banks behaving irresponsibly,not least the Co-Op Bank who lent Labour several million pounds last year with no collateral to back it up.I did e-mail them asking how this fitted in with their "ethical" policy but got no reply,well i am only a custimer.

Dave, Plymouth,

Increase my income tax by 25%, I'd be better off signing on...

After I have paid for my mortgage, all of my money goes on food and petrol (commute), there is nothing left.

(I am single, live in a small flat, no TV, no dependents and allegedly earn above average salary (just)...)

Chris, Bristol,

The simple fact is that we, the tax payers, cannot afford to pay any more - after 11 years of Brown's stealth taxes, the cupboard is most definitely bare. To try and impose an increase would almost certainly sound the last post on an entire political party.

Morse, Oxford,

Now every penny of government expenditure will need to be
looked at, index linked pensions, forget it. We can no longer
afford such a big state. The budget deficit will need to be
gradually reduced by cuts in spending , not raises in tax.

Roger, Weymouth, UK

Each time I thought Gordon B. couldn't do worse, I was proven wrong. He can. He always finds an innovative disaster to ruin our country! What will be left after two more years of this?

Peter, Liverpool, UK

We've had over a decade of the NuLab fiasco and, prior to that, thirteen years of Tory mismanagement. Time to give the LibDems a stab at putting things to right. The fiscal policies announced at their conference last week make sense to me and are the only choice for the UK in 2010.

Ian Dickson, Brighton, UK

It seems that Brown has indeed ended boom-and-bust cycles: It's only bust now.

Peter, Liverpool, UK

As a teacher I get £30,000; very, very soon I won't be able to afford to get to work. I rent (couldn't afford to buy), can't afford to move, & support 3 of us. More tax will mean resigning by Christmas & going on UB. Absolutely ridiculous. Wish I could afford to emigrate; wish I had money for food.

Kate Dickson, Hastings,

In times of prosperity we save, so in times of recession we survive.

The concept is not that complex but I believe british consumer and uk government cannot see this far into the future.

Now we all pay for these mistakes

Thomas, Sheffield,

Tough luck but the UK can just pay for all of this mess with even higher taxes.

In Scotland we are itching to rid ourselves of this rotten and corrupt Labour government and replace them with neither the Tories nor the Lib Dems.

London government is a disaster.

willie mac, Arden, Scotland

Why dont these pathetic politicians begin by taking a pay cut due to their inefectiveness, instead of wrongly thinking that they are somehow entitled to a raise?????

matt, Norwich, UK

Let there be no doubt: it is not the action of banks, or the "credit crunch" that has caused the immense deficit: it is the reckless and wholly improper intervention of government.

The £ and the $ are likely to be catastrophically and permanently devalued as a result.

James E. Petts, Burnham, England

Brown has spent the last 10 years appeasing the City, and this is what he's got in return. It's absolutely outrageous that the taxpayer should fund these financial failures, and sickening that all these bankers who believe in the 'free market' are now crying to be rescued.

Phil, Surrey,

Gordon Brown is in the wrong job he has done nothing more than borrow, take, and borrow money since he was chancellor, this latest fiasco has given him the oppportunity to borrow again and we the general public have been sold down the river. Get him out !!!

christine marshall, tunbridge Wells, England

I refuse to pay increased taxes to frther line the pockets of fat cat bankers, speculators etc. 5% is outrageously high. The banks were ripping me off in the good times and now that this has happened they expect the likes of me to bail them out through my taxes. More tax?There will be riots.

David, London, Uk

Dick Turd + Lehmans' USA. The cynical treatment of Europeans by these scum show them for the low-life they are. Americans bleat loudly when anything impacts their precious way of life and screw everybody else. America, remember your shameless treatment of Bhopal? Hang your heads in shame.

Anna Stevens, Oxford, England

The state needs more money because the Labour government has massively overspent and lost an income source it foolishly took for granted. This is the fault of the government. In a company the workers would be laid off & pensions cut. Fairness demands that now the public sector MUST pay that price.

Colin, Glasgow, UK

If a business is failing then you need to axe costs and staff to survive. Just goes to show what a cash burning machine the government id. They are as bad as the bankers or even worse as both parties act without repercussions.

maxd, winchester, UK

We must cut back on wasteful spending and useless projects: ID Cards, Medical Record & DNA computer system, top heavy administration in the Medical System. Tax less and we we will spend more thus larger income from VAT and income tax. Concentrate of alternative energy to save imports.

P Barrett, Plymouth/Valletta, England/Malta

Brown is a very poor leader but look at the other guys!
Milliband? Has yet to start shaving.
Clegg? Thinks the pension is £30 per week.
Cameron? Can't even ride a bike safely.
What about Andrew Marr?
Totally outsmarted Brown this morning.

Ivan de Nemethy, London, Murder Mile

There is a very real danger of civi insurrection if any further tax hikes occur. I urge Brown and Nu Labour to seriously consider the implications!

Chris, Nottingham,

Brown should realise its 'the people with mortgages struggling to pay' that got us in this mess in the first place. Responsibility begins with the individual, make them pay. I should not be bailing out overstretched property investors through my income tax!

Belle, Yorks,

This is a very unhappy country now. A shattered country. I have lived here for all of my 58 years and, even considering every memory I can recall, I have never know times as bad as these for the ordinary person (of which I am one). Labour has a lot to answer for.

Nigel, LIncoln,

John McFall, of the Treasury select committee, said: “This is socialism for the fat cats.
What type of warped version of Socialism is this !!
It certainly is not a moneyless, classless, production for need socialism.
This is capitalism where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

A.Hendrie, Edinburgh, UK

Janice, London asks if Brown thinks we are stupid. Yes, indeed, he does. But he and New Labour will pay for it.

Robert - note, it was NOT the hugely overmortgaged that caused this crisis, rather the criminal selling on and on and on of this debt. The bankers are responsible, not the home buyers.

Jeremy Poynton, Frome, England

ah, but it is the bankers fault... you see, they relaxed the rules and lent the money so they could get huge commission fees and volume related bonuses... they didn't care about what happens when the music stops, now they want us to bail them out as well?

pcooke, Gloucester,

Instead of continuing to crank up taxes this useless government should STOP WASTING our money. They've increased taxes to the extent they have depressed the country, worse they wasted the money and that's the reason we are where we are. Reduce Government interference in everything...simple.

Phil A, Headley, UK

If we the tax payers are to plug this gap then we should be seeing something for it, we need to own part of whichever bank we bail out so when things do start to work out we can see some benefit.

tom, Caernarfon, Wales

Make no mistake: Brown has mismanaged the economy for a decade and now the banks provide a convenient scapegoat. The sooner we get rid of him and his whole bunch of incompetents, the better.

Chris, London,

It's not the bankers fault, it's people who went and bought houses they could not afford, lied about their income and on top borrowed even more to have showbizz life styles. It's a social issue, it's paytime, government should let banks, house prices collapse and let these people pay.

Hungaa, London, UK

How can we pay any more? Pay rises just aren't happening but we are expected to pay more tax on top of everything else? The mind boggles.

KayDuff, Dundee, UK

Moral indignation aside - the bonuses are a matter for Barclays shareholders. But it would be better for that money to go to the Lehman UK pension scheme so that the pension lifeboat ( yet another Brown tax on private sector final salary schemes) need not bail that out. Or am I just naive?

Eddie Reader, birmingham, england

I suppose one's level of indignation depends on whether one believes the bankers held a gun to the poor citizens' heads, forcing them to buy overpriced houses. Or whether they merely pandered to the immense greed of "ordinary taxpayers"....

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Let me get this right....Brown is claiming that HE is asking for the return of the 8 billion dollars transferred to New York? I was under the impression that it was Price Waterhouse demanding this money.....does Brown think we are stupid?

Janice, London,

Richard, West Midlands...I am no expert and I have been thinking along the same lines. Do you think he might have been considering certain investment portfolios .... surely ...not his own?

Janice, London,

Let us hope we haven't got enough money as a nation to perform a disgraceful bailout of our own reckless financial institutions. We deserve the right to buy a property at a reasonable price. If the government don't step in property will fall to its proper price.

Simon, London, UK

At the very, very least, we should demand that no one in financial circles, especially Republican Americans, should be allowed to use the term 'free enterprise' again.
While democratic socialism is fine by me, all this is 'Crash Test Dummies' socialism.

John Carty, Medellin, Colombia

I for one have had enough of this nonsense and will be closing my account with Barclays. I hope that I am not the only one.

Vic, london, England

maybe the lehman executives in the division that barclays bought are legitimately deserving of the bonuses, and as it is barclays that has taken the risk to buy that division then it is up to barclays to decide what to do with bonuses.

increase debt in short term so taxes dont go any higher pls!

wil, grimsby, uk

Brown should also ask for all the gold he so foolishly sold to be return.

S Hargreaves, Hobart, Australia

Yet again the already struggling tax payer will pick the bill for the greed and ego's of the rich few. I want the Government to be asking some very tough questions, but I doubt they will. Shocking, shocking, shocking.

Kevin, Durham,

...well, i for one won't pay a penny more in tax until i see the people who caused this mess pursued to the last penny. how can you pay bonuses to these people? i can't believe the audacity of all these people, and still the "experts" talk as if they know what will happen - give it a rest!!

James, London, UK

Somebody in government has got to get up and say that these bankers are leeches. They pay themselves enormous bonuses and don't pay tax on it.

m wilson, bidache, france

Robert
Single people have no higher fuel bills that married people.
Single people dont pay higher taxes than married people.

Big Debt well thats personal choice and personal risk, something that will soon be very apparent !

As for higher taxes, we could join the Labour MPs soon on the dole?

Peter, Aldershot, UK

A heavy tax-burden is a huge disincentive to hard work. People respond by being less industrious and turn to more relaxed ways of living, enjoying time at home, etc. Work hard/play hard is replaced with "maybe next year". People learn to say no. It's very bad for the economy.

Neil, Norwich, UK

Stop worrying, our "European friends" will come to our rescue. The five tests will be miraculously met, a price agreed and hey presto the new labour project to sell our country totally down the river reaches fruition earlier than expected. A eurosocialist wonderland awaits. You know you want it.

D.L. Stephens, York, England

To Abdul Majeed - why 'beware of the prayer of the oppressed person' ? Can you explain a bit more please.

mark hood, london, uk

the majorty of the busness wthin lehmans (fx, equty, rates etc) were probably hghly proftable. The reason for the co.s demise stems entirely from its credit deriv unit 'warehousing' securities they cldnt sell . Only the bankers responsible for that shld area be held accountable not the others.

ian newman, singapore, singapore

Lets the banks fail, let the leaches fall off.

Mart, Nottingham, England

the uk govt should impose a "windfall tax" on barclays equivalent to the bonuses that barclays is preparing to pay. if the bank has so much money, it can give some back to the ordinary taxpayer. in fact, this should be a general principle - extra tax equivalent to bonuses for all banks.

stephen, china, china

So the penny drops...someone does have to pay for the mortgage mess after all. The rich and powerful on both sides of the Atlantic have seen to it that the losers will be taxpayers, not them.

This is the biggest fraud in history. Let bankers, investors and the reckless go to the wall.

L McKay, North Shields, uk

Can't get blood out of a stone!

sophie smith, london, uk

If Osborne's put in charge of sorting the mess out then it will be slash and burn on spending - they better build more prisons.

G. Rowe, Derby, UK

Brown is quoted above as saying that when HBOS hit the buffers his first concern was for (ordinary) people.
He approved the acquisition last Monday. Therefore all the short selling from Tuesday morning was after the decision had been taken taken when the shares should already have been suspended.

Richard, West Midlands,

Things could be worse.

You could be a Bristol Rovers supporter.

Francis Cousins, Wrington, UK

"Robert, Manchester, UK"

Don't feel too sorry for yourself, mate. I waited and waited before I bought in '06, and did when Brown said that bust and boom was over. Now my investment in my home, is worth next to nowt. I'm single. I pay £30,000 yr in taxes give or take, and what do I have? Nothing..

mooro, windsor, u.k.

As we all expected, nothing for the peasant, plenty for the politician and their cronies. When's the revolution?

Paul Downes, Milton Keynes, UK

"The wider public ... will be absolutely furious.”
Ah, will it? Who cares? Politicians and fat cats don't, and everybody else doesn't exist in the world of power and greed!

Peter, Liverpool, UK

Sell the executives' houses (probably plural for each executive) to pay the workers' wages.

AndyM, Rotherham,

Immoral, sheer imbecility, and should be illegal.

The biggest budget deficit of any western country. And still we buy a failing bank, intervene (to what cost exactly...?) on another failing bank.

Gordon's obsession with refusing to let failures fail, means we all fail.

Laura Roberts, London, UK

Congratulations to The Times for pointing out in clear terms how this huge "rescue" is in fact a scam, designed to save already-rich, but incompetent and greedy, financiers at the expense of everyone else. If Britain and the USA are in any way still real democracies, it's time to stop this.

Dave Hodgson, Santa Rosa, CA, USA

Not me. Just can't afford it.

Adrian, Oxford,

Well, we all knew it. The taxpayer will be bailing out the fat cats.

Lenny, Coventry,

The message to NatWest and the other usury-pedlars of the world is this: beware of the prayer of the oppressed person.

Abdul Majeed, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK

A world of hurt.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

I'm sick of hearing about people who were silly enough to take on huge mortgages and big debt. What about the long-suffering people who never did get onto the property ladder? The single people who already pay higher taxes and will have big fuel bills this winter? Lose, lose, lose...

Robert, Manchester, UK