Recession looms as UK economy contracts

"This is, however, the first reading of fourth-quarter GDP, and the figures are always prone to significant revision" - yes but usually the revision is only + or - 1%!

More QE, more QE, more QE, but nothing gets better and the people are getting poorer and poorer. Just how many Billions is Mervyn King going to be allowed to steal from the people of this country?

When did it become the case that the Bank of England can just print and print as much money as they want, with no say by the people of this country? Yet still no money goes to businesses, what a crock of lies it all is. If I started printing my own money they would call it counterfeiting. The bank/government fraud continues apace. Add another 100 Billion Y/N hit return to confirm!

It's never enough. Stimulus my asp. Nothing but lies lies lies.

Chris B...people are so far away from reality due to the deliberate lack of education. Sometimes i wonder is it too late to do anything about this now. Most people don't understand economics, politics or anything else that they should essentially be aware of. For me, observing the people is like watching a universal experiment whereby the people are conditioned animals, responding to stimuli e.g. working for paper 'money' which they believe is valuable. If you look at everything from the core, you will see that paper money is nothing more than a means of controlling people, just like religion and the law - all paper based and all means of controlling people. If you observe people very closely, you will see that their decisions are nonsensical, are based without adequate evidence and defy logic/reality. It's very sad to watch the world this way!

Instead of pumping out funny money, I don't understand why the Government doesn't go for short term easing in Defence spending (cuts have probably gone too far anyway). Growth through Defence spending is known historically to work providing investment is largely inward.

Defence led growth would be afforded by gradually raising expenditure to say 3.6% of GDP (still below the sustained Cold War level). Judicious clawbacks from loss of spending priority in other areas could be achieved through careful focus and leverage. As examples:

Natural orientation towards young employment would help tackle youth unemployment and provide off sets through benefits savings.

Cost of military technical training programmes could be partly offset through reduced need for work and subsidised apprentice programmes.

Judicious equipmnt demands could restore impetus to high tech manufacturing.

Restore fully capable Defence Medical Services which could provide training bank for NHS, as well as provide civilian services to meet contingency crises in NHS; DMS would also provide focus in growing need for veteran services.

Expanded engineering capabilities could be used in National infrastructure projects, as part of their continuation training a la US Corps of Engineers.

And above all, eventual outflow of a motivated, skilled and disciplined work force may finally address uK' persistent problems with poor productivity.

Usual doom and gloom - I despair !

The uk has been in recession for the last two years .unemployed people struggling to live with rising prices .food bills going up on a daily basis goverment cuts that effect everyone .highstreet shops closed. bank closures .popualations that have voted for failure .lack of forward planning by goverments .politicions promises that have proved to be shallow .importing from countries that are greedy that are always wanting more and more .not enough direction for producing more jobs .the sold of nationlized companies would have been a big help in employment .GONE GONE GONE .

No more QE, King and Osborne have already destroyed too much wealth. All of this down to Bliar, Brown, Balls Cooper and the Sillibands et al. How about a little integrity for a change, and reward the just, the savers and charge a decent rate of interest which will reward many more than, 8 times more than the borrowers.

More money will start circulating and thereby stimulate the economy when many will spend the increased income they receive.

The recession, sad to say was inevitable because of the profligacy of a few who cannot repay what they have borrowed, egged on by those who were rewarded, initially, for lending that was clearly dodgy. Make them repay their rewards/remuneration for their negligence as a lesson for the future.

Sorry chaps, you've all ballsed it up borrowing more than you could repay, imagining you could grow your apparent personal wealth at a rate faster than natural and will have to run around in short trousers for a bit. Admittedly the lenders have encouraged you poor dears in this for their own ends, and Brown and Balls provided the encouragement of their crass example.

We are now possessed of an irony in that it is deemed needful that gdp growth is got going again by having people buy things; what with? they ask, more borrowing? No, exports is the answer if there is still a market out there; if only we had enough to export!