UK in recession as economy slides


Bleak retail sales and accelerating unemployment have hit the UK

The UK is now in recession for the first time since 1991, official government figures have confirmed.
Gross domestic product fell by 1.5% in the last three months of 2008 after a 0.6% drop in the previous quarter.
That means that the widely accepted definition of a recession - two consecutive quarters of falling economic growth - has been met.
It represents the biggest quarter-on-quarter decline since 1980, and a 1.8% fall on the same quarter a year ago. The worse-than-expected contraction sent sterling to a 24-year low against the dollar, with one pound buying $1.355. Meanwhile the FTSE 100 index fell almost 2%, below 4,000 points.

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I wonder if the Conservatives will recycle their classic Saatchi & Saatchi campaign posters?

More importantly*, Brown thinks he should have more credit for what he's done. :

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090123...g-6323e80.html

Yes, have all the credit in the world for sticking a plaster over the gaping sore of ten years of letting the banks roam free and ignoring every last bit of advice you were given about the impending problem.


* to him, anyway...