Who would agree that Gordon Brown is the best Chancellor of the Exchequer in living memory?

Stable economy, low interest rates, independence for the Bank of England. Has there really ever been a better Chancellor?

Angry people: please provide named examples. Hurling abuse just makes you look ignorant.

Who would agree that Gordon Brown is the best Chancellor of the Exchequer in living memory?unemployment rate

I%26#039;m tempted to agree with you. Despite this goverment%26#039;s mess-ups with Iraq, it cannot be denied that most of us have prospered

since 1997, income tax has remained stable, unemployment has remained low.

Why do these silly people go on about tax - do they expect us to believe that we didn%26#039;t pay tax under the Tories?

Who would agree that Gordon Brown is the best Chancellor of the Exchequer in living memory?

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The question doesn%26#039;t call for an alternative candidate to be named, it is lauding the qualities of Gordon Brown. I have explained, given limited space, why this assertion is a complete lie. He is old Labour, big government and tax and spend. Smoke and mirrors man, but his legacy will haunt us. Report It

|||i m not with u....hes taken so much tax of me.......|||anyone involved in politics should be shot.|||Stable economy?

This man uses smoke and mirrors to hide the black hole in the economy.

An economy built on the back of the housing market and borrowing.

Labour has enjoyed the spending spree paid for by the tax payers and will continue to be paid for the next 50 years.

Brown is an incompetent fraudster who was left the best possible economy and funds by the conservative government and stiil manages to screw it up.|||Not me. He is the worst Chancellor we have ever had. A confidence trickster and a liar.

How did he fool so many people, especially so called Captains of Industry?

He seems to be getting away with it because of a non-existant Opposition.!!!!!!!!|||I completely agree with you,all your points are valid.|||So you like His Tonyness and all those who crawl and slither with him? i have just one question for you......... WHY???????|||I tend to agree. We have had relatively low inflation, reduced direct taxation, tax incentives for the low-paid (I am in that category) and a virtual nil return on shock/horror headlines from the middle Press apropos the economy. This gives the letter agencies much more headline room to pan blacks, Muslims and errant celebrities, which, surely, is more to their taste and that of their readership than the mere material of living.

Yes, I thank Mr Brown that the my right to own my own home is still dependent upon tax-cuts that are being eaten away by indirect taxation, and that, if I work any overtime, which I am often compelled to do, my tax credits are reduced, so I effectively work my overtime for nothing. Of course, with a take-home pay of 锟?00 per week, I am living in the lap of luxury. I have no children, so I get no credits. My wife cannot work because of a chronic mental condition, but she gets absolutely nothing from the State. I%26#039;m past 50 now, so I haven%26#039;t the energy to do a weekend job to eke out my miserable pay, and, even if I did, as I am an honest type. I%26#039;d declare my earnings, so my tax credits would dwindle even more.

Yes, Mr Brown is the best Chancellor - for God%26#039;s sake don%26#039;t put anyone else in, at least with Brown I know where I stand, currently knee-deep in material that would better be recycled.|||The economy isn%26#039;t stable, it is based around huge amounts of borrowed money in the form of personal debt and huge mortgage borrowings because of hugely inflated house prices. First time buyers can%26#039;t afford to get onto the property ladder.

The above has given the impression that the economy is strong, but it is an illusion and it will now start to unravel. Huge shortcomings in pension provisions for the future, and, if it were possible, even larger PFI off balance sheet obligations, which will have to be met by future taxpayers.

The low interest rates you refer to, owes more to world conditions and cheap supplies of manufactured goods from the far east than anything that this Government has done. In fact, in order to keep interest rates low, this Government has deliberately chosen an inflation measure that excludes key items, but even this measure hasn%26#039;t been achieved. Most wage settlements, however, use the more representative (RPI) measure which is running at a much higher rate than that chosen by the Government. The independance of the BOE in this regard is something of an illusion, because they set interest rates to stay within the inflation rate chosen by the Government. Also, it is the Chancellor that chooses the members of the BOE committee. Some Independance. Rates are starting to rise in any event.

It is low interest rates that have created ludicrously high property prices. This has largely occurred because the government have chosen an unrealistic inflation target, and have made no attempt to control the amount that lenders should lend to each borrower.

Inflation hasn%26#039;t been under control, it has simply hit us in a different form, house prices, council taxes and stealth taxes, conveniently, however, these are excluded from the measure, but, nontheless, are a reality for us because they represent public body expenditure.

Stamp duty, inheritance tax, proposed green taxes, speed cameras, proposed road charges, and it is expected that taxartion will have to rise for many years to come to meet existing government indebtedness. Some of these future obligations arise because of the massive increase in public sector employees, many doing unecessary jobs related to PC, the smoking police come to mind.

There are so many more examples than can be stated here, but history will show that this chancellor was a brilliant smoke and mirrors man, but he has now sold all the silver and will be found out. Notwithstanding the perilous state that the economy is in, the social disaster that this government has created, is perhaps, its most damming legacy. Absolutely nothing works as it should.

You are obviously a new labour man, I have noticed from some of your other answers, but it is interesting that you are anticipating some angry people. They don%26#039;t need to mention the Iraq war.

I don%26#039;t think that it is possible to talk about Gordon Brown in isolation from this government. I don%26#039;t want to sell the idea that when Blair goes everything will be OK under Gordon. Gordon, is an old style tax and spend Labourite. The last thing that we need.|||Not me, the robbing bastard!|||Don%26#039;t get to attached to Brown, He will not be around very much longer. At the next election the whole of the cancerous lump called Labour will be soundly kicked out of office by the British electorate.

- supporting anything or anyone associated to the Labour party makes you look ignorant! :)|||No no no. Did you know that he even stopped widows pension in 2001. Anyone who can rob widows when they are at their most vunerable has no concience.

He has taken money from workers pension schemes though his taxes.

He will take inheritance tax from families just because the value of their house has gone up.

We will even have to work for years longer before we can retire.

My children and their husbands all work full time, because they cant afford not to. Just to pay their morgages takes most of their wages.

Yet Robber Brown will be thinking of more ways to bleed us dry.|||As the previous answers have shown, you are wrong, very very wrong. How sad for you.|||Council Tax has sky rocketed, he has introduced over 50 tax by stealth, I now have the prospect of some council worker having the right to come and walk around my house to see if I should pay more tax, he has stolen peoples pensions. so you are a very sad and ignorant man. Smoke and Mirrors is all that Gordon is - an old style tax and spend Labour Chancellor.

You really are an ignorant Labour pissed man. You need to wake up and understand that very, very few people agree with you, and that New Labour have ruined this country. Never mind what the Tories did or did not do when they were in power. This government has had 10 years to put things right, and they have failed on virtually everything.