It has now been accepted that Britain is officially in a recession which is contraction of the economy for two succeeding quarters. The Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown blamed the global economy, read the US, for the gloomy news seemingly forgetting that he has been the Chancellor of the Exchequer for over a decade. During that time he has enthusiastically carried out the policies of the previous Prime Minister, Tony Blair which were said to belong to New Labour. This involved mass privatisation of everything including the railways, the NHS and the utilities allowing, in the process, private companies to make windfall profits at the cost of the hapless taxpayers. He was a supporter of less regulation for the City allowing market players to do pretty much whatever they wanted and earn huge bonuses for ever reckless gambling with other people's money. Mr. Brown did not learn anything from having to renationalise Railtrack a few years earlier preferring to see it as an exception rather than a portent of things to come. When I worked in the NHS patients were treated as necessary with doctors deciding priorities. Today administrators, with little knowledge, are paid vast amounts to run an ever deteriorating service. True the waiting lists for cataract and hip replacement have come down but you have to wait at least six weeks for an ultrasound which surely is worse than the third world. Mr. Brown is throwing humungous amounts of money into the economy hoping that he can stimulate growth so that he can recoup the expense from rising tax collections in a growing economy. Surely he should have learnt by now that his favourite market has a habit of throwing a spanner at your soft spot when you least expect it.