Economies: UK latest to enter recession, says Chamber

Whilst the Brown-Darling duo pretend that Darling is in control whilst Brown pulls his strings, and Brown makes up with his pal, not pal, and now pal Mandelsohn again, who has managed to annoy almost every trade minister around the world and Brown tells competitition ministers that the law doesn't matter if they can say "we are doing whatever is necessary," the general economy is flailing around like a, well, flailing thing.

The British Chamber of Commerce does not believe the official figures. It says that the UK is in recession even though the government says it is not.

The UK government has admitted that it cannot quantify the UK economy and that, as a result of widespread VAT fraud.

The BCC may well have a better grip on the reality of what is happening. It is taking jobless figures and projecting growth of a third of a million - whilst the government says employment is not under pressure.

And things are expected to get worse. Business confidence is desperately low and businesses are reducing borrowing (if they can get any) and postponing projects.

Yesterday, the FTSE 100 index had its largest fall since inception in 1984. Almost GBP 100,000 million was wiped off the value of the shares on the list. That kind of issue makes it unlikely that business confidence will return any time soon.

It appears that the UK Treasury is focussing on just the financial sector whilst the rest of the business sector is bleeding to death un-noticed by the government.