With UK debt so high after the bailout of the failing banks; this interest rate move will drop the pound sterling to parity with the dollar and Euro (perhaps a politically opportunist move of subterfuge to prepare the UK for Euro membership?).

This devaluation of the pound will cause a massive upward pressure on UK inflation, as nothing is made in the UK without importing its raw materials; which have to be purchased with the increasingly devalued pound.

Will this not lead to stagflation in the event that the rate cut does not stimulate the UK economy out of recession?

One science question for you geeks out there: when does a recession technically or officially become a depression?

I’m happy rates have gone down. I’m on an existing tracker mortgage and have heard the rates will be passed on!

The lowering of the bank rate is useless if the Banks who are the real culprits still refuse to benefit their customers and lower mortgage interest rates. Utter nonsence when we the taxpayer are paying for their mistakes! Something very wrong with this legislation!!

The BoE is into rabbits caught in the headlights territory now, just like the government. Sheer blind panic.

History teaches us that bucking recessionary trends is virtually impossible. You just have to ride them out. This drastic cut won’t get us out of the recession and will eventually result in other serious problems.

An end to boom and bust? What a joke.

As a general principle, it’s surprise moves which are most likely to help in situations like this. (Anything that the market is expecting will already be priced in, by definition.)

However, I suspect this may turn out to be another example of The Law of Unintended Consequences. I don’t know if there are any tracker mortgage products left by the end of today, but it seems likely that any which remain will be closed to new customers shortly.

If the response by the banks to this cut means that the MPC has lost a large chunk of what little ability it had to influence retail rates, then it could mean that they have shot themselves in the foot.

Welcome inflation and farewell common sense!

Then who are the creditors to the UK? I mean who owns the UK?

As we have negative interest rates and owe more than we are worth; who does the UK belong to?

The Chinese or the Gulf Co-Operation Council?

Can I theoretically buy English people as slave labour yet?

The 1.5 point cut to 3% was necessary because Mr Brown’s mouthpiece - the inept Mr King - skillfully missed all the earlier signals to cut rates when it just might have made some difference. It is unlikely that, whatever cuts are now made, they will make much difference. This government appears to be steering the UK towards a Japan style semi-permanent recession, from which there will be no escape.

So much money has been taken out of the stock markets by the unregulated predators who will never replace what has been lost by ordinary investors, that British industry will be starved of funds with which to expand, for years to come, as bruised investors avoid investing their funds in either the stock market, or in the pension funds that have so casually lent the stocks necessary for this dirty and dishonest game to be played and have lost their value as a result. Another of Mr Brown’s inventions - the inept FSA - has flagged all this through, because Mr B and his socialist team love the filthy rich hedge fund managers, whilst hating the ordinary investor, who can’t be as easily controlled as the simple types with cash in the bank.

Against this backdrop, it doesn’t really matter whether interest rates are 5%, 3%, 1% or 0%. The principles are well established. As long as Merv King (the newly self styled international economist, on instructions from his master at no 10 - independence my rear end) the BBC et al keeps telling everyone the world is heading for catastrophe and the malign practices allowed to continue, so any recovery will prove impossible.

Time for either a detailed investigation by someone who will eventually conclude no-one in government was to blame, or a public enquiry into where this all went wrong (how often have we heard this - let’s get the inspectors in shall we?). Talk about incompetence and dishonesty. This lot has it in spades.

Look again in 2013.