To Play The King

Gordon Brown has effectively dismissed Mervyn King's warning that Britain may not be able to afford further fiscal stimulus measures.

Brown is warming up for next week's G 20 summit in London, and spoke to MEPs in Strasbourg yesterday; today he will attend a breakfast debate in New York hosted by The Wall Street Journal, deliver a speech at a New York university and meet with Ban Ki Moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Brown continues to press for countries to use fiscal stimulus packages to refloat the economy.

Fiscal stimulation is all very well if it goes to the places and people that actually need it, and that there is the money there to stimulate the economy.

The trouble is that Britain entered this recession with precious little in the "store cupboard" as Brown has already spent it during the years of plenty.