GORDON Brown’s claim in Parliament to have saved the world may have been just a slip of the tongue last week, but it tells us something about the person he is — a man who has repeatedly and unwisely boasted he had delivered an end to ‘boom and bust’.

On the contrary, instead of the economic stability he promised, we now have an economy more exposed to the global economic crisis than any other in Europe.

No other country in the world has adopted a scheme like the one Mr Brown is proposing for Britain.

Labour argues the recession is so exceptional we should stimulate the economy with borrowed money the country has not got.

But only countries that have acted prudently during the boom years can offer upfront tax cuts to boost their economy, without saddling future generations with a massive burden of debt and tax rises kicking in just when the country will be struggling to emerge from recession — a view shared by a wide range of organisations from the International Monetary Fund to the Organi-sation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Thanks to Mr Brown, the UK certainly does not fall into the category of countries that have acted prudently.

We went into this crisis with one of the highest budget deficits in the developed world and, thanks to Mr Brown’s recent pre-Budget report, he is proposing to double Government debt over the next five years.

The German finance minster described Mr Brown’s approach as crass and one that would “raise Britain’s debt to a level that will take a whole generation to work off”.

So what is the solution? In the long term, it is vital we restore responsibility to our public finances.

We also need a targeted programme put in place right now to provide immediate help to get people through this crisis.

The measures we are urging the Government to adopt include: reducing employment costs for the smallest businesses by cutting National Insurance; cutting corporation tax for all small businesses and allowing them to defer VAT payments for up to six months (giving vital help with cash flow) and providing tax breaks for companies creating new jobs.

But perhaps the most crucial measure of all is our proposal for a National Loan Guarantee Scheme.

We backed the Government’s bank rescue package to rescue their customers who were finding it so hard to access crucial lending.

So far, Mr Brown’s package has not delivered and it is vital to take steps to put that right.

By offering a Government guarantee for a significant proportion of lending to businesses, our loan guarantee scheme would get credit flowing again and throw a critically important lifeline to businesses struggling in today’s harsh economic climate.

Moreover, it would do so without the economic jeopardy that the Government’s fiscal stimulus package would so clearly involve.