Official death of Brown's fiscal borrowing rules
The ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ now finds itself on the wrong end of an all-party consensus in 
the Ross-Brand row, with both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition wading in against Auntie and widespread media comment wondering aloud if either senior ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ executives or ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Trust have responded adequately to the crisis. Today could be crucial in the developing row. We'll bring you the latest.
Today is also of some political significance: the day Alistair Darling will scrap Gordon Brown's much trumpeted fiscal borrowing rules. The rules have been more breached than observed in recent times and they've been changed (critics would say fiddled) so often that most economists and the City have stopped taking them seriously but the announcement of their official death will herald a new, looser era in British fiscal policy.
With the government being forced to drop the rules that have guided economic policy for over a decade, the Chancellor will dress it up in his tonight. Now that recession is following in the wake of financial turmoil the government needs to borrow a lot more than its rules allow. A "more flexible" framework will facilitate that but the opposition will attack it as an unconstrained borrowing binge. The amount of debt the government should rack up on our behalf -- and whether that is a proper response to recession -- is about to take centre stage in our politics.
We'll be discussing that as well as the prospects for further interest rate cuts with Hazel Blears and David Davis. We'll also be talking about the situation in Afghanistan with Mr Davis, who's just returned from a 10 day fact finding mission to the region. And, of course, we'll bring you PMQs live at Noon -- don't be surprised if the names Brand and Ross pop up during exchanges! That's all on the Daily Politics at 11.30 this morning on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2. We promise not to call your answering machine.
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