英伦广角 Issue 130 英国经济时隔16年再陷衰退（在线收听）

The skilled workmen at Allen Brothers Timber in Berwick-upon-Tweed are busy, but only after 40 of the 250 staff were made redundant when orders for their bespoke windows and doors began to slow.

I’m very pleased to say that 20 out of those people were able to find alternative employment elsewhere, but nevertheless there were an excess of 20 hard redundancies.

Small businesses like this are on the front line as the economy gets hammered.

Yes, obviously, I'm concerned for the future, and I think the moment job is safe at the minute, but who knows for the future.

I’m a single dad with two kids, so I’d like to think my job is safe. I’ve been here 21 years ago, like I say who knows for sure at the corner.

I got laid off in 1991 from here and I was here for about a year, but if I got laid off, and it was devastating a thing because I was paying mortgage * with two kids to bring up and I feel sorry for logical appealing for this thing, put all in the field.

Today official figures confirm what everybody had feared: the economy had shrunk in the last quarter and not only that, by an unexpectedly 0.5 of a percent, more than twice the predicted drop.

We are determined to do everything we can and as soon as we can to help people, so that if they lose their jobs, they can get back into work; and if businesses get into difficulty, we do our level best to help them.

The country still isn’t officially in recession. It will take a second quarter of negative growth for that to be confirmed.

After that figure, some in the city now think that the economy will continue to slow well into next year, and then remain flat and then maybe, just maybe, some green shoots of recovery in the spring of 2010. One thing is for certain: it will be a long haul. Most of the economy is in its worst state for 18 years, sparking demands for a serious policy response.

I think the Bank of England will cut interest rate sharply. I think they will cut interest rates to at least 2%. But if I was there, I would actually argue that rate should be down to 1% by next summer

The leader of the Conservative Party says the government should have been better prepared.

We’ve had ten years of being told no more boom and bust, ten years of government not putting aside money for a rainy day. Well, that rainy day has now come. We will get through this, but we need change.

There’s a concern that output shrunk so significantly so early on in the downturn. How long the slump will last and how deep it will be is a question for the future. Now the onus is on the Bank of England since inflation is yesterday’s story. Today's question is how quickly can they get the cost of borrowing down and how quickly will it work.