MAIL COMMENT: Fiddling while the economy burns

Food prices rising at the fastest rate in a quarter of a century... petrol and diesel up a record 24 per cent in a single year... real incomes plunging as the inflation rate soars... share prices in a downward spiral... unemployment rising... the housing market in meltdown.

After yet more grim economic news, the Mail has one question for the Chancellor: how much longer must we wait for action?

Oh, we're forever being told that Alistair Darling may do this, or he may do that - but not just yet.

Perhaps he'll offer a stamp duty holiday to first-time buyers. Maybe he'll ease taxes on motorists and, yes, probably he'll guarantee bank savings up to £50,000. But not until the autumn, mind.

Doesn't he realise, as David Cameron pointed out yesterday, that we are in the middle of a frighteningly serious crisis, described by billionaire investor George Soros as the worst in our lifetime?

Explain this, Mr Darling: if the measures you propose really will offer relief, why not introduce them today?

There are other immediate steps he could take, too, to help the needy. True, world oil prices may be out of our control. But the massive taxes on fuel are not. Couldn't the Government reduce them?

But no. Instead, all we get are vague rumours of future action and absurdly complacent declarations that Britain is well placed to weather the storm (how wildly unrealistic the Budget predictions look today, only four months on).

Meanwhile, the Government goes on piling the pressure on struggling businesses, with plans to extend union power and disastrous measures such as Harriet Harman's Equalities Bill.

Everybody accepts, as the Chancellor constantly reminds us, that the credit crunch had its origins in America, while commodity prices are a global problem.

But our politicians seem blissfully unaware of the deeply disturbing scale of the economic crisis - and the need for action. Urgently.

Racism: An apology

Hallelujah! For decades, Labour MPs have condemned those who dared express honest concerns about mass immigration as racists to be despised and ignored. At last that is changing.

In a ground-breaking report, a Labourled Commons committee finds that the fears of settled residents 'should not be dismissed as expressions of racist or xenophobic sentiments'.

As the MPs now acknowledge - and the Mail has always argued - there are genuine anxieties over how the mass influx is putting pressure on public services and jeopardising community cohesion.

Though it comes many years too late, the implied apology is accepted. Now let's have a full and abuse-free debate on keeping migration at a manageable level.

Under surveillance

Anyone who values freedom and privacy should be deeply alarmed by the latest warnings from Information Commissioner Richard Thomas.

Launching his annual report, he warns that the Government's plans to extend its surveillance powers will mean every phone call, email, text message, internet search and online purchase we make will be registered on a massive state-controlled database.

Meanwhile, our journeys are being tracked and recorded by number-plate recognition cameras, while more than a million citizens are being added to the Government's DNA database every year.

In what is still supposed to be a democracy, shouldn't somebody have asked us if this is what we want?