Things must be bad. The Bank of England which has stubbornly kept interest rates high as it fretted about inflation has finally taken its secateurs to them and sliced off one and a half points, leaving them at three per cent. The last time they were this low was in 1955 and the post-independence bank of England has never before cut rates by more than half a point. The clincher seems to have been figures for both UK manufacturing and the services sector (the main part of the economy) which showed both plummeting in September. Now the issue is, will the banks pass on the cut in full? The answer will be no, they will cut some borrowing deals by the full amount and try to hang on to some of the gain themselves (with lower Bank of England rates money becomes cheaper for them too). But one and a half per cent gives them plenty of wriggle room. They'll need another kind of wriggle room if they don't cut enough and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson comes after them. Nice timing for Labour too, coming on the day of the Glenrothes by-election.