Severe stresses in the financial system and the news from the real economy have certainly increased the risks of a bigger and more sustained downturn, said Andrew Sentance, a member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee.

Speaking at international seminar held at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Sentance said that the jury was still out on the question of whether Britain is in one of those more dramatic prolonged downturns, as seen before in the mid-1970s, early-80s and early-90s, or