Mansion House 2012 speeches: reaction The Governor is now recognising what the Chancellor still refuses to - that urgent action to stimulate the British economy is needed now that we are in a double-dip recession. The Bank of England's new funding for lending scheme is a significant admission that the Government's existing policies have failed. Businesses will be desperately hoping it is more successful than George Osborne's Project Merlin and credit easing schemes which have actually seen net lending to businesses fall. But when the biggest problems in our economy are a lack of confidence and a lack of demand, these proposals from the Bank of England do not go far enough. We need a change of course from the Government on fiscal policy too. A credible and balanced plan for jobs and growth that gets our economy moving again and people back to work is the only way we will succeed in getting the deficit down. And without urgent action now, Britain will pay a very heavy long term price. Otto Thoresen, Director General at the ABI, said: The ABI welcomes the additional FPC objective to ensure continued growth of the economy. Insurers have a key role to play in this and it is vital that insurers are able to continue to invest in UK infrastructure and support the FPC objective of continued UK economic growth. George Osborne also discussed the long awaited White Paper on bank reform, which will see high-street banking ring-fenced from riskier operations such as investment banking. However, some argued that the Government should prioritise lending over reforms. James Barty, senior financial consultant at Policy Exchange, said: If the Chancellor truly wants to get the economy moving he has to try and stop gold-plating the banks now. In an ideal world, he should put his White Paper on bank reform on the backburner until the economy is properly recovering. There was one other theme on Twitter tonight - humour. Sky's Ed Conway tweeted: While another observer said: Here is a snippet - I'll let you judge for yourself how funny he was: The full speech is here. But for all the complex talk of Extended Collateral Term Repo Facilities (yes, that does exist) and fiscal consolidation, it's basic math that stole the limelight tonight. Earlier in the evening, the Chancellor was presented with a GCSE maths book as he entered the Mansion House banquet. Mr Osborne was handed the book by Heydon Prowse, who is filming a new comedy series for BBC3 with the working title: We Know Where You Live. A BBC spokeswoman said: "It's making a political point in a cheeky way. It's a BBC Three show, which will come out later in the year and it's a sort of topical satirical entertainment show, which pokes fun at the establishment. We'll keep our eyes peeled for the final cut...