After less than a year in office, Yasuo Fukuda resigned as Japan's Prime Minister this week when it became clear that his £9bn economic rescue package was unsustainable in the fight against rampant inflation. He decided that the only honourable course of action open to him was to step down.

Perhaps Mr Brown and Alistair Darling, the loose-talking Chancellor, should have done likewise. For how can they be trusted with restoring Britain's fortunes when the most inefficient organisation in the whole of Great Britain is Her Majesty's Government, and when their economic forecasts have been so inaccurate?

And, judging by the botched nature of yesterday's housing initiative, when Ministers could not even agree on how the announcement should be made, it is increasingly clear this a Government which needs to be put out of its misery before it causes any more damage to the UK's prospects.

Suspending stamp duty on homes worth up to £175,000 for one year only will not stop Britain from sliding into recession. Nor will the Government's measures to help first-time buyers gain a foothold on the property ladder – or the various shared equity policies, worthy though they are, designed to minimise the number of homes that will be repossessed during the slump.

This is money that the recipients are still going to have to pay back, and there is no guarantee that the economy will recover sufficiently for them to do so. In other words, the Government is encouraging people to spend beyond their means – a fundamental reason why household finances no long add up in the first place – and Ministers are prepared to break Mr Brown's fabled fiscal rules to achieve this objective.

Yet, to bankroll this very modest short-term advantage, the Prime Minister is also fleecing the budgets of regional development agencies, like Yorkshire Forward, at a time when they need every penny possible to help keep firms afloat. As well as being short-sighted, this approach makes a mockery of the Government's assertion that it was supporting RDAs in their work. They clearly had little say about this raid on their funding.

If this Government was serious about reinvigorating the economy, it would be cutting taxes, and scaling back the public sector. That is what businesses require in these difficult times. It will also help families to pay their monthly bills.

Mr Fukuda has shown in Japan that unpopular governments cannot spend their way out of trouble. If Mr Brown doesn't learn this lesson, then he, too, will be looking for new employment – as an ex-Prime Minister.