More grim economic news
The are out this morning and they're even worse than expected: unemployment, by the broad measure Labour always favoured in opposition, increased by 164,000 to 1.79m between June and August, the steepest rise since 1991.
This latest grim economic news comes hard on the heels of yesterday's , a 16-year high. Both figures undermine the economic record on which Gordon Brown has dined out since he became Chancellor in 1997.
And, as Mr Brown joins other European leaders in Brussels to push his plans for redrawing the global financial architecture, the bloom is coming off his much-heralded bank bail out plan: yesterday the New York stock market was unimpressed by the Bush administration's version of the Brown bank bailout and this morning the London stock market is back in negative territory again, as the complexities and difficulties of the rescue operation strike home.
All this should cause the boosters trumpeting a Brown bounce to pause: the bailout plan is no panacea and we're in for a miserable litany of economic statistics this winter and beyond. Even the public sector, which has enjoyed a privileged position during the Brown years, looks like it will have to shed jobs.
Unemployment is clearly heading for 2m and worse, if not by Christmas then certainly soon after; inflation might have peaked but there could be more in years to come given the huge debt and money supply increases being pumped into the economy; and the financial turmoil is going to take several years to sort out, its fallout still hurting by the time the general election comes in the spring of 2010.
On today's show we'll have the new employment minister, Tony McNulty, who has inherited a difficult portfolio in the current climate; and for the Tories we'll have the shadow innovation, university and skills secretary, David Willets. It's not clear that the Tories have anything to stop unemployment rising for the foreseeable future.
We'll be talking to a small businessman who is suffering from the downturn and having to lay off staff. We're also trying for a union leader.
It's Wednesday so it must be Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) but with the PM in Brussels it's the reserve team today at Noon: Harriet Harman, William Hague and Vince Cable. Such contrasting styles always make for an interesting joust.
And we'll have Gordon Brown champion and TV star, Piers Morgan, yet another celebrity who wants to talk to us about the dangers of climate change.
That's all on the Daily Politics today on Ö÷²¥´óÐã2 from 11.30pm til 1pm - the best 90 minutes in political TV.
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