Rejoice! Only 90,000 More Unemployed!

Reading the BBC website today you might be forgiven for thinking we are living in a land of milk and honey.

In accounting the first adage you're told is "every debit must have a credit".....the BBC have used that very well today, with the following quotes:

"Unemployment figure has risen once again, but the rate of increase has slowed" (my emphasis on the but)

"The rise in the number of unemployed was the lowest since July 2008"

"While the number of people claiming benefit is now the highest since 1997, the rise compared with the previous month was the least since May 2008"

So that's all right then. Now I could let them off with this kind of "reporting" if the jobless figure went up 800. 8,000 even. But 88,000! That's around the population of Hartlepool (Peter "Fighter not a Quitter" Mandleson's old constituency).

To try and paint a picture that almost 90,000 people losing their job is some sort of positive news is an absolute disgrace. It is a shocking statistic which should have Government talking heads being taken to task by the State Broadcaster.

However you get the feeling that the BBC is very much a mouthpiece for the incumbent government. I think they fear a Conservative Government and what they might do to try and change the BBC. To be honest I don't think they should worry unduly, I can't see the Tories changing anything much, they seem a pretty spineless bunch.

But the Beeb can't take any chances and I think the next few months will see them becoming more and more like Pravda.

We'll be hearing the good news about increased tractor production in Siberia and hourly speeches from the Dear Leader before the year is out.

Music tonight comes from a left wing firebrand which Auntie Beeb would thoroughly approve of - Between the Wars by Billy Bragg.