Employment minister can't afford to sound too happy if he wants to keep his job

Just attended a briefing with Tony McNulty, the employment minister, folliwing today's new figures (the number of claimants in the West Midlands is up to 142,600, up by 47,800 in a year).

There is some good news, according to the Government, in that the number of unemployed people who are finding jobs is also holding up. In other words, businesses may be laying staff off but job centres are still sucessfuly finding work for people.

But Ministers are wary of saying anything positive at the moment, for fear they will be portrayed as modern-day Mary Antoinettes. Mr McNulty repeated two or three times "I'm NOT saying green shoots, I'm NOT saying light at the end of the tunnel", to make sure hacks didn't get the wrong idea.