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"Working closely with... moving as fast as we can ... holding a seminar next week ... urgently assessing ... continues to look very carefully..."

Are these the words of someone who is on top of the biggest challenge faced by the manufacturing sector since the Industrial Revolution - or the obfuscation of a man who simply doesn't know what to do?

An alternative interpretation is that Lord Mandelson and the government have given up caring for what they see as two lost causes: the automotive industry in the West Midlands, and Labour's electoral hopes for the region.

The Birmingham Post offers no apology for returning - again - to the question of whether or not Jaguar Land Rover should receive any Government aid to help it survive the most savage economic downturn in the peacetime history of the car industry.

The answer, we firmly believe, should be an unequivocal yes.

The national Press, which has unanimously argued against intervention, would doubtless accuse us of special pleading.

No regular reader of our print edition can fail to see the changes we have introduced today - the most visible being the change in size and design of the newspaper.

But, as we hope those of you who read the Birmingham Post online will be discovering, the new compact print product is only one of a number of responses the title is making this week to the challenges presented by the rapidly changing media marketplace.

Other developments are not as visible, but no less significant for that. The Post's online presence, birminghampost.net has been updated, building on phenomenal growth since its launch just eight months ago.

Later this week, the Post becomes the first regional newspaper in the UK to launch its own news and information service designed specifically for use on the new generation of mobile phones.