Unemployment Still the only area of UK Growth.

Unemployment is up again. Bad news for the Labour government as it allows the other parties to claim their policies aren't working.

The BBC had a report on Newsnight on why the end of recession hasn't started to generate jobs. No mention of the effect the parasitic public sector is having on business, nor any real mention that the increase in NI might be causing drag on job numbers, nor any mention of the lack of incentives from Labour to get employers to actually employ people. In fact the tone of the BBCs report seemed to be that the wonderous Labour government had created huge growth and it was industry's fault for not employing more people. Disregarding the fact that growth is flat (less than 1%) and not likely to create significant numbers of jobs at all.

Once again BBC reporters miss the point, apart from one nugget of truth, that the unemployment stats would be worse if it wasn't for people leaving the job market altogether. That phrase I understand suggests either retirement, death or emmigration.

Hardly a basis for cheery news.

The fact is that Labour have done nothing to bridge the huge gap between being completely on benefits and in a decent enough paying job that allows you to live without being paid any state benefits.

Me and the missus are having regular rows now because my job isn't paying enough to cover our bills, yet stops us being eligible for any benefit. The hill you have to climb to get into full employment is a severely steep one. Since the 10p tax rate was introduced and the wife's tax bill doubled overnight, we've struggled. Yes, we're among the people caught by the abolition of the 10p rate, but haven't received any extra benefit to compensate (as was promised by Brown and Darling). The thing is, we know several people in the same boat. These are (now ex) Labour voters who will never vote Labour again, thanks to their policies over the last 5 years. Instead there are droves of them looking very carefully at Nick Clegg and the Lib-Dems as an alternative to endorsing the last 5 years of Labour policy or voting Conservative.

The "Clegg Bounce" is no flash in the pan.