Only the beginning

Looking at the steep increase in unemployment figures over the past three months the liberal daily The Independent sees Britain facing a recession: "The first thing to note is that this is going to be expensive for all of us. Welfare payments already eat up a good proportion of government spending. Now they are going to have to rise merely to keep the newly unemployed from destitution. ...The second thing to note is that the Government seems rather ill-prepared to deal with rising joblessness. Its present unemployment reduction policies are based on an assumption of strong economic growth. ... We should not be under any illusions. This process is going to be painful no matter what ministers do. In the end, the best most of us can hope is that the recession will not be too deep and that the labour market reforms of the past two decades will help to propel us into better times."

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