"By the way Bridge unless you hadn't noticed the UK is doing fairly well compared to most in the Eurozone and the rest of the developed world for that matter."

Except that we don't make stuff any more (cheers, Maggie) and that productivity is grinding along the bottom, in spite of the much-vaunted "millions of jobs created" mantra we hear from the Tories. Nothing, I suppose, to do with the fact that most of those jobs are part-time but not part-time enough to claim benefits, or are seasonal, or are temporary, or are on zero-hours contracts, or are fake "self-employed" or are bogus "apprenticeships" paying £2.79 per hour...