Oooooh…maybe this is the time to keep shtum…

There was a stony silence from the Department of Business tonight as two sources in one day drew attention back to economic reality.

The Office of National Statistics released data this afternoon showing that manufacturing output slumped in January. Production is now at its lowest monthly level since last August, when even the Government admitted that the recession was in full swing.

Given the NIESR trend suggesting a deceleration of output, later figures are likely to be worse still. Confounding expectations of growth (and reversing December’s strong rise) today’s official numbers added to already widespread doubts about the reality of the economic ‘recovery’.

We await a tomorrow in which Mandy will complain about people talking Britain down. Talk may be cheap, but it is the expensive actions of New Labour’s fiscal delusion that have brought Britain to this sorry state.