Political commentators like myself sometimes despair, you can hear us in the silent depths of the night singing in unison "Things Will Never Get Better."
Causes for such hopelessness are many and varied. Take the leaked Downing Street memo that acknowledged (at last) the electorate think the government are a bunch of incompetent two faced clowns intent on stuffing their faces, lining their pockets and ennobling their best mates at the taxpayers expense mainly because the government are a bunch of incompetent clowns etc.
All well and good had it not been topped on the same day by a new batch of ministerial stupidities. Top of the heap was the warning to lazy idle good - for - nothings from Work and Pensions minister John Hutton. Hutton said that the "can work, won't work culture of the long term unemployed will be brought to an end by cuts in their benefits.
Erm... forgive me for being churlish enough to mention this Mr. Hutton but I rather thought the recent rises in unemployment were the result of a failure to take action against greedy employers who export jobs to the far east to take advantage of the cheap labour available there.
Hutton says the "hardcore of claimants" are failing to compete with East European migrants for jobs.
I wonder has he thought that British people with British expectations may lack the basic skills to fill the jobs being taken by East European migrants? Skills such as the ability to subsist on £2 per hour for example.