'Save banks. Let the planet burn'
Updated on 15 October 2008
Inside the morning meeting.
Gloom continues to engulf the UK's economy - with details of rising unemployment released today.
The number of jobless has increased by more than 160,000 in the past three months.
We will be out and about today looking for a case study of a firm that has recently laid off staff. Cadbury in Birmingham will be our first port of call, where 700 jobs were recently culled.
The dire stats prompt a raft of questions...
"Is there a regional breakdown of these figures so we can see where the jobs are being lost? Or in which industries?"
"Are the jobs being laid off this time involving people with higher salaries? "Is it in different areas - last time a lot of manufacturing jobs were lost and never came back, are there jobs the UK will lose now and never get back?"
"There must be a comparison we can use in this instance; looking at the previous recession. There must be a pattern to how it works its way through the system?"
The finance sector jobs are not included in these figures so we can expect a big hike next month as well.
At present about 1.8m people are now out of work; but forecasts suggest up to 3m people will be out of work soon.
"There is of course one argument that the jobless bite won't be quite as painful this time, as a lot of migrants will simply go home.
"But then again, many have been here three of fours years - and they may prefer to stay here and claim benefits, especially if the situation in their native countries is not too good."
On a similar theme, we'll be looking at the worrying trade off between climate change targets and turmoil in the economy.
There are growing fears that global warming plans are going to be shelved as countries are confronted with financial problems.
"Save the banks and let the planet burn?"
"There's a big meeting of European countries in Copenhagen next year when the EU countries are going to have to lay their targets on the table.
"If they water those targets down now, China and India - the ones we need to get on board with this - will just laugh at them.
"People have told me that if the targets start getting downgraded now, because of the economic crisis, then it could be the beginning of the end for the whole Kyoto process."
Unusually given their previous green credentials, it appears it is the Germans that are really getting cold feet over setting ambitious climate change limits...
John McCain appears to be in last chance saloon today as he prepares for the final presidential debate; he is lagging behind in the polls.
"It will be worth keeping an eye on because he really is going to have to pull something out of the hat on this one - it could be quite vicious.
"All the evidence is showing is that people have seen through his negative campaigning, and that Palin has really backfired for him.
"She's now almost become a figure of fun in the States."
