North Warwickshire Unemployment Figures Continue to Soar

Recently released figures show that the jobless totals for North Warwickshire continue to soar as the economic recession bites deep in the West Midlands. The year on year increase between Feb 2008 and Feb 2009 stands at a staggering 152%.

The list of economic woes makes for bleak reading:

- February unemployment figures for Warwickshire as a whole show the largest monthly increase since Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) records began.

- Jobless numbers in the county are at at the highest level for twelve and half years.

- National unemployment figures this month has seen the largest increase since records began.

According to a recently published economic briefing document from Warwickshire County Council:

"...The West Midlands is forecast to suffer relatively badly... Warwickshire will continue to feel the recession more than many areas - and if the West Midlands suffers, Warwickshire may well suffer disproportionately more." (Warwickshire County Council - Regeneration Strategy & Warwickshire Observatory - March Newsletter Edition 3).

Former soldier Dan Byles, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for North Warwickshire & Bedworth, has been a strong critic of Gordon Brown's handling of the recession.  He recently highlighted the shocking fact that unemployment locally is rising at double the national rate. Speaking after the release of the latest local jobless figures, Dan said:

"With North Warwickshire jobless figures having risen by 152% in the year up to Feb 2009, it is now clear that the recession is hammering ordinary people locally, and the string of headline catching announcements from Gordon Brown are clearly having no impact here in the real world.

"While bankers are being bailed out with £billions of taxpayers money, after the complete failure of the regulation system Gordon Brown designed and put in place in 1997, ordinary workers are losing their jobs and their homes across Bedworth, Atherstone, Coleshill and the surrounding towns and villages. Every job loss represents a personal tragedy, and most worryingly it is forecast to get worse.

"Thanks to Gordon Brown, we are entering the worst recession in living memory, and the UK is predicted to suffer worse than the United States and all the Eurozone countries.

"Unemployment across Warwickshire and the entire country is rising at the fastest level since records began.

"And thanks to Brown's incontinent borrowing, we enter this disastrous situation with the worst public sector deficit since the Second World War. It cost less to defeat Hitler over six years than Brown has committed us to in the last year alone.

"The sad truth is that Gordon Brown cannot resolve this situation, because he is part of the problem. Every time he opens his mouth he commits our children and our grandchildren to yet more £billions of debt. He boasts that he will spend ‘whatever it takes', despite no other country in Europe agreeing with his open chequebook policies. The Germans have said that his pointless VAT cut will lead to debts that 'will take a generation to work off.' Even Labour PM Jim Callaghan recognised that you can't just spend your way out of a recession.

"The people of North Warwickshire & Bedworth have been badly let down by Gordon Brown. It's time he went."