How ironic to see the Tory press fulminating at the appointment of the Belgian Prime Minister as EU President when they, along with the Tories, did their best in the last few weeks to undermine Tony Blair’s candidacy.

Amusing for the Queen’s speech to be criticised for being “political” by the Tories. Isn’t politics about values and priorities? And that is exactly what the new legislative programme does - from action on long term care costs for the most vulnerable, to help young people into work or training, of, in my own area - to ensure people aren’t left behind by the digital revolution by delivering universal broadband.These are all areas that require active government, not one that believes everything can be left to the market.

Encouraging figures out this week on reposessions and unemployment. Although both are up - inevitably given the global downturn - they are significantly lower than in both the 1980s and 1990s recessions thanks to the actions taken by the Government. This is all the more noteworthy given that the contraction in the economy has actually been greater.

Repossessions are only running at about a third of their level in the Tory recessions and unemployment is lower here than Germany, France, America and most other leading countries. Odd then for the CBI to be appearing to suggest in today’s FT that they would like to see the support for the economy withdrawn more quickly than our current commitment to halving the deficit over 4 years. I can’t think that the CBI leadership is really speaking for most of British industry in taking such risk with the recovery.