Eddie Barnes - Scotland in full unemployment crisis

Unemployment figures out this morning are calamitous for Scotland. An extra 10,000 people have joined the dole queue in the three months up to the turn of the year, representing the fastest increase across the whole of the UK. That's 10,000 families deprived of an income and instead reliant on the State - 10,000 more people now facing up to one of the most pyschologically damaging experiences that life can throw up. As the STUC notes this morning: "Beyond serious illness or the loss of a loved one, unemployment (particularly prolonged periods) is about the worst thing that can happen to an individual; increasing as it does susceptibility to mental stress, depression and illness." The usual response from Edinburgh - that. don't worry, unemployment in Scotland is lower than the UK - has become virtually irrelevent; the difference in the rate is now a mere 0.2%.

If this trend of rising unemployment in Scotland continues, it could become one of the dominant themes in the coming general election north of the border. It is a very dangerous story for the SNP. If people see that unemployment is going down across the UK, but going up in Scotland, what conclusions will you draw?

So no surprise that the SNP Government was quick off the mark this morning with Enterprise Minister Jim Mather responding to the figures with an unusually sharpened political message. "Recovery is fragile at UK and Scottish levels, and now is not the time for the Westminster Government to turn off the tap of stimulus measures," he says. It's clear what the message is going to be from the SNP: it's the UK government which is to blame.