Can you ever believe anything he says?

G.Brown spoke of providing British jobs for British workers. He knew that this was not in his power to influence in large measure, as we had to allow an unlimited number of EU workers to come. (In the case of the new accession countries we could have delayed the full flood for a time.)

So how has he done otherwise?

Today's Daily Telegraph makes difficult reading for him. The analysis it reports is that although he is right to report 1.7 million new jobs since 1997, 1.5 million have gone to non-British citizens, or about 88%. So he can claim about 300,000 jobs for British workers.

The report suggests, however, that the number of British people in work is now lower than it was when New Labour started their nightmare. At the same time the number of foreign born workers has nearly doubled over the period.

Perhaps worst of all is the finding that although Britain has lost 1.3million jobs in manufacturing since 1997, the number of foreign born workers employed in manufacturing has actually risen by 113,000. The number of British workers in manufacturing has declined by 1.4 million, then.

If these figures are correct, and they are based on official statistics, then G.Brown told yet another of his porkies in the autumn when it was announced that 54% of the new jobs had gone to foreigners. This figure was in itself a revision and recalculation on figures which were universally condemned. It seems that the true figure is nearly 90%