Now the health secretary tells us to baton down the hatches

The scramble for polititians to tell us how long and deep the recession is going to be continues unabated.

Hot on the heels of Ed Balls and last nights warning by the Bank of England chief comes health secretary Alan Johnson.

In an interview with the Spectator's Fraser Nelson he hints that this downturn at least in terms of job reallocation could last 18 months to two years.

He is though rather optimistic of the outcome,

If we can get through this, a year, 18 months, even two years, with all the agencies focusing on how you give people skills to fill the vacancies, then you will have a completely different picture at the end of this than you did at the end of the Eighties.’