Medway isn't working under Tories

Only the most blind of Conservatives can now ignore the glaringly obvious - that Gideon and the Etonian cabinet of multi-millionares are totally mismanaging the economic recovery.

The last time unemployment stood at this level was under the Major Conservative government. A government that failed Britain with sky high crime, dithering factional govenrment, dodgy scandals and a total lack of leadership. History repeats itself.

Labour went into the General Election in 2010 on an economic argument which has since come to fruition. Labour wanted a slower pace of deficit reduction over a longer cycle because we were clear the recovery had not been secured.

The Tories meanwhile lied to the public over their plans. They were elected and cut the public sector and rose taxes they promised they would not - VAT.

The Etonian arrogance of the Tories who last year claimed last year we were 'out of the danger zone' and that there need not be a rise in unemployment. So today, unemployment increased by 114,000 to 2.57 million in the quarter to August, the worst total since the autumn of 1994, giving a jobless rate of 8.1%, the highest since 1996.

Medway's claimant count rose 142 to 7,120, while in the rest of Kent, an extra 445 people joined the dole queue.

Youth unemployment reached a record high of 991,000, while the numbers claiming Jobseeker's Allowance increased for the seventh month in a row, to 1.6 million, date from the Office of National Statistics has shown.

The male youth unemployment rate (23.6 per cent) is also the highest since 1992. There are now 257,000 young people who have been unemployed for over a year, the highest figure since Dec-Feb 1994. Overall, 867,000 people have been unemployed over a year and 423,000 for more than two years.

Other figures showed a 178,000 slump in employment in the quarter to August - the biggest fall in more than two years - and the largest-ever cut in the number of part-time workers, down by 175,000.The number of people classed as economically inactive increased by 26,000 to 9.35 million, a rate of 23.3%. Taking the inactivity rate and the new jobless figures together, half of 16 to 24-year-olds are now not employed, it was revealed.

Not one Medway Conservative Councillor or MP has apologised for calling it wrong...

With the Tories Britain isn't working. We need a plan B.