Where's the Christmas cheer?
Tessa Jowell's remark on yesterday's Daily Politics that Britain is facing a recession "deeper than any that we have known" is widely repeated this morning in the papers and on the political blogs.
Some will see it as jarring with the Prime Minister's oft-repeated claim that the British economy is in better shape to weather the recession than most other major economies. If so, the Minister for the Olympics is in good company because yesterday the Chancellor seemed to agree with her.
Alistair Darling told the Commons that in some areas we will be hit worse than most: "We are going to be affected more substantially in relation to the loss of revenues that we are now experiencing because of the lack of profitability in the financial services sector ... Of course we are more likely to be more severely affected as a result [of] profitability being reduced ... We are also affected by the downturn in the housing market because of reduced revenues in relation to stamp duty".
The likelihood that things are going to get a lot worse before they get better is fuelling speculation, yet again, that Mr Brown is considering calling an election in the Spring (some are even mulling over the possibility of a February poll). Such is the febrile atmosphere that every tea leaf is examined for meaning, the latest being blogger report that he has heard from a friend in the ad business that Labour is buying up advertising space for January.
My own guess is still that Mr Brown will hold on until the last minute in the Spring of 2010 because he believes his fiscal stimulus really will rescue us from recession. But I fear we're in for another sustained bout of election speculation which, given what happened last time, the PM will want to dampen down, even if he does see merit in a Spring 2009 poll.
We may be in the run up to Christmas but there's : a letter from the Government could be about to drop on your door mat telling you you've been overpaid for years and to expect a future cut in your pension. And if that news leaves you in need of cheering up ... how about a timely Whitehall farce? The plot involves an efficiency drive that was meant to save £57m ending up costing the tax payer over £80m. The and involved -- yes, you guessed it -- an IT project (but I bet you didn't guess it spoke German). We'll try and get to the bottom of it. 
Also today is the Government failing white working class boys? A identifies a group of nearly 2.4 million young children in deprived Northern neighbourhoods who have low aspirations and fall well below the national target of five A-C grades at GCSE. For a Government which put social exclusion at the heart of it's agenda back in 1997 surely these are the very people who should be achieving more? We'll hear from Cabinet Office Minister Kevin Brennan.
Also today how important is class when it comes to politics (or broadcasting for that matter)? There were reports over the weekend that David Cameron is fretting over the image of his front bench because of the numbers who hail from public school and Oxbridge. So is being posh a handicap when trying to appeal to the wider electorate? And how far should politicians go when it comes to looking and sounding like the people they want to vote for them?
With me throughout the show today will be Camila Batmanghelidjh - founder of the children's charity Kids Company well placed to explore the issues arising from the Cabinet office report on aspiration aswell as all the other stories making the news.
Don't forget we want your views on all the stories on today's programme, email me at daily.politics@bbc.co.uk.
Hope you can join us on the Daily Politics at Noon here on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ2. There's a lot going on!
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