Whenever big redundancies are announced we will be there to help people.

We are putting cash in to encourage employers to recruit people without jobs.
We are stepping up the help we give to get people the training and support they need to get back to work.

Well having been in for a meeting with the DWP a matter of two weeks ago, I can tell you that the cash to encourage employers to take on people who are out of work apparently comes down to paying the wages  of someone who is  being taken on for two weeks.  The training  is limited to £300 per person, and isn't available till you have been out of work for six months

And we are giving more help to pay the mortgage so that losing your job doesn't mean losing your house.

Well this actually only applies to certain types of Benefit, only covers the interest payments, and only covers those people whose house is worth less than £200,000. The other problem with this is that these interest payments don't start till you have been out of work for thirteen weeks.  This makes it more difficult for people to take on temporary work, for fear of losing the mortgage interest payments.

Unbelievably the Tories say we shouldn't spend more to offer this help when people need it most. They would repeat the mistakes of past recessions when whole communities were abandoned and the unemployed were pushed onto incapacity benefit without any help to get back to work.

Our promise to people losing their jobs is this: we may not always be able to save your job but we will never write you off.

The longer you are out of work the harder we will work to help you get a job.

We will do everything we can to prevent short term job losses from turning into long term unemployment.

Giving everyone the opportunity to work was one of the reasons our party was founded.

It was the campaign against Tory unemployment in the 80s and 90s that inspired many of us to join Labour.

In these tough times it is more important than ever that our Labour government is there for the people who need us most.

Best wishes

James Purnell
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

So the man that is heading the campaign of Welfare reforms, who seems to be spending much of his time attacking the poor and disabled, and pandering to the right wing tabloid press is now using the current financial crisis as an opportunity for spin,  and party political advantage taking. I wouldn't be quite so disillusioned if this was based on achievement rather than vague promises.