Stop the press - we're in recession
UPDATE AT 1534:
More re the Budget. The UK government says the level of "efficiency saving" demanded from Scotland next year, 2010/11, works out at a net £366m.
That is calculated thus: - £392m as Scotland's share of GB efficiencies; plus £25m as Barnett consequential of new spending announced in the Budget. Adds up to - £367m.
Calculators in hand, Scottish Government sources don't dissent from that sum.
But they say you have to add on a further reduction of £129m as a consequence of the reprofiling of NHS capital spending.
And they say this sum takes no account of the further £9 billion of "efficiency savings" being sought by the Chancellor, post 2011.
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. Whoah, there. Flash it on the News Channel. Hold the front page. Alert the Palace.
I would imagine you are less than surprised by the disclosure that brave Caledonia has joined the recessionary trend. But news it is, nonetheless.
For it was only today that Gross Domestic Product figures confirmed what the pooches in the precinct knew.
The statistical cycle means that, as of today, there have now been two successive quarters of shrinking output in Scotland. That is recession.
Also today, we learned unemployment has risen in Scotland. By 15,000 over the past year.
Again, there may be a tendency to let that brush past us. Credit crunch equals global crisis equals recession equals unemployment.
But think. That figure means 15,000 more people, 15,000 more families have faced or are continuing to face the real stresses and strains of economic downturn.
As the chancellor well understands, will be judged according to whether it can ameliorate those figures and their comparators across the UK as a whole.
I'm 
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