WHY is it that government ministers always put their foot in it when discussing soaring unemployment?

In 1981, the Tory Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit instructed the unemployed to “get on your bike and look for work”.

Ten years later, in a desperate attempt to curb inflation, another Norman – Norman Lamont – proclaimed that rising unemployment was “a price well worth paying”.

More recently, the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith claimed Remploy’s disabled workers were not doing anything constructive, “just making cups of coffee”.

To add to this illustrative list of jesters please step forward Energy Secretary Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrat MP for Kingston and Surbiton.

Mr Davey made a flying visit to the North-East recently to spout plenty of hot air on the region’s employment prospects.

With 2.6m people out of work (including a million young people), a North-East unemployment rate of 11.5 per cent and 6,000 more local people claiming unemployment benefit compared to last month, Mr Davey’s parting shot that “there’s been nothing but good jobs news recently” went down like a lead balloon here on Teesside.

If Mr Davey thinks unemployment is falling in the North-East then he either has a poor understanding of the area or he’s telling porkies.

Personally I opt for the latter.

After all, his first job after leaving school was in a pork pie factory.

Stephen Dixon, Redcar.