Subsidy junkies jibe is a well-scotched myth

Numbers - or, rather, our inability to agree precise numbers to set against the challenges facing all governments - have their own lethal way of blowing up in politicians' faces. In recent days, radical upward revisions to the number of migrants coming to Britain and the number of new jobs they have managed to fill in our economy have left squirming London cabinet ministers issuing clarifications and grovelling apologies. And the escalating billions being shelled out by the Bank of England to underwrite the ailing mortgage bank, Northern Rock, raises the spectre of what was once the pride of Newcastle becoming the first (forced) nationalisation in Britain for decades.