Recession - its official

So, the long-awaited UK recession has arrived:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7846266.stm

Whilst this is hardly a suprise to anyone (some of us having been saying this for almost a year), its effects will be the topic of dinner party conversation for many months to come.... assuming anyone can afford to host one in 2009.

I feel this BBC chart explains the situation better than words:



This has even been noticed by Google, who's revenue figures have dropped 1% year-on-year and 12% comparing Q4 08 with Q3 08. Google UK's SVP and CFO Patrick Pichette, stated:

"It'd be wrong to say that the dynamics of advertising and spending for products
is not affected by this. The UK is in deep recession"

So how is the Government handling the communication of this information?

Well.. so far I've not seen any official response and the Number 10 Government Website hasn't been updated for 2 days.

I'll leave it to you to decide if its a good idea to let the country suffer whilst the spin doctors take longer than normal to plan the "recovery is on the way" rhetoric....