Well, well, well. Can we really believe what we are told concerning falling unemployment in the York and North Yorkshire region?

Of course we can’t – so much for the honest politics promised from le grande coalition of ConDems.

Our current crop of political masters are just like the last lot; they simply refuse to tell the truth.

The truth is that falling unemployment is because of a record rise in part-time work – almost eight million, or more than a quarter of the workforce.

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers are being left on short courses to alleviate the 1.5 million 18 to 24-year-old “neets” (not in education, employment or training) to further hide the truth from us sensitive souls.

Even government parameters for full employment are misleading, being considered the number in work to cover essential jobs only. It never has meant actual full employment where everyone has a job.

Our obsession with throwing billions at universal university education hinders real-world job prospects. The money should instead be given to employers and entrepreneurs to take on apprentices.

Even teachers, police officers, doctors, nurses, lawyers could be apprenticed, bypassing the huge peripheral costs of universities including that to the students.

Why, a month from this Friday we could have pencilled-in a couple of million new apprenticeships with real future job prospects.

T Scaife, Manor Drive, York.