The conservatives have criticised business minister Baroness Vadera for her comments, which she made to ITV, regarding her claim that she could see “a few green shoots” of economic recovery.

Business minister Baroness Vadera has denied she is out of touch after claiming she could see “a few green shoots” of economic recovery. She went on to say “Is this a positive straw in the wind, or should we say one swallow doesn’t make a summer? It’s too early to say.”

Now I’m all for being positive and offering encouragement, but maybe these remarks were not the most sensitive due to the fact that they were made as the job loss figures in the UK sounded like the football scores being read out. A slump in the price of shares of virtually 5 per cent didn’t do a great deal for everyone’s spirits, either.

Later the Baroness defended herself, saying she had been referring to improvements in the credit market, where one particular large company had just been successful in raising hundreds of millions of pounds. The fact that this was fresh in her mind seemed to raise her spirits – and is this a sin, at such a miserable time? It just could be, to the thousands of people who’d just heard that their jobs had been lost.

We await the good news, in the belief that it’s just around the corner - albeit a very long one. But as every gardener knows only too well, the earliest green shoots can be attacked by the frost, before they re-appear as the green leaves of summer – or not, as the case may be.