Two million Brits on the dole by Christmas?

Yet more bad news looms out of Black October; before the month has even limped to its end there is now suggestions that two million people could be on the dole by Christmas. The fall out from the global financial crisis is now going to have a marked effect on 'the real economy' since small businesses can't get hold of credit to stay afloat and shoppers are staying away from the high street.

Alan Clarke, economist from the bank BNP Paribas, said the number of those claiming unemployment benefit was due to break the one million mark by the end of next month at the latest, with up to two million looking for work by December: he is forecasting unemployment to hit 7 per cent by the middle of next year and carry on rising until 2010.

Can it all be as bad as it sounds? If the doomsayers are right then maybe we're in worse shape than people were in before the Great Depression, but they didn't have the internet back then, can we salvage some hope in that we have this great tool of communication and trade?