So a new session of Parliament begins – cue the Queen’s speech, and cue Labour’s latest effort to out-Tory a Tory and show how strong their rhetoric is in being tough on crime and restricting our hard-won personal freedoms to fight terrorism.

Again our civil liberties will come under assault as Tony Blair grapples for a legacy in the dog days of this premiership.And again, our legislature will be swamped with measures alleged to protect our security – although if simply passing new law after new law solved every problem, we could have all packed up our bags long ago.

Amid all the pomp and circumstance (of which there is a lot when Her Majesty pays us a visit in Parliament) the airways were overwhelmed with the Queen’s Speech and the pending Blair Switch Project, but the latest unemployment statistics were published with relatively little comment.

The rise in unemployment itself was statically relatively small, but the headline gave me reason to pause: unemployment at seven-year high, and in London – the figures are almost one in twelve. For Labour to be so quiet about unemployment is, well …, not really what the Labour party used to be about is it?

No surprise that Labour’s leaders should be keeping quiet about this big blot on their record, but it is a surprise to me how quiet Labour’s backbenchers – and other Labour party members I bump into – are about the steady creeping up of the unemployment figures for almost two years.

After all, the issue of having means to put food on the table and a roof over your family’s head is a need as old as time – and when it comes to modern day London in particular there is something slightly out of kilter. Whilst our Government parades, postulates and legislates to make us more secure, the number of those for whom personal security slips out of their reach grows.

It is easy to be politically opportunistic and pounce on one economic indicator and use it to beat political opponents with. However, there are several factors that make me uneasy when it comes to assessing how this Government is managing the economic security of local people.

You don’t have to be Noble Laureate in economics to realise that if personal borrowing continues at such staggering levels as at present that there is going to be a nasty bump somewhere along the line – and thus the free cash well that has been fuelling our economy runs dry. It can only be imagined as regards the devastation this will be wrought on the nine out of ten people who work in the service industry in my constituency at such a point.

And – worryingly for the future – the number of 16 and 17 year-olds not in work or full-time education has tripled since Labour came to power.

On a more direct level, week in week out I see heart breaking cases in my surgery of people for whom personal security is distant dream when it comes to housing. The London home ownership market has slipped far beyond the reach of most low and middle income families and social housing is literally creaking at the seams unable to meet fraction of the housing needs of people in Haringey.

All this as our gracious sovereign pronounces on other issues. But for how long can Brown keep on claiming he has been the prudent and successful Chancellor? Maybe that’s why he is so keen to move to Number 10 – and then he can blame someone else for any chickens coming home to roost!