Just the other day I drove through Biggin Hill in Kent and thought the airport looked kinda deserted. Not that it's seen much action of course since its central role in the World War II Battle of Britain.

Still, I thought there would have been a bit more of a hussle and bustle as the rich and famous charter their private jets to Davos and Monaco. Now I now why it was so quiet.

Air Partner, which ran a sideline private jet business from Biggin Hill has pulled the plug on it after losing £1.2 million over the last six months. Even in the world of high-fliers that has still gotta hurt, and so the company has decided to call in the administrators to see what can be made of the ailing wing of their business.

The job market has surprised everyone once again. The number of people claiming unemployment benefit saw its biggest fall since 1997 last month, giving Gordon Brown an unexpected pre-election boost.

There were 32,300 fewer people signing on in February than in the previous month, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed today.

Economists had expected unemployment to go up by 8,000. What's more, January's increase of 23,500, which shocked everyone because it came after two months of falling unemployment, has been revised lower to a rise of just 5,300.

This means the picture in the job market is suddenly much brighter. There are now 1.59 million claimants, the lowest level since last July. The news boosted hopes that the job market is over the worst and that the economy's recovery from recession is finally gathering steam.

However, the good news was tempered by a drop in employment to the lowest level in four years and a rise in the long-term unemployed to the highest number since 1997.

It's official. Our debt problems aren't just terrible, they are unimaginably awful. A debt charity has announced that for one in three of the people who contact them, there's no traditional solution available. There's no clear way out.

This is already bearing in mind that some of the solutions they are talking about are awful, and include everything from signing up to a strict budget for the next five or ten years, to losing your home in bankruptcy.

What they are saying today is that for one in three people, even if they did all of this, they still wouldn't be able to cope with their debts.

However, the charity, the brilliant CCCS, does point out that there may still be a way out.

More than a quarter of Britons with a mortgage would be unable to meet their repayments if their monthly income dropped by just £300, new research from debt agency Callcredit shows.

Perhaps the main reason so many of us are teetering on the brink of losing our homes is that almost one in 10 British adults have deliberately overestimated their income when applying for credit, while a further 6% of people have applied for credit knowing they might not be able to meet the repayments.

Even with the recession supposedly coming to an end, these shocking figures indicate that many people are still suffering its effects and will continue to do so for some time.

There won't be a rise in VAT or other taxes in the budget in two weeks' time, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Liam Byrne has promised.

But it's not going to be a "big giveaway budget" either, he said.

Byrne explicitly ruled out a rise in VAT from 17.5% to 20% - although this is something the Conservatives have not dismissed. He said there will be no new tax hikes in the 24 March budget, which comes six weeks before the probable date of the election.

What is it about the British and chilly weather? Why does the whole country stop the moment a snowflake falls?

Manufacturing slumped at the start of the year and everyone has blamed the weather. But even though other countries like Germany and the US also had unusually cold starts to the year and lots of snow, their economic recovery won't be derailed by a snowflake or two...

Will January's snow and ice nip the UK's nascent recovery from recession in the bud? Gordon Brown will hope not.

A recent debate on banking conducted by consumer organization Which? has revealed an almost total lack of trust in banks, with 96% of people agreeing the banks act more in their own interests than those of their customers.

One consumer summed up many people's views by saying: "Banks don't value customers. They view us as cash cows."

At the Big Banking Debate in London last week, many said the banks won't learn their lesson from the financial crisis, after benefiting from taxpayer-backed bailouts. People also slammed irresponsible lending, especially to those who are most vulnerable.

The financial regulator recently came out with a shocking claim. Lord Adair Turner warned that if we had shock rises in interest rates, more rises in unemployment, or falls in property prices, millions of people could lose their home.

He said young families and young professionals were most at risk.

And the scary thing? All three of those things are entirely possible.

So what can we do about it?

Banks have never exactly been at the top of the list of things we love. They are more likely to occupy the same sort of place in our hearts as early mornings, parking tickets and hoovering. But in the last six months, a few months after we ploughed billions into the banking system, we seem to have become even more annoyed with our banks.

So what's going on, and what can we do about it?

Some of us have been feeling rather smug about Greece's debt crisis and slow descent into chaos. But you'd be well advised not to gloat too much.

Things here aren't much better. Up to 270,000 British civil servants have now gone on strike over redundancy pay, the biggest unrest since 1987 – and more action is planned in the run-up to the election.

The strike could be a sign of things to come if the cash-strapped government introduces swingeing cuts to plug the gaping black hole in the public finances.