Among the more inventive excuses for the third successive quarter of negative economic growth proffered by Conservative members of the coalition, was the impact of relocating the Office of National Statistics (ONS) from London's Pimlico to Wales.

Perhaps there's something in Newport's water supply which is encouraging official bean-counters to collect hard evidence differently. But even if we factor in a more generous margin of error than the ONS allowed, based on seemingly-more buoyant employment statistics, the country would still be looking at economic contraction – with stagnation the very best outcome.