This is not the time to be complacent about complacency

The unemployment figures are out today - or "labour market statistics" if you prefer Whitehall jargon.

They appear to be good news for people in Wales, where there are 28,000 fewer people unemployed than the same time last year. The news on economic activity is more mixed. The unemployment rate for the period from February to April this year is 6.6% in both Wales and the UK. In the UK, there are 347,000 fewer people out of work than a year ago.

The Wales Office has given its response: "This government's long-term economic plan is working for the people of Wales, Welsh Secretary David Jones said today (11 June), as official figures reveal a further fall in unemployment in Wales."

Sound familiar? This was the Wales Office reaction to the same news in March: "This Government's long term economic plan is working for the people of Wales, Welsh Secretary, David Jones said today, as official figures reveal a further increase in employment levels in Wales."

Sound very familiar? Here's the Wales Office response from December last year: "This government's long term economic plan is working for the people of Wales, Welsh Secretary, David Jones said today, as official figures reveal a further increase in employment levels in Wales."

Mr Jones warned today: "There is no room for complacency."

He's consistent. This was his message last December: "There is no room for complacency."

Perish the thought. Occasionally, I yearn for a politician to declare: "There is plenty of room for complacency". It is what the late Simon Hoggart declared to be "the law of the ridiculous reverse, which states that if the opposite of a statement is plainly absurd, it was not worth making in the first place."

But we must not be complacent about the war on complacency, especially not on a day when Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones chose to tweet: "Delivering my first major speech on education since becoming FM this morning".

Mr Jones became first minister in December 2009.