Rose tinted specs

There was an uncomfortable moment for Lord Mandelson just now as he announced the Government would hand £45m to Rolls Royce to help it build four new UK factories.

Sir John Rose the company’s chief exec was pondering Rolls Royce’s future when he found himself wanting to say – I thought – that the recession was going to be longer than we thought.

Realising who he was sitting next to he smiled and tempered his words, saying instead that no one expected a sharp up-turn in the near future.

Mandy stared straight ahead.