WATCHING an interview with Digby (Lord) Jones on BBC News’s HARDtalk programme last night, I was struck by his answer to Stephen Sackur’s question:

SACKUR: You said in September of 08… “The economy’s having a tough time but it is not in meltdown. The fundamentals of the UK economy are going to be okay.” I mean, that doesn’t sound quite so clever now.

JONES: I would say two things to that: I got it right that the fundamentals of the economy are going to be okay; I still believe that, that we are right in a very dire situation, but the fundamentals of democratic capitalism are still okay. I tell you: the alternatives are worse. But… when I said we’re not in meltdown, what I got wrong and I’d say sorry for it, is that actually we’re not in meltdown in terms of… we’re not suddenly going to have communism or fascism in this country. But I didn’t call the depth or the speed of the recession that happened and is enduring.

Like many in the Labour Party, I harboured some doubts about the wisdom of Jones’s appointment as a minister back in 2007, particularly when it was revealed that he would not be joining the party or taking the Labour whip in the Lords. But he was not the political car crash the media wanted and the party dreaded; on the contrary, he was an effective minister who did a great deal for British business abroad, visiting 31 countries during his 15 months in office.

It would have been easy for him to turn round, having left office, and put the boot into Gordon Brown and the government. Anyone who knows Jones will tell you he speaks his mind. If he really thought Labour had screwed up the economy, I’m pretty sure he would have said so in no uncertain terms.