Flying in the face of the face of common sense though, I think it is worth trying to pick up on some of the positive angles for Britain's manufacturing industry.

First of all there is the fact that the supply of money for both consumers and businesses should now have been freed up both as a result of the interest cut and the conditions imposed on the banks as part of the government support plan.

I imagine that consumer spending will take some time to respond, but this should certainly make things easier for business-to-business transactions, investments in new capital plant and new product development.

The second possible crumb of comfort is that although the recent figures for manufacturing output were depressing, the picture they painted is deceptive. By no means all of manufacturing suffered to the degree suggested by the headline figure of a 1.1 per cent drop. Contributing to this figure were a 2.3 percent drop in new car production, a 3.1 drop in electrical and optical equipment and a 1.6 percent drop in the food, drink and tobacco industries so there must have been a lot of people doing considerably better than the headline figure as well.

If you are in medical, aerospace, defence, heavy engineering, petrochemical, energy, power generation or, in fact, almost any non-consumer market then these areas are still much more healthy and have a sporting chance of staying that way.

Areas of the market that are not directly dependent or immedately impacted by consumer sentiment are much more positive than the average including things like medical equipment and devices (the NHS is not cutting back on spending), aerospace and defence (still very strong areas), power generation (including a vast amount of investment to come in nuclear power and heavy demand from developing nations)

Commenting on the interest rate cut, Graham Dewhurst, director general of the Manufacturing Technologies Association said: 'Outside the financial sector there are many companies who are still doing well. The manufacturing technologies sector at the heart of advanced engineering, which we represent, has still got companies who are exporting strongly and supplying into growth areas such as aerospace. The picture is more patchy than earlier on in the year but it is certainly far away from the total doom and gloom in the media.'

So don't despair, and don't let your personal anxieties affect your business decisions.

Andy Sandford