What do you prefer? Downturn or recession?

The British economic stats are all gloomy. However, the BBC prefers to call the recession the downturn. Does that make it any better? Today's Independent does a great article on the painful economic situation. One interesting comment in the article was that the BBC's Robert Peston did not help much when he revealed the Northern Rock crisis saying that deposits were safe. Obviously, the depositors took the reverse message and began a run on the Newcastle-based bank. I think the son of a Labour peer had to go with the story. If there was a better deposit protection scheme in place, then the run might have been avoided. I would have lost a little less money as a Northern Rock shareholder as well!!
www.searchaccountant.co.uk
The Independent article refers to a couple of suicides over house repossessions. Perhaps these tragic events could have been avoided by better income protection products. Most of these are designed not to pay out. I had one once with the Abbey National until I read in the Daily Telegraph that the venerable organisation, pre Banco Santander, did anything to get out of paying out.