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Bill Clinton may not have been wise in everything he did or said, but politicians going into an election should always remember his maxim:

There's no doubt that issues like Afghanistan, expenses, immigration and the public services will have a role to play in next year's poll.

But I can't help feeling the main motivation for every voter will be their own economic and financial circumstances.

So we were glad to get some advance information from the regular survey of businesses for this week's.

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49 per cent expect their turnover to rise next year, and 47 per cent think their profit will go up.

But confidence is still fragile, and it clearly wouldn't take too much to disrupt it.

You can see what our politicians made of that survey on the Politics Show here.

Of course Labour did attempt to draw the economic election battle lines in this week's Pre Budget Report.

They say the Tories would introduce swingeing public spending cuts, that would jeopardise the recovery.

At the same time, they have to say they would also make cuts - just not as severe - and raise taxes.

suggests voters would prefer cuts to tax rises.

Although voters may suspect they'll get cuts and tax rises from whoever's in power.

There are, of course, particular economic challenges facing our region - the floods have left West Cumbria badly hit, while in Teesside, the plight of the steelworkers is the number one problem.

But the focus from the politicians will also be on the next set of economic statistics.

If the economy grows in the last quarter of this year, Labour confidence may grow that they can claw back the Tory poll lead.

If it doesn't, Labour's fragile recovery may also come to a sudden end.

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