While business secretary Lord Mandelson is in talks about a bail-out for Jaguar Land Rover, 27,000 Woolworths staff are set to lose their jobs next month.

Why do you think the government is more willing to step in to save a car manufacturer than a retailer? Does it merely demonstrate that the loss of manufacturing jobs would pose more risk to the country's shaky economic state than those in the service sector? Or is it, as one blogger argues, a sign of sexism, with women's work valued less than men's?