Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

And look what a fat lump of lard she is

Maybe she would have been slimmer if she had eaten badgers recently as they are so lean. It sounds quite tasty. I would like to try a badger. Probably tastier than baby seal.

You are what you eat.

In a general sense in that we eat chemicals and we are made of chemicals. It doesn't matter if the chemicals we eat are arranged as a puppy or a carrot.

The Tories' claim that living standards have risen is nonsense on stilts

The claim that almost all earners are better off entirely ignores the cuts to in-work and child benefits. Trying to fix the figures won't work.
BY GEORGE EATON PUBLISHED 24 JANUARY 2014 8:38


The claim that almost all earners are better off.

For all the talk of recovery this week, the unpalatable truth remains that most people are still getting poorer. In the last quarter, average weekly earnings rose by just 0.9 per cent, less than half the rate of inflation (2 per cent). As long as the wage squeeze continues, the Tories will struggle to rebut Ed Miliband's warnings of a "cost of living crisis" - and it could cost them the election. While the Conservatives have established a comfortable lead on who would best manage the economy, they continue to trail Labour on who would do most to improve family incomes (the same trend seen during Obama vs. Romney).

Aware of this, the Tories have resorted to statistical chicanery that would make even Iain Duncan Smith blush. In an article in today's Times, George Osborne's protégée Matthew Hancock, the skills minister, claims that the "crisis" spoken of by Miliband is a mirage. He writes: "The story is said to go like this: yes, there are a record number of jobs but the rich are getting richer and incomes are falling for everyone else. Right? In fact, wrong."

While the ONS's recent annual survey of earnings (for April 2012 to April 2013) shows that median wages (2.1 per cent) rose slower than inflation (2.4 per cent) for the fifth year running, Hancock claims that the increase in the income tax personal allowance means that almost everyone is better off. He writes:

New facts on take-home pay — the pound in your pocket — are stark. Last year take-home pay grew faster than inflation for every group of earners except the top 10 per cent.

For those in the middle, squeezed by the great recession, take home pay rose by 4 percent. The top tenth were the only group who saw their take home pay grow by less than prices. So the bottom 90 per cent of earners saw the wages they took home rise faster than consumer inflation last year.
He adds: "[T]he monthly average earnings figures measure income before tax and, thanks to our tax cuts, low and middle-income earners are paying much less of it. Last year we cut the tax paid by a typical taxpayer by £320. By this April most people will be paying £705 less in income tax than before the election. Those on the minimum wage will have seen their income tax bill cut by almost two thirds."

Were it true that living standards are rising for most people, the Tories would have a significantly better story to tell on the economy. Unfortunately for them, it's not. The data used by Hancock takes no account of the large benefit cuts introduced by the coalition, such as the real-terms cut in child benefit, the uprating of benefits in line with CPI inflation rather than RPI, and the cuts to tax credits (other major cuts such as the bedroom tax, the benefit cap, and the 10 per cent cut in council tax support were introduced after April 2013). The IFS has consistently shown that almost all families are worse off once all tax and benefit changes are taken into account.

In an attempt to present austerity as progressive, Hancock notes that his figures of choice show that disposable income did not rise for the top 10 per cent. But this was before the government cut the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p in April 2013, handing an average tax cut of £107,500 to the UK's 8,000 income millionaires. The irony is that the one month since 2010 when average earnings rose faster than prices was April 2013, when high earners collected the bonuses they deferred in order to benefit from the reduction in the top rate.

One almost has to admire the Tories' chutzpah; is trying to convince voters who are worse off (and are all too aware of that fact) that they're actually better off really smart politics? On 5 Live this morning, Robert Halfon, the blue collar moderniser, who has pushed harder than any other Tory for an increase in the minimum wage, tellingly chose not to adopt this tack.

Rather than trying to fix the figures to justify their policies, the Tories would be wise to fix their policies to change the figures.

There you go. So it was just another one of Labour's myths and tall stories.

I think this sums up Hazy and Manuel.

Or perhaps this.

Good to see this story is being covered so well

http://news.sky.com/story/1200248/take-home-pay-rising-faster-than-inflation

Nine out of 10 British workers have seen their take-home pay increase in the past year, according to Treasury figures.

In a counter attack on Labour's so-called cost of living crisis, the Tories argued there was "stark" evidence that the economic recovery is for all.

Conservative ministers said nearly everyone except the richest 10% saw their take-home pay rise by at least 2.5% once tax cuts were taken into account.

This is above the Consumer Price Index inflation rate which stood at 2.4% in the year ending April 2013.

It is claimed conditions have improved most for the bottom 50% of earners with take-home pay rising three quarters faster than CPI inflation.

Were it true that living standards are rising for most people, the Tories would have a significantly better story to tell on the economy. Unfortunately for them, it's not. The data used by Hancock takes no account of the large benefit cuts introduced by the coalition, such as the real-terms cut in child benefit, the uprating of benefits in line with CPI inflation rather than RPI, and the cuts to tax credits (other major cuts such as the bedroom tax, the benefit cap, and the 10 per cent cut in council tax support were introduced after April 2013). The IFS has consistently shown that almost all families are worse off once all tax and benefit changes are taken into account.


They seem to have a blind spot as usual these Tory boys.


LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

YET MORE LIES FROM THE TORIES.

HOW MUCH FURTHER CAN THEY STOOP.

NOW THE TRUE FIGURES.......

The IFS has consistently shown that almost all families are worse off once all tax and benefit changes are taken into account.

The BBC are covering it as well

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25869001

UK pay rising in real terms, says coalition

Most British workers have seen their take-home pay rise in real terms in the past year, the government claims.

It has produced figures showing all except the richest 10% saw their take-home wages rise by at least 2.5% once tax cuts were taken into account.

That is more than the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation rate of 2.4% in the year to April 2013.

The government said the figures show only the top 10% of earners fell behind the CPI rate - which excludes the costs of buying and owning a home such as mortgage interest repayments - with an average increase of 2%

hays - i find that very hard to believe, and even if take-home pay has risen in the last year (not impossible), the increase in heating and food bills will have more than wiped that out - i.e. living standards have not (remotely) started to improve yet, even though industrial activity has

AT LAST: A Downing Street lie that deserves to put the Prime Minister on the spot.

By John Ward January 24, 2014




THE CAMERLOT CON: There is an odd alliance that could stop the fanatics. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Eds to exploit it.

The key members of this Government have become masters of the blithely asserted shibboleth. We have Jeremy Hunt committed to the NHS, George Osborne who is paying off Britain’s debt with austerity, Boris Johnson around the edges of it saying crime is falling, Michael Gove insisting that his higher education ‘reforms’ can only make our universities better, and now David Cameron saying that “the vast majority of workers have wages that are outstripping inflation”.

This last is the most astonishing bare-faced bollocks yet. Its carrier – the Barclay Brothers’ Maily Telegraph – ran a piece devoted to spreading the fiction yesterday, in which we had to wait only a few lines for ‘A new analysis of figures released by Downing Street has suggested that take home pay outstripped inflation for all but the top 10 per cent of earners last year.’

What analysis? What figures? I’ve Googled it every which way, and I haven’t seen any evidence anywhere that anyone but the Telegraph has even heard of these numbers. But to be tedious (and apologies to the regulars here who’ve seen this chart already) let’s just nail this once and for all:



This is from the ONS, and it’s the third time (to make different points) I’ve shown it this week. You have to go back to the summer of 2009 to find wages and prices even equal let alone deflationary. Britain did not have deflation in 2013 and 2012 or 2011 or 2010, and anyway only the figures for the first three quarters of last year are in yet: so HowTF can Downing Street have analysed figures about last year they don’t have yet?


More: http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/at-last-a-downing-street-lie-that-deserves-to-put-the-prime-minister-on-the-spot/

It is because CPI is only 2.4%. Fuel has fallen causing food prices to fall or at least slow.

Solid post Cyners.

Its not take home pay that counts like you say, but it is in fact your disposable income like you say after fuel bills and food bills PLUS I would add working tax credits that you measure.

Suffice to say this Tory minister is being pulled to shreds up on twitter even SKY NEWS now say they will have to crunch these numbers again after coming out positive earlier on.

It seems they have been swamped with complaints.

This is very interesting. Miliband effectively agreeing with the Conservative from last week

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2540975/Wages-WILL-rise-faster-prices-year-admits-Ed-Labour-leader-concedes-average-pay-outstrip-inflation.html

Next

Wages WILL rise faster than prices this year admits Ed: Labour leader concedes average pay will outstrip inflation

Labour has quietly abandoned calls for an end to austerity measures
Worker’s pay has risen far below the rate of inflation for the past five years
Miliband will insist the economy is not serving working people

The longest pay squeeze in history is likely to come to an end this year, Ed Miliband will admit today.

The Labour leader, who has spent months warning about a ‘cost of living crisis’, will concede that economic recovery means the average worker’s pay rise is set to outstrip inflation.

But Mr Miliband will insist that ‘a few months of better statistics’ will not mean pressures on families are over and say that the real question is about ‘who gets the rewards’ as Britain recovers.

Tories will seize on his remarks as another economic policy shift by Labour, which has quietly abandoned calls for a Plan B involving an end to austerity measures and more government spending.

Good post Hays yes the debate will now move a notch higher onto the haves and have nots.

Labour will win hands down.

If this economic news is so good, why is the market coughing?

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