Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
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Captain Haddock wrote:Austerity/Aushmerity
The median UK household disposable income was £26,300 in the financial year ending 2016 (2015/16); this was £600 higher than the previous year and £1,000 higher than the pre-downturn value of £25,400 in 2007/08 (after accounting for inflation and household composition).
Let's think about 1% year-on-year from 2007/8. If we take your given 2007/08 figure of £25,400 p.a.
2008/09 £25,400 + 1% (£254)
2009/10 £25,654 + marginally below 1% (£256)
2011/12 £25,910 + marginally below 1% (£259)
2012/13 £26,196 + marginally below 1% (£261)
2013/14 £26,457 + marginally below 1% (£264)
2014/15 £26,721 + marginally below 1% (£267)
2015/16 £26,988 + marginally below 1% (£269)
Now, I think you'd agree that less than a 1% increase year on year is not keeping up with the cost of energy, council tax, fuel, rail fares...the general 'cost of living'. I also think then £26,988 is a bigger number than £26,300 - does that help you understand the reality of austerity?
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
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See Figure 1: Total household expenditure, UK, financial year ending 2002 to financial year ending 2016
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/expenditure/bulletins/familyspendingintheuk/financialyearendingmarch2016
Hardly any difference in figures overall when inflation taken into account.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
#82 See figure 1 in the section entitled: 3. Total spending remained unchanged when compared with a year ago
Total average weekly household expenditure remained level at £528.90 in the financial year ending 2016 (2015/16) when compared with the same period a year ago, where figures are adjusted for inflation.
Then click on the CURRENT PRICES tab. An increase of £130+ per week since 2002 is more like a 2.3% year on year price increase to tread water with that rate.
The public sector received 1% for 7 out of 9 years of the austerity period, the other 2 years they received 0%.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
For the many - not the few?
ONS
Verified account @ONS
4h4 hours ago
Disposable household income of the poorest fifth of households is now £1,800 (15.0%) above pre-downturn level, while the income of the richest fifth is £200 (0.4%) above:
http://ow.ly/1y4j30hGDT8"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Excellent link Bob, hopefully those sleeping rough tonight will feel less cold knowing they are 15% better off than they could be.
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
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Table 13: 95 per cent confidence intervals for key statistics, 2016/17
Gross income Disposable income
Lower bound Published estimate Upper bound CV Lower bound Published estimate Upper bound CV
All households Gini coefficient (%) 34.5 35.4 36.4 1.4 31.3 32.0 33.0 1.5
Median equivalised disposable income (£ per year) . . . . 26,569 27,310 28,050 1.4
Mean (£ per year) 42,505 43,645 44,784 1.3 34,410 35,247 36,085 1.2
Bottom quintile1 (mean, £ per year) 13,720 15,331 16,942 5.3 12,120 13,392 14,663 4.8
Top quintile1 (mean, £ per year) 87,507 92,042 96,576 2.5 67,360 70,684 74,009 2.4
What figures are you citing?
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
Capt, what figures are you citing? Please justify your figures with clear evidence rather than the gigantic, unfanthomable, multi-tabbed spreadsheet - I dispute the #85 figures. Please make clear what they are relating to and what caveats they have.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
When all austerity measures are taken into account, including cuts to public services and changes to taxes and welfare, the poorest tenth of the population are by far the hardest hit, seeing a 38 per cent decrease in their net income over the period 2010-15.41 By comparison, the richest tenth will have lost the least, comparatively, seeing a 5 per cent fall in their income.42 There is also continuing evidence that the very richest are faring much better since the economic crisis. The super-rich – the top one per cent of earners – pocketed 10p of every pound of income earned in the UK in 2010-11, up from 7p in 1994-5.43 Meanwhile, the poorest 50 per cent of the population took home between them only 18p in every pound, down from 19p.44 At the very top, Britain’s richest 1,000 individuals saw their wealth increase by £138bn in real terms between 2009 and 2013.45 Even measures designed to stimulate the economy have resulted in significant gains for the richest – the richest five per cent of households hold 40 per cent of the assets that increased in value as a direct result of quantitative easing46.47 All the while, the poorest tenth are taking home even less.48
Oh...and this:
Corporation tax has also fallen significantly in the last three years, at a time when the UK’s top companies are doing better than ever. As recently as May 2013, the FTSE 100 reached its highest level since 1999 and the FTSE 250 reached a new record.49
Source: Oxfam.
https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/cs-true-cost-austerity-inequality-uk-120913-en.pdf PAGE 4
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
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- Posts: 62,352
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
The Bishop wrote:Capt, what figures are you citing? Please justify your figures with clear evidence rather than the gigantic, unfanthomable, multi-tabbed spreadsheet - I dispute the #85 figures. Please make clear what they are relating to and what caveats they have.
Please take this up with statisticians at the ONS.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
Here we go yet again. The Dover jeremiad continues! Yes, we've never had it so good!
Personally my glass is not only half full but every month gets topped up. Just because things are not getting better day by day for everyone everywhere all the time does not mean things overall are not improving.
Here's the Speccie's take on things:-
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/somethings-gone-badly-right-with-the-world-economy/
https://www.spectator.co.uk/2018/01/girl-power-educating-girls-can-fix-the-worlds-problems/ "We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
Captain Haddock wrote:Please take this up with statisticians at the ONS.
Oh Captain, my Captain, as well you know the ONS spreadsheet lists a gargantuan array of statistical categories and, therefore, a plethora of figures relating to each subsection - which of these are you citing?
The effects of tax and benefits data is indeed from the Office for National Statistics’s (ONS’s) Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF),
a voluntary sample survey of around 5,000 private households in the UK. Furthermore, as with all survey-based sources, the data is subject to some limitations. The LCF is known to suffer from under-reporting at the top and bottom of the income distribution as well as non-response error. I think you'd have to agree (especially as that is the verbatim caveat direct from their "extensive" [my quotes] data study).
If you don't agree with me, I suggest you read section three entitled:
Things you need to know about this release.
Let's not be economical with the truth.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
For the many - not the few. (contd.) Inside John McDonnell's €800 A Night Davos Hotel
https://order-order.com/2018/01/26/inside-john-mcdonnells-e800-a-night-davos-hotel/"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-42925660
Nick Golding, editor of the Local Government Chronicle, said as many as ten other councils could soon take measures similar to those implemented in Northamptonshire.
"Council spending power has fallen by almost half this decade; it's been a really, really difficult time for councils and there haven't been any sensible conversations about how you can provide the funding for social care and children's services, in particular, in the years to come," he said.
"No-one seems to be able to face up to the fact that the current local government finance system isn't working. The danger is that councils will only provide an absolute bare minimum in the years to come."
Oh and this is interesting, the Tory council has a Section 114 (ban from new expenditure) placed on it. Heather Smith, Conservative council leader, said it was the "perfect storm" of increases in demand for services and reductions in government funding. "We did warn that we would become unsustainable," she said. "We have been warning government from about 2013/14 that, with our financial position, we couldn't cope with the levels of cuts we were facing."
Perhaps only the home counties get the sweetheart "magic money tree" deals when their Tory council leaders kick-off. Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
Last month, Communities Secretary Sajid Javid commissioned an independent inspector to investigate the council’s finances, amid “allegations of failures in financial management and governance at the council”.
Speaking at the time, he said: "For some time there have been concerns about financial management and governance at Northamptonshire County Council, and in recent months a number of reports have been published, which have led me to question whether the authority is failing to comply with its best value duty.”
The findings of the government inspection are due to be published next month.
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
#96 "We have been warning government from about 2013/14 that, with our financial position, we couldn't cope with the levels of cuts we were facing." Surely this is proof, if indeed it were needed, that austerity is impacting all regions of the UK and, furthermore, it is now causing those that subscribe to the government's mantra to doubt it now that they are feeling its consequences.
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,705
Make that 3 knuckleheads - the third being the writer of said article
"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die today." - James Dean
"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
While loving someone deeply gives you courage" - Laozi
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,075
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson