Sorry Guido, but there really is a cost of living crisis and it's getting worse under a Tory government.
Guido Fawkes has put up a curious post this morning in which he claims that, rather than there being a cost of living crisis, voters are actually better off now than they were in 2010:
“Throw in the income tax threshold hike (£493), the savings from holding down council taxes (£210) and you have already countered the Balls attack in cash terms – and some – at £1,703. Meaning that in terms of disposable income the “average working person” is better off.”
In other words, the rise in personal allowance and the fact that council taxes haven’t significantly increased since the coalition came to power outweighs the fall in living standards due to prices rising faster than wages.
Unfortunately for Guido and the Tories, this is simply untrue.
Even when excluding the impact that falling wages are having on peoples’ living standards, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says that taking into account tax and benefit changes since 2010 a majority of working households are worse off now than they were when the coalition came to power.
As senior research economist at the IFS Robert Joyce puts it:
“Looking at all the measures that are happening that started in 2010 and that are happening to the end of this parliament, if you look at all the measures announced over that period, then most of those families will lose overall because of things like the main rise in VAT back in January 2011.”
And as John Rentoul has also recently noted on disposable income, comparing the last whole year of Labour – Q3 2009 to Q2 2010 – with the most recent year to Q2 2013, real households’ disposable income per head fell by 2.2 per cent.
Sorry Guido, but the coalition really are presiding over a cost of living crisis.
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35 Responses to “Sorry Guido, but the Tories really are presiding over a cost of living crisis”
Josh
What else do you expect from Mr P Staines? I’m surprised he didn’t include praise for his beloved Augusto Pinochet in this piece of intellectual diarrhoea.
Selohesra
Isnt it obvious that there was a price we were all going to have to pay for Labour’s mismanagement of the economy. Government can’t just magic it better – falling living standards were inevitable whoever was in power
Sparky
News this week
1. The Governor of the Bank of England reports that the economy is growing at the fastest rate in 6 years, growth forecasts have been revised upwards, we have low inflation, and unemployment is falling. “The recovery has finally taken hold.”
Odd how this didn’t find it’s way onto these pages. Instead we had a piece about Amazon selling Gollywogs. Go figure.
2. Private sector rent arrears are the lowest since 2008.
Now this doesn’t square with LFF’s constant claim that the people are worse off and struggling to make ends meet.
Labour wrecked the economy. The Conservatives had to fix it. It was exactly the same in 1979. Spend until there’s nothing left, and waste huge chunks of that money. Moan whilst someone else fixes it.
TheBlackFingerNail
Rubbish
guidofawkes
Disposable income is up for the lowest decile and down for the highest decile. Isn’t that what you lefties want? To reiterate, disposable income has risen for the poorest – do you want to bring back banker’s bonuses? We could restore the top rate to 40% and raise average disposable earnings.
You realise your position is that there is a “cost of living crisis” because the richest are worse off? Data [see chart] shows poor better off.
I never expected you to outflank me from the right. This never used to happen in Will Straw’s day.