Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics   

This week the guy in charge of The Bank of England, Mervyn King, said that inflation was significantly closer to the 2% target this month, having dropped from 4.2% in December 2011 to 3.6% in January 2012. While this looks like great progress in making the economy a lot more stable, it is fraught with the usual problem with statistics: it's all about perspective, and very close to being an all-out lie.

In January 2011, the feckless Conservative-LibDem Government decided the best thing for the delicate and in-tatters economy would be to increase sales tax (VAT) by 2.5%. This, naturally, doomed 2011 to be a total catastrophe for any normal people (although the wealthy have done quite well).

This led to inflation in January 2011 of 4%. Basically, something that cost £100 in Jan 2010 now suddenly cost £104 a year later.

In January 2012, inflation was 3.6%. So this means that things are now 3.6% more expensive than a year ago (when it was stupidly more expensive because of the ridiculous VAT increase). So that thing you paid £100 in Jan 2010 now costs £107.74.

You see, inflation COMPOUNDS. A 2% inflation target over two years should mean that we're only paying £104, not as near as makes no difference, £108.

 

The fact that we're 3.6% worse off than a month in which we were twice as worse off as we "should have been" is all absolutely abhorrent.

Watch these politico types and especially the bankers. And whenever you're fed a statistic, ask yourself what it REALLY means, where it has come from and what their agenda might be.

 

National Health Service

I feel this is linked to how the Government are spinning things. Right now David Cameron is on a mission to bring private companies into hospitals. This, he says, will reduce the amount the tax payer needs to spend on the NHS, while bringing "private sector efficiency" to parts of hospital operation.

What he isn't saying, however, is that this is clearly bringing a two-tier health service into place. The wealthy, again, will benefit from the premium, privately run parts, while the common person will get the parts of the system that private companies don't want to touch with a barge pole.

And I'm going to bet serious money that we won't see lower taxes even though we're getting a poorer service and the tax money isn't even going to the NHS anymore.

Where might the money be going then? Easy - to pay the interest on the loans taken out to keep the banks afloat.

I don't care that this had to be done. The banks keep the company going, even though they are the paragons of greed, corruption, lies, arravice, stupidity and smugness. What pisses me off the most is that nobody in the Government or in the banks are willing to be honest about it.

Stop treating the People of Britain like children. Stop lying. Stop spinning facts. We're on the verge of Blighty Spring, and you're doing nothing but painting big targets on yourselves.