Thursday, April 22, 2010


A couple of interesting emails today.

The first was from the Village Postmaster complaining that he's now little more than an unpaid tax collector. He reckons he now has to collect/pay no fewer than 12 separate taxes, from VAT to National Insurance to National Lottery Tax. Tyler reminded him that's what happens if he will go on electing socialist governments.

The second was from Andrew Lilico drawing our attention to the latest ONS stats on household incomes. It seems that households' real disposable incomes (ie real incomes after tax) are now falling - down nearly 1% in the most recent quarter.

In plain English, the average family is now getting poorer. Labour's taxes combined with the damage they've inflicted on our economy have finally overwhelmed us.

Which set us wondering how Labour's record on this vital measure stacks up since 1997.

Over the entire period (1997 Q2 to 2009 Q4), the ONS says that households' real disposable income has increased by 2.1% pa. But that is an aggregate measure and takes no account of the substantial growth in population over the period (from all that inward migration). Adjusting for that, the increase per head is actually only 1.7% pa.

So how does that compare to what's been achieved by previous governments?

Here's the comparison:


Yes, the pattern is pretty clear.

Incomewise, the average family does a whole lot better if the socialists are kept well away from the controls.

But then, you knew that already.

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