Graphs at a glance: ONS stats show 47% of those who graduated in the last 5 years are doing non-graduate jobs. The second biggest destination of new graduates in 2012 was catering, waiters, and bar staff.

Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show a strong correlation between having a degree and being wealthy. However, 'correlation' does not prove 'causation'. i.e. just because two things happen together doesn't prove that they actually cause each other. Daffodils bloom in spring before tulips, but blooming daffodils aren't the reason why tulips bloom. A degree doesn't cause wealth. Those who have the discipline to work hard academically to get a degree are more likely to have the discipline to work hard in their career to get wealthy. The...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 28th Aug)

Workers in the UK are CHEAPER to hire than in Spain or Italy as stagnant wages erode British pay packetsThe average cost of employing someone in the UK remained unchanged at 20.90 euros an hour last year – significantly below the EU average of 23.70 euros. Meanwhile the cost of employing someone in Spain is higher at 21.10 euros and higher still at 28.10 euros in Italy, according to official figures from the EU's statistics office Eurostat. The average hourly labour cost in Norway is more than double that of the UK at an eye-watering 48.50 euros...

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The Faculty of Public Health says rickets has returned as malnutrition rises

SOURCE BBC NEWS: Food poverty: Faculty of Public Health issues malnutrition health warningMore people are suffering from malnutrition as a result of worsening food poverty, experts have warned. The Faculty of Public Health said conditions like rickets were becoming more apparent because people could not afford quality food in their diet. Data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre showed the number of those admitted to hospital in England and Wales had risen from 5,469 to 6,520 over the past year. Vice president of the Faculty of Public...

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What Has Happened To Our Pensions?

Is the 'pensions crisis' really our own fault? Caused by us not saving enough, and not dropping dead soon enough? Is it because we fail to build up our pension pots in the good times, when we are working, to fund our modestly comfortable retirements? This post by our guest author, Dr. Ros Altmann CBE, explains how our pension funds have been raided since the 1980s by successive governments seeking taxes, and by employers taking "contribution holidays" and legally diverting money from the staff pension funds into their companies. Raids that...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 21st Aug)

Academies run by favoured 'superhead' received advance notice of Ofsted checksAcademies run by a superhead praised by the government for producing schools that "outperform the rest" of the state sector had secret advance notice of Ofsted inspection dates. Evidence uncovered by this newspaper suggests that three schools in Norfolk, all overseen by Dame Rachel de Souza, knew of impending visits by inspectors days, and sometimes weeks, before Ofsted arrived. One school was even able to draft in teachers who had never previously taught there to perform...

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From January 2015, rail fares will rise by 3.5%. That’s up 25% since 2010

Can KJ, Chris and Fee find a silver lining?...SOURCE GUARDIAN: Rail fares to rise by average of 3.5% in JanuaryRail fares will rise by an average of 3.5% in January, with some increasing by up to 5.5%, adding hundreds of pounds to the cost of commuters' season tickets. Calls for the government to curb planned rises intensified as Labour said it would cap fares on every route and indicated it was considering an election pledge to cap increases at the rate of inflation. Protests took place at stations across the country as campaigners pointed...

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Graphs at a glance: East Coast Mainline. Why is the government so quiet about one of its greatest success stories?

You would have thought a company delivering record levels of cash to the taxpayer would have something to boast about. Surely its bosses would want to crow about how they turned around a failing franchise that had been abandoned by the previous two franchisees. You’d think they would use this laudable fact to justify a round of plump bonuses and a topping payrise. And yet they are strangely silent. If you thought they were hoping nobody would notice their successes, you’d be right. To be more precise, their owner doesn't want anybody to notice...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 14th Aug)

London gets 24 times as much spent on infrastructure per resident than north-east EnglandFigures derived from a research report by IPPR, show Londoners receive £5,203 more per head on capital investment than people in the north-east – a discrepancy sure to reignite a long-running row on whether London’s growth is coming at the detriment of the rest of the UK. One third of planned infrastructure spending in London is the £14.5bn earmarked for Crossrail with line upgrades on the Tube receiving the second most at £8.2bn. The biggest rail project currently...

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