Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 30th October)

Does Osborne realise? Probably! Ipsos Mori poll shows 1 in 8 will cash in pension pot under reforms More than 200,000 people will cash their entire pension pot when the government reforms take effect next year, with one in five planning to use their savings to fund a holiday, a study has found. From April, workers over 55 will be able to use their pensions like bank accounts and withdraw thousands of pounds to save, invest or spend as they wish. The change builds on the pension reforms Mr Osborne announced in his Budget, under which he scrapped...

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Londoners get around ten times more of taxpayers’ money spent per head on capital investment than the rest of England

SOURCE GUARDIAN: 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 around ten times more per head spent on capital investment than the rest of England – 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. In August the UK chancellor George Osborne endorsed a £15bn plan to improve infrastructure in five northern cities this week. Although he did not commit to any...

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The most fearsome beast in the political jungle is you, the voter. Now is the time to wake up and roar!

A long game is being played on the British public by the political classes. It is a game aimed at reducing our personal expectations from life in Britain. It started with the Tories in 1979, and continued through Labour and Coalition governments since then. The game was played quite subtly until the banker induced crash in 2008, but since then all the delicacy has been dropped. Not because the banker crash created a crisis, but because it created a cover. In recent years we have seen wage freezes, benefits cuts, and the erosion of our pensions....

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 23rd October)

Chair of the US Federal Reserve Janet Yellen says income inequality is un-AmericanYellen suggested that such a trend, unaddressed, was contrary to the founding principles of the United States. “I think it is appropriate to ask whether this trend is compatible with values rooted in our nation’s history, among them the high value Americans have traditionally placed on equality of opportunity,” she said. She also cited the “Great Gatsby curve,” – “the finding that, among advanced economies, greater income inequality is associated with diminished intergenerational...

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Graphs at a glance: Why is it that unemployment is falling, but wages and income tax revenues aren't growing?

In October 2014 the BBC reported that FTSE100 company directors earned 120 times the average wage. An earnings figure that has shot up sixfold from just 20 times the average wage in the year 2000. The BBC also reported that inspite of bumper top wage growth and generally falling unemployment, income tax revenues were going to fall below expectations. Why is this?The following may provide some explanation:1) The Bank of England's May 2014 Inflation Report shows that the number of "full time employees" (the dark green lines in the graph below)...

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Graphs at a glance: Why is it that unemployment is falling, but wages and income tax revenues aren't growing?

In October 2014 the BBC reported that FTSE100 company directors earned 120 times the average wage. An earnings figure that has shot up sixfold from just 20 times the average wage in the year 2000. The BBC also reported that inspite of bumper top wage growth and generally falling unemployment, income tax revenues were going to fall below expectations. Why is this?The following may provide some explanation:1) The Bank of England's May 2014 Inflation Report shows that the number of "full time employees" (the dark green lines in the graph below)...

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Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 16th October)

MPs seek inquiry into £1m bonus of disability firm bossMPs have called for an inquiry into why a charitable scheme providing cars for the disabled paid its chief executive more than £1million in bonuses and benefits last year. Mike Betts, head of not-for-profit company Motability Operations, took home bonuses totalling £911,915 in the year to September 2013, as well as a £125,000 payment in lieu of pension. This was on top of his basic salary of £501,900. Contracted by the Motability charity, the company provides 630,000 vehicles for disabled people,...

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Graphs at a glance: Is NHS spending really being protected? The data shows this is not true.

Normal 0 Our politicians have got into the habit of pulling off shabby tricks to deceive the voters. Even when we don’t know we are being tricked, we suspect we probably are. This is true of Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, and the rest. For example, is David Cameron’s promise to protect the NHS budget all it seems to be? If you thought "protect" meant we would continue to receive the same level of care, you'd be wrong.Cameron promised the NHS budget will be protected in “real terms”. Which means its government funding increases...

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