General Discussion
Yes Paul I agree the ONS is independent. Did you note the opening paragraphs of that Huffintong Post link I gave? Here they are: "British workers are still seeing their wages eaten into by soaring inflation as the latest figures showed salaries increased by 0.9% over the last year, while inflation rose by 2%, over double the amount. The latest news from the Office for National Statistics ...
@burneside - re mortgages. I was quoting from Mel Stride's (Conservative MP) column in the Dawlish Gazette. And whilst I agree with you about savers losing out (I'm a saver you see) I agree even more with what Verbatim has written. Wages are rising slower than prices. Wages rising at 0.9%. Inflation is at 2.00%. (source: Channel 4 news) ...
Mortgages: apparently just a 1% rise in the interest rate would result in an extra £1,000 a year outlay for the average household.
Hmm......well now, here's the thing. If the unemployment rate keeps dropping (howsoever that drop is arrived at............) then at some point the Bank of England is gonna have to raise interest rates (or find some reason for readjusting the % unemployment rate before an interest rate rise is triggered) given as its Governor has said interest rates will rise only when unemployment falls to ...
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/cost-living-crisis-82-britons-no-better-off-despite-uk-recovery-1433076
I agree with you about issues that were once controversial becoming less so or even indeed not so at all over the passage of time, but surely it is only by looking at the past and the disagreements found there that we can judge what progress (or not) has been made.
@Stephen - Anne Marie Morris is the MP for Newton Abbot. The name of the constituency got changed from Teignbridge to Newton Abbot (as did the boundaries a little) for the last general election. Does that help?
As this has (again) been mooted as something that may appear in the Conservative manifesto for the general election in May of next year, I recently wrote to our MP asking if what was being proposed would be a blanket ban on under 25s receiving HB or if there would be exceptions and if exceptions what would they be? I have now received a reply from her. Here is an extract: ".......when the ...
I believe it was a free vote so she and over a hundred other MPs voted as their conscience told them to do. I just wonder what she and those others would have done had it been a whipped vote. I'm just pointing out that although things have changed an awful lot since the 1960s there is still a long way to go.
Progress has certainly been made for those of the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) community but if you click on this link http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/gay-marriage-legislation-passed-despite-1903291 and scroll down you will see the names of those MPs who only last year voted against the same sex marriage bill (it includes the name of our own MP by the way).
