Economy

Lies damned lies - you know what I'm referring to: STATISTICS.

Numbers, especially when they come from government departments, can be made to say anything. Often, real experience fails to match. I've often wondered how it is that we have a growing need for millions of new houses, that public transport in our vast cities are overrun, that our roads and motorways are choked at all times of the day yet the official population estimate has barely grown since the 1980's - OK there's a few more million but my senses say there has to be more than that.

Seems that, according to the ONS, wage inflation for April 2008 is 3.8% for the public sector and 4.1% for the private sector. The Government is even admitting that inflation has now reached at least 3%. So, that should mean a sort of status quo on the proportion of cash you have to flash after you've dealt with the necessaries. Somehow it doesn't feel that way. The BBC has done some modest calculations that suggest we're in for a tough time. Lovely.