Britain gripped by massive recession as annual growth hits 2.1% and retail figures jump 0.8%

Another month and another surprising ok set of figures released today by the Office of National Statistics. It turns out that, rather than an expect 0.2-3% drop in retail sales for July, we’ve had a 0.8% rise. This means annual growth in the retail sector is 2.1%. Lower than usual but not exactly harking back to the Great Depression.

Naturally the people who got their estimates wrong have called into question the reliability of the figures, something they never seemed to do in all the other months the figures came out and they got it right (or less wrong). I know in the past the Tories have criticised the ONS, but then they use the figures themselves, which follows the idea that if something proves your point, it’s correct and you can use it, if it doesn’t, call the figures into question.

What is encouraging is that growth has been recorded right across the sector, in household goods, clothes, electricals and furniture. The main worry is that rising costs could be passed on to consumers and thus pushing up inflation.

But frankly after all the doom and gloom about the economy it’s good to see some positive figures. Though with regards the retail sector, it does seem that every other month we get good figures, hence them being called into disrepute by the ‘experts’.

Make up your bloody mind economists!

Gah! One month, you get an article hoping something happens, then when it does happen, the same publication or website will produce an article lamenting the occurence. Today the BBC has posted an article about how the pound is losing value.

Which sounds bad, but I’ve spent the last few months quite happy for the pound to lose value so that our export industry can thrive and pick up some of the slack currently being experienced in our economy. The reason? The BBC said so!

I’ll be honest and admit I can’t find said article, mainly because the search facility on the BBC is so shockingly bad. Plus it may have been a news report.

Anyway, the wider point I’m making is that it’s frustrating never knowing quite what to believe when it comes to the economy. For instance, we’re having all these horror stories about the jobless figures rising, and I’m sure it’s really hard for the people who’ve sadly lost their jobs, but when you read the stories you see that actually the figures have merely risen to where they were last year, and actually we have the second highest number of people in work since records began, after a further 20,000 people found work.

That doesn’t sound nearly as bad, but it therefore doesn’t make good copy and gets buried down in the detail, leaving the public with a general impression that our economy, society and whole world is melting.

Inflationary Worries

I wrote this post back when inflation jumped from 2.5% to 3%. For some reason it has languished in my draft folder since then, I think because I wanted a big list of ways we could save money during this period, but in the end I couldn’t be bothered as there are similar lists in every magazine at the moment so it felt kinda futile. However the wider points in the post I like so here it is:

Consumer confidence hits new lows as we all shop…more.

One of those classic articles on the BBC today, where figures are released going against everything the media keep telling us, so they’re couched in the most negative terms possible.

Inflation worries - My thoughts, and a couple of pointers.

Well the economic reality is beginning to resemble the media coverage of it over the last six months. Many people and families will be going through some tough times at the moment, energy bills rising, food costs rising, below inflation pay rises - it’s not getting any easier. Though it will be a bit easier for the 22 million people helped by the governments package yesterday.

Even so, there’s a little part of me that still cocks an insolent eyebrow when I read the papers. Allegedly, inflation is ’soaring’ now it’s jumped 0.5% in a month to 3%.

Cameron - Brown has failed at reducing poverty (but has he?)

I felt obliged to write something about this as it annoyed me so much. It’s a classic opposition move of laying claim to territory traditionally seen as the territory of the other party. Blair made this famous when he declared Labour to be ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’.

David Cameron - Violent crime has doubled (and why this is completely untrue)

Oh Dear oh dear, David Cameron is at it again. Scare mongering, accusing the government of telling porkies, before coming out with a whopper of his own.

Today he has claimed that, under Labour, violent crime has doubled and gun crime has ‘nearly doubled’ and drug crime is also up.

Given that he is using the British Crime Survey for sources, it is quite easy to look this one up, and see that he is telling porkies of whopping great big proportions.

David Cameron and his ‘Broken Society’

No-one would deny that at any time, society is dealing with crime of one sort or another. But David Cameron’s ‘Broken Society’ surely does not match the reality. He makes speeches saying things like ‘we do not always have to expect crime to go up’ when of course crime has been falling for years now, and at this moment we’re less likely to be a victim of crime than at any point in the last 25 years.

Facts and Figures in the face of economic downturn

I’m currently keeping an eye on the gloomy prediction figures that seem to be trotted out on a daily basis, as I’m fairly sure 90% of them are complete tripe.