Hamish McRae wrote an interesting article on income inequality and the recession in Monday's Evening Standard quoting a report from researchers at UBS. In it they stated that the loss of personal income due to the recession in the UK has affected all income groups pretty evenly - which contrasts with most of mainland Europe and the US where the fall in income for the richest 10% has been much less than for the poorest.
I've finally tracked down the report on the web here and I've reproduced the table that compares income falls over the last five years by decile:
Those progressive paragons of France and Scandanavia - who the left are telling us to be more like - saw the poorest 10% lose far more than the richest. In France the poor's income dropped nearly 10% whereas the richest dropped by less than 5%. In Finland the richest 10% actually saw incomes rise over the last five year. In contrast in the UK, the poorest decile's income fell by about 7% over the last five years - slightly less than the richest 10%.
One can't help wondering that the UK would look much more like the US and most of Europe if the Tories (or even New Labour) were governing on their own.
I've finally tracked down the report on the web here and I've reproduced the table that compares income falls over the last five years by decile:
Those progressive paragons of France and Scandanavia - who the left are telling us to be more like - saw the poorest 10% lose far more than the richest. In France the poor's income dropped nearly 10% whereas the richest dropped by less than 5%. In Finland the richest 10% actually saw incomes rise over the last five year. In contrast in the UK, the poorest decile's income fell by about 7% over the last five years - slightly less than the richest 10%.
One can't help wondering that the UK would look much more like the US and most of Europe if the Tories (or even New Labour) were governing on their own.
The IFS has also commented on this: 'Living Standards Poverty and Equality in the UK 2013'. See chapter 3. I think the Liberal Democrats should be making more of this, and don't understand why they are not.
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