Snouts in the Trough

Two days ago, I used the fact that our GDP/capita was stagnant to suggest that the Government’s claims that “Britain has the fastest growth of any developed economy” were total and utter bllx.

One reader disagreed with my argument and wrote “Our population growth rate is 0.6% per year. Our GDP growth rate is 2.9%”. The reader then triumphantly concluded “Article failure”.

Well, no actually. Not an “article failure” – just a little carelessness on my part for forgetting to mention that the GDP/capita figures were adjusted for inflation.

Let me explain. Say a country has an impressive GDP growth of 5% a year, but has an inflation level of 10%. Then, while the politicos will no doubt claim the country’s economy is “growing faster than any other country”, in fact, due to the level of inflation, the economy is actually shrinking in real terms and people are getting poorer.

This is what has been happening in Britain under the economic policies of the Coalition.

The chart below shows in green the GDP growth rate for each year under the Coalition and in red the rate of inflation for each year:

As you’ll see, for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, the rate of inflation has been higher than the rate of GDP growth. Therefore the economy has actually been shrinking in real terms. In 2014, the rate of GDP growth at 2.6% was higher than the rate of inflation of 2.3%, so there was real growth in GDP of 0.3%. Yippeee!!!

However, when you look at GDP/capita, you have to factor in an increasing population of about 0.6% to 0.7% a year. When you do this, then you arrive at the conclusion – although our GDP may look like it is growing, our real wealth – our GDP/capita – has fallen every year under the Coalition.

However, it is probable that in 2015, after the Coalition has been booted out by voters unable to understand why a country should only spend what it earns, that with falling inflation we will see both real GDP growth and real GDP/capita growth. But that depends on how much chaos the “tragic trio” of Miliband, Balls and Salmond manage to inflict on our fragile economy in the remaining eight months of the year.

So, I thank the reader for picking me up on my omission. But I stick with my original conclusion that the Government’s claim that “Britain has the fastest growth of any developed economy” while theoretically true, is actually completely misleading as it fails to take account of either inflation or population growth.

Furthermore, I stick with my original belief that inflation-adjusted GDP/capita is a much better measure of a country’s economic success than just GDP.

Meanwhile over at Oxfam…

Oxfam have just launched an urgent appeal for money to help provide clean water in the Republic of Congo. In their ad, Oxfam naturally fail to mention that the Republic of Congo already receives about $200m in aid each year and that the country’s rulers steal around $1.5bn each year from their country (figures from the OECD and the Global Financial Integrity project).

Moreover, Oxfam also fail to question how the Congo’s former ruler, Mobutu Sese Seko, managed to amass a fortune of around $5bn making our favourite multimillionaire politician Tony Blair look like a penniless pauper in comparison.

So, as I suggest in my YouTube video, the solution to Africa’s problems is not ever more of our money, it’s clamping down on corruption:

But that’s something the foreign aid gravy-train riders at Oxfam and other such charities would never admit.

The Tories’ big election strategy is to talk up their supposed economic competence by claiming that Britain has the “fastest economic growth of any advanced economy”. And they’ve got the figures to prove it. Or have they?

Unfortunately not. Here’s the graph that tells us what’s really happening. The blue bars show Britain’s GDP – the figures the Tories use to convince us that they’re growing the economy. But the red bars show GDP per capita – our GDP per head of population: (click to see charts more clearly).

Ooopps! GDP/capita is going nowhere. What’s really happening is that due mainly to uncontrolled immigration, the UK population is going up by 300,000 to 400,000 a year. Since the Coalition came to power in 2010, the UK population has increased from 59,840,000 to 64,510,000 – a rise of 4,670,000.  To cope with providing public services for all these extra people, the Government is having to borrow and spend billions which are then included in our GDP figures making it look like GDP is going up. For example, just this morning the Local Government Association announced it needed another £12bn to provide sufficient school places for the rapidly increasing number of children in Britain.

Now let’s deal with the Government’s claim that “Britain is performing better than other developed countries”. Well lookee here folks (click to see clearly)

Yup, there we are – fourth from the bottom when comparing the change in GDP/capita since 2007 rather than just GDP (this chart is only up to end 2011, but Britain’s GDP/capita has been stagnant since then, so little has changed). And just look at some of the countries doing better than us in change in GDP/capita since 2007.

So our Government’s claim that Britain is doing better than other developed countries is total and utter bllx!

Of course, some things are going up. Our national debt has doubled from around £700bn in 2010 to £1.5trn in 2015. And the amount of taxpayers’ money we’re having to cut from public services to pay interest on our ever-increasing debt has, of course, also shot up in spite of the Government’s desperate attempts to manipulate interest rates down:

But on the key figure that the Tories use to claim economic competence – an increase in GDP – what we’re really seeing is mainly the effect of an increasing population as GDP/capita is pretty much flat.

However, what’s quite amusing is that Labour daren’t expose the Tory lies about our economy improving because that would draw people’s attention to Labour and Tory uncontrolled immigration. And both Tories and Labour are desperate to avoid talking about the public’s main concern – uncontrolled immigration – as only UKIP actually plan to do something about it.

Similarly, all the politically-correct supposed ‘journalists’ at the BBC and Channel 4 daren’t expose Tory lies about a growing economy as they too want to avoid mentioning immigration.

As the election approaches, I hope to expose more of the political parties’ lies that the mainstream media choose to not mention.

Still, one thing the Government has achieved has been to increase our foreign aid budget from £7.9bn a year to over £12bn a year which has, as our video shows, made some African rulers very happy indeed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ds7XQJFBYTk 

Hopefully you have a busy and fulfilling life and never waste any of it watching daytime TV. But if you ever did see any daytime TV, you’d find yourself bombarded by ads like this one where Sir Michael Parkinscum CBE tries to flog you probably one of the worst insurance products you could ever buy:

Parkinscum’s ad appears between endless repeats and alongside a torrent of ads from ambulance-chasing lawyers and rip-off short-term loan sharks.

Parkinscum is, I assume, a rather wealthy man and at 80 years old hardly needs any more money. So why is he debasing himself by getting lonely, bored pensioners to part with their often meagre savings for poor-value insurance deals?

The product Parkyscum is flogging is an AXA Sun Life over-50s assurance plan whereby you pay in a certain amount every month until you die and in return get a fixed payout on death which it is suggested will help cover your funeral costs or maybe leave a little cash for your heirs.

There are several problems with Parkyscum’s little scheme:

1. Missed payments –  If you miss just one month’s payment between the time you start the policy till your death, you get absolutely nothing, zilch, zero – Axa Sun Life keep all your money. So, if you were hospitalised before your death and missed your last payment or if you went into a care home because of dementia and nobody kept up your payments – that’s it, all your money gone. Moreover, I believe the statistics which Axa Sun Life would have show that more than half the people taking out such policies abandon them and so lose all their money. Being a bright man, Parkyscum would know this. A cynic might unkindly suggest that being a greedy man, he wouldn’t give a toss

2. Inflation – the payout sum is fixed and not linked to inflation. So, if you paid in for say 25 years and inflation was running at the BoE target of just 2%, the final sum you receive would lose over 60% of its purchasing power – basically, it would be next to worthless and certainly wouldn’t pay for much beyond a small, damp bonfire to dispose of your mortal remains – so, no regal funeral for you

3. Poor value – with people living longer, most of the more than a million people in the scheme will pay in considerably more than they will get out. The longer you live, the more you pay, but your final payout on death is fixed at the start. The only people who might gain would be those who are in poor health, heavy smokers or obscenely obese and could die within ten to fifteen years of starting the thing

In one case cited during a recent investigation, an 84-year-old woman had a guaranteed payout of £2,738, but had already put in £3,727. And while she lived, she paid — £22 a month for the rest of her life, to fund a nest egg that could not grow and, in fact would lose value each year because of inflation. So, if she lived for another 10 years, she would end up paying in £6,367 but only get £2,738 on her death. Not a great return.

The heavy use of Parkyscum’s ad suggests his celebrity endorsement is paying off: more than 790,000  people have apparently signed up since his ad started running. Hopefully they’ll all be enjoying the free Parker pen they get just for enquiring as most of them will end up paying an awful lot for that ‘free’ pen

As money expert Martin Lewis warned, “He’s a lovely man, that Parky – just don’t listen to him when it comes to insurance”.

But, of course, the video I want you and everyone you know to watch is this one:

Please support this website by forwarding this video link to your contacts.

Here are just a few brief extracts from about 20 emails I received during the last week. Looks like I’m soon going to be very very rich! Though, I have been surprised at how many relatives I apparently have who have recently died in plane crashes in Africa:

Hamed Soomani

Dear friend, Assalam alaikum,

I am the head of Accounts and Audit Department of Bank of Africa, Ouagadougou . I decided to contact you after a careful thought that you may be capable of handling this business transaction which I explained below;

In my department, I discovered an abandoned sum of $13.6m US dollars in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in 2003 in a plane crash…..

Dear friend,

I am Mrs. Joy Ulah, the head of file department of Bank of Africa (B.O.A) here in Burkina Faso / Ouagadougou. In my department I discover an abandoned sum of (US$18.2M) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his family in plane crash.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for the safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it. I agree that 40% of this money will be for you while 60% would be for me. Then after the money is been transferred into your account, i will visit your country for an investment under your kind control.

You have to contact my Bank directly as the real next of kin of this deceased account with next of kin application form which I will send to you immediately I hear from you. I am waiting for your urgent respond to enable us proceed further for the transfer….

Dear Friend,

My name is Dr Ahmed Sani; I got your address in Burkina Faso chamber of commerce through yahoo details. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of (22.5,000,000) Million Dollars fund which belongs to our deceased customer who died in A plane crash, Since the death of this our cuastomer the money has been in our bank without claim. I want to release the money to you as the deceased NEXT OF KIN for the benefit of both of us. By indicating your interest I will send you the full details on how the business will be executed. I need to hear from you urgent so that I will give you more information regarding this transaction.Waiting for your urgent response so that we will starts immediately.

Thanks,

Dr Ahmed Sani

Beloved

My sincere greeting to you, Please permit me to introduce myself, My name is Vivian Justin Yak, 24years old female (single) originated from Sudan. I appeal to you to exercise a little patience and read through my letter although, we have neither met in person but I decided to contact you personally for a long term business relationship and investment assistance in your country.

My father Dr. Justin Yak Arop was the former Minister for SPLA Affairs and Special Adviser to President Salva Kiir of South Sudan for Decentralization. My father Dr. Justin Yak and my mother including other top Military officers and top government officials had been on board when the plane crashed on Friday May 02, 2008………

Hello Dear,

“I would be very glad if you exercise a little patience and read my proposal for your understanding “I’m Ms Amina Kones, Nationality of Kenya, a girl of 25 years old, never married and a first year medical student. I am interested in you for a confidential discussion, may be like that, we can become best friends in the near future. I am writing with due respect, pains, tears and sorrow from my heart. I am bereaved from all side of my life. My Father (Kipkalya Kones) was the former Kenyan road Minister before his death and he died on plane crash since June 10, 2008, life has not been easy for me and i had been facing many challenges of life. $9,500,000……..

Joe Baba

I use this medium to contact you for negotiation of my proposition with you to secure and actualize this proposal for our mutual benefit and i wish to solicit your assistance in proposing an urgent transaction requiring maximum confidence.

You have to let me know your stand in this proposal so that i can send the details of the business to you and i will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.

I am awaiting for your immediate response as you receive this mail.

Yours faithfully,

Joel Baba.

In a world of increasingly oppressive political correctness, there aren’t many voices daring to expose what is really happening in the world.

Hopefully, snouts-in-the-trough.com is one of the few voices that spits in the face of the politically correct.

That’s why I’m asking again for your support today. I’m not asking for money. I’m not even asking you to buy my books (I’ve given up with that as clearly my readers can’t afford books any more). All I’m asking is that you copy the link to yesterday’s blog featuring our new YouTube (3 minute video) and send it to as many people as possible asking them to send it on and so on.

Here’s the link: https://www.snouts-in-the-trough.com/archives/12726

Surely that’s not too much to ask.

If there are readers who don’t know how to send the link, then just email me at david.craig54@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll send you an email containing the link which you can then forward.

(As for missing comments. My site was attacked a few weeks ago with thousands of fake comments. There is a spam filter and things should be working again now)