Three per cent inflation, up from 2.5 per cent last month. What did Rachel Reeves's grandmother teach her at that kitchen table? And to whom was this figure "unexpected"? No one who went to the shops.
All day, there has been an attempt to blame this on, of all things, the imposition of VAT on school fees, which affects only six per cent of households with school age children, and no one else at all. And no, they are not all rich. But yes, they are very disproportionately so.
Yet that is still not a very good policy. It is intended either as a permanent means of raising slightly less than two per cent of the education budget, or as a device for closing down commercial schools. It cannot be both. It is not, however, the reason why your weekly big shop is so much more expensive. What will next be blamed on it?
Why's it even in the basket used to calculate inflation? Same goes for air travel.
ReplyDeleteHow the other half lives.
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