Inflation down to 1.5%

The target is 2%

It doesn't follow that the further under the target the better. Don't want the rate to get much lower. An amount of inflation is desirable, imo

The inflation figures are hard to believe and only represent a short term glimpse of the economy.

I think they might be better with a similar theme to inflation, where the actual pounds cost of a basket of common things we buy is given. This could include fuel, leccy, gas, water, council; tax, mortgage/rent payments, food, phone bills, Internet, TV .... This figure vs the real wage figure would allow meaningful comparison over any period of years.

Also, there should be more focus on tax freedom day. It should be a focus of governments to halt the slide of this date. Where are we now up to? June?

Yes but can we trust it?  I reckon it's all a load of b.ollox.  Petrol going up like 50% a month, Beer in my local went up 25p the other compounded that is thousands of pc/year, penny sweets cost two bob, I reckon that Osbourne is having a tin bath.  One point five per cent?  Pull the other one mate.

2  Real Wages down 1600/year under Cameron.

That's marvellous news for companies, and it's exactly what this and the last government have been aiming for.
The creation of a low wage economy through oversupply of labour from abroad.

Full steam ahead, but unfortunately downhill for the wages of most middle and low wage earners.

where do they get this £1600 per year figure, thats nearly 5k in 3 years ?

Petrol is at 3 year low

before the engineered crash we did on average 6/9 season refunds a month

since the engineered crash we averaged between 15/25 a month

did no 18 for this month today-and they say we are getting over it

maybe I Sonko but it was only 75p a litre 11 years ago i rthink

Yeah but I was just being anecdotal I mean everything is going up but they keep telling us that inflation is going down.

Food prices seem to have come down recently.

I thought petrol had also come down in price over the last couple of months?

I'm in no position to comment on much of this because I don't live in the UK. However, it seems a bit strange that they would massage the figures to the extent that they were below the target rate. In countries like Argentina and Venezuela, with high double-digit inflation, you can see why they'd want to fix them in a downwards direction, but if I were the UK Minister for Massaging, I'd aim for between 2 and 3%. Surely the average rate has to approach reality, otherwise it would be really obvious over something like a ten-year period.

Those inflation figures are for May only.

It also depends which figures you use.

The Consumer Prices Index fell to 1.5% in May compared with 1.8% in April, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The rate of inflation, as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) fell to 2.4% in May from 2.5% in April.

I wonder if the inflation calculator takes into account the downsizing of most products on the shelf but keeping the price the same ?

Or is it still based on the price of a toaster.

They've even started charging for air at my local petrol station

just nick! been going for a long time in worthing,free air my a rse

You can play about with the criteria to get whatever result you want.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/jun/10/accounting-drugs-prostitutio...

It would come as a surprise if the way the inflation figurers are calculated was not designed to return low numbers.
Simply to make the policy of continuing with low interest rates look more credible.

Dr Crippen.  "These inflation figures are for May only"
No, they are not. The quoted CPI numbers are annualised - they represent, or purport to represent, the FULL YEAR "inflation" rate for the year to May.  They are not for May alone.

Rob. "Yeah but I was just being anecdotal I mean everything is going up but they keep telling us that inflation is going down".
This post is not up to your usual standard!!  Of course prices are going up!!. A fall in reported inflation rates simply means that prices are rising more slowly than they were.

I was just taking the p1ss blackbarn.

Ibrahima Sonko
17 Jun 14 14:30   
Petrol is at 3 year low

5 bob (25p) a gallon when I started driving.

Best part of £7 a gallon now.

The more popular something becomes, the more the govt. will put the price up with taxation.

I remember when diesel engine cars first came on the market. Diesel was half the cost of petrol. But as you get many more miles to the gallon  with it, they now make more diesel cars, and it's now more expensive than petrol.

If everybody in the UK stopped smoking legal ciggies, there would be a rather large hole in treasury coffers, left there by no tax being paid on smokes. If the govt REALLY wanted you to stop smoking, they could simply make it illegal and ban it.

But it would cost them £millions.   

Electronic ciggies save you a lot of moneym, and are becoming increasingly popular. It won't be long before the taxation arrives, mark my words.

If everybody in the UK stopped smoking legal ciggies, there would be a rather large hole in treasury coffers, left there by no tax being paid on smokes. If the govt REALLY wanted you to stop smoking, they could simply make it illegal and ban it.

But it would cost them £millions.   


billions

Why did they ban smoking in pubs?

Good point rob.  I would be interested in seeing the smoking Profit and Loss account for UK PLC.

Smoking wasn't supposed to be banned in pubs. Blair's original statement was 'Landlords can please themselves if they allow smoking or not.'

But it was banned altogether.

Imo, it was fack all to do with health issues, it was a crafty ploy to get landlords to pay fines if drinkers were caught smoking in there.

If 1 landlord in 5 decided smoking wasn't allowed in his pub, ot follows that all his bars would be jam-packed with all the non-smokers.   

You remember the non-smokers, the ones who went into pubs because their need for alcohol far outweighed the risks of passive smoking.

And the non-smokers that didn't go in pubs were all going to flood back in their millions when smoking was banned. 

But they didn't, did they?

Isn't smoking banned in all places of work?
You have to consider the pub staff.
So there you go.

Dr Crippen
18 Jun 14 15:13   
Isn't smoking banned in all places of work?
You have to consider the pub staff.
So there you go.

You remember the non-smokers, the ones who went into pubs because their need for alcohol far outweighed the risks of passive smoking

What about that bit? ^^^

You need lorries in London to deliver goods, but Blair didn't ban cars in London did he?  Why not? Everybody breathes in the exhaust fumes 24/7.

Who would die fastest, the suicide case in the car with the exhaust pipe in the window, or the non-smoker sitting in a crowded pub full of smokers?

They could use the 100% smoke-free London Underground, if they wanted to travel like sardines, but they can catch all sorts of airborne diseases from other sardines, who are less than a foot from their face.

Perhaps Blair should have banned travel by tube as well, for the safety of the great unwashed?