Monday 27 June 2016

Boris the Spider

the web of deception. - Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive

Boris Johnston says:
"This year the US is projected to grow by 2.4 per cent, China by 6.5 pc, NZ by 2 pc, Australia by 2.5 pc and India by 7.5 pc. The Eurozone – 1.5 per cent."

He sometimes adds his joke,  the only continent with lower growth than the EU is Antarctica

But what does GDP measure ? The size of the entire size of the economy. It can grow simply because the population grows. It can shrink because natural resources are depleted or fall in value. And % increases tell us very little when comparing countries with each other as opposed to comparing them with themselves in previous years.

Lets look at a more meaningful measure - GDP per person (also called per capita). Methodology (the way of working out the figures) varies, but roughly speaking, they are similar whatever method is used.
In 2015 they were: 

UK $43,940             China $14,107        India $6,162

So the India economy grew by 7.5% in 2015, or $403 per person
If the UK economy grew by 1.5% , that would be $649 per person
In fact the UK economy grew by 2.2% in 2015, or $946 per person

Funny how even when the India economy growing at more than 3 times the % rate of the UK economy, in cash terms, the UK economy grew more than twice as fast as the Indian economy and the gap between the two countries has widened.

So Boris does this usual thing with liars, he doesn't tell a direct lie, so much as not tell the truth and deliberately gives a misleading impression.  He claims if only we left the EU the UK could have a 7% growth rate like India. Well no it couldn't. 

Similarly, will Boris be moving to China because their economy is booming ? No, because the average UK citizen is about 3 and half times better off than a citizen of China.

Setting aside the fact that Boris doesn't support the economic polices of China or even the USA, the truth is that he is again misleading people with bogus statistics.





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