Yesterday the Tories published a cost of living report in which accoding to the report,
the prices of many basic household items - bread, butter and eggs - have seen double digit rises in recent months. Gas and electricity prices have also jumped by 10% in the last month alone.
In addition to this, council tax has doubled since Labour came to power, train fares have gone up by a third and the cost of running a car has risen by a half.
This morning's Mail has unsuprisingly jumped on the bandwagon
Since Mr Brown took over as Prime Minister nine months ago, the price of butter is up 37 per cent, a dozen eggs up 34 per cent and a loaf of bread up 28 per cent. The price of petrol has risen eight per cent in the same period.
Housing costs now swallow up more of people's spending than at any time since records began in 1987.
and the Telegraph writes of the government's mysterious inflation figures and explaining that
In 2003, partly to harmonise our practices with those of the EU, Mr Brown switched the measure from the Retail Price Index to the Consumer Price Index, which excludes many of the fastest-rising costs, such as council tax and house prices.
At the same time, there have been asymmetries in sectoral inflation rates. Things that we can buy from China have remained relatively cheap.
Fraser Brown over at Coffee House writes
The wider Tory point is this: you’re suffering, we understand, yet Brown claims you’ve never had it so good so he can’t be trusted. For as long as the PM is addicted to fake figures which jar with people’s experience, he is wide open to this powerful charge.
So where does it leave us? and more importantly can the Bank of England restore some cuts in interest rates when inflation,that is real inflation is seemingly on the rise?
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