The Evening Standard’s curious priorities


by Richard Exell    
August 8, 2010 at 10:20 am

If you live or work in London you may have noticed the front page headline in Monday’s Evening Standard:

David Miliband’s tax blow to 34,000 homes in London

This was the response to the Labour leadership contender’s call for a tax on £2 million houses as part of a strategy for cutting the deficit.

Miliband set the £2 million threshold as the level at which such a tax would raise as much as the Tories are cutting from the poorest on Housing Benefit.

The Evening Standard was outraged that 34,000 houses in London – 80,000 nationwide – would be hit by the tax.

This week, we published an analysis of official data, showing that the Housing Benefit changes will hit more than 936,000 families, who will lose an average of £12 a week each. We gave a regional breakdown.

Unfortunately, the Evening Standard chose not to lead with…

Coalition’s HB blow to 160,000 households in London.

Hat tip: Next Left


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About the author
Richard is an regular contributor. He is the TUC’s Senior Policy Officer covering social security, tax credits and labour market issues.
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Reader comments


Shock News – newspaper publishes biased news.

Well, hold the front pages – this is an amazing revelation!

It may surprise you to learn this, but all newspapers pander to their readerships political biases.

You might as well complain that the Guardian is generally too left wing, or that the Sun slavishly follows the opinion polls.

“showing that the Housing Benefit changes will hit more than 936,000 families, who will lose an average of £12 a week each. ”

Oooooh, my!

“936,960 households across the UK will each lose around £12 a week (£624 a year)”

Gosh!

A rough and ready calculation shows us that housing benefit costs the average household in the UK £700 a year in taxation (30 million households, £20 billion bill).

So we could interpret this as 1 million households now being able to use their own money for their own housing costs rather than having to pay for someone else’s through hte tax system.

Bit of a winner that really.

Russian Oligarch uses his own paper to compalin about possible rises in his house tax shocker.

Tim, you do realise that the nearly 1M households will not be getting any more money from other sources, don’t you.

That indeed, they will see VAT increases that reduce their disposable income further.

Bit of a loser, actually.

@Tim

You’ve forgotten one crucial fact: the average household doesn’t exist, and you don’t understand how taxation works.

@Gwyn

That’s two facts, you div.

7. Rhys Williams

“You might as well complain that the Guardian is generally too left wing, or that the Sun slavishly follows the opinion polls.”
Didn’t the Guardian back the lib dems, the ones in co power and most of their columnists wanted them to join the coalition.
A better headline would be
“Ianvisits, right wing jouno with too much time on his hands ! “.
Hopefully all jounos (because the majority are right wing tits) will be put on the dole que thanks to the internet.
They keep pressing for people to lose their jobs.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    The Evening Standard's curious priorities http://bit.ly/bdjp5Y

  2. yorkierosie

    RT @libcon: The Evening Standard's curious priorities http://bit.ly/bdjp5Y

  3. kevinrye

    RT @libcon: The Evening Standard's curious priorities http://bit.ly/bdjp5Y

  4. Naadir Jeewa

    Reading: The Evening Standard’s curious priorities: If you live or work in London you may have noticed the front p… http://bit.ly/cAWBF3

  5. Elly M

    Quite… RT @libcon: The Evening Standard's curious priorities http://bit.ly/bdjp5Y

  6. blogs of the world

    The Evening Standard was outraged that 34000 houses in London ? 80000 nationwide ? would b… http://reduce.li/bvahh3 #standard

  7. Robert Redford, Julianne Moore, and Catherine Keen

    [...] The Evening Standard's curious priorities | Liberal Conspiracy [...]





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