To ask what everyone thinks of this?

[MustardScreams]

I don’t think I have words yet. If this doesn’t make you stop and think then what will?

I expect it's even worse now.

I think it's appalling, but clearly the majority of people don't, otherwise we wouldn't have a Tory government!

It looks like bollox to me tbh.

@Interestedwoman factual evidence looks like bollocks? Crikey, how low is your IQ?

Perhaps I should have asked what Tories think of this. I’d LOVE to hear their excuses and blathering to explain this away.

It's good, because the wealth trickles down

I think it depends on what measure of "rich" they are using, e.g. income vs assets. In the US people who live in NYC have much higher income than people in Kansas but also have a much higher cost of living.

I think the purchasing power disclaimer means that they allowed or adjusted for inflation between 2010 and 2015.

It looks like bollox to me tbh.

^
Yup, that's part of the problem. People are too uneducated to understand that graph, hence vote Tory.

Same with Americans : watching Fox news, voting for Trump.

It’s GDP not wealth per se , rich people are generating more income , poor people less

I'll bite (again)

It's good, because the wealth trickles down

^^

Trickles where? Pray tell?

I would find it more interesting to see a graphic for just the U.K. with somehow a wealth range for both the poorest and richest parts of the country.

I do believe that poorer parts of the country require greater support and investment but people often forget that the ‘richest parts’ do also have poor people living in them too and often it’s a small minority of extremely wealthy people who are skewing the figures.

But this is showing GDP, not household income. Surely it just means that the areas where goods are produced are more concentrated in the U.K. than other European countries (or something like that)?

I'm fully in support of narrowing the gap between rich and poor but I'm not convinced this shows that?

I'm not a Tory btw.

Wait

GDP is gross domestic product

So doesn’t this mean that the rich areas produce more to UK productivity levels?

Lucile I agree. I got very confused by what the graph was telling us.
I think you're right in what your saying. It shows that we need to spread production rather than it being concentrated in areas.

@Far2go46 Trickle down economics has been proven untrue.

Do people still believe in trickle down theory?

I thought this was an interesting graph, so have done a little googling on it.

Basically, it is not necessarily a good measure, but there isn't a perfect way of illustrating this issue. Both analyses I read seem to agree that what is incontrovertible is that the gap in the uk is far bigger than it should be and is increasing.

medium.economist.com/the-challenges-of-charting-regional-inequality-a9376718348
fullfact.org/economy/regional-inequality-figures-misleading/

^^
Nope

So doesn’t this mean that the rich areas produce more to UK productivity levels?

It is, however, scewed by the fact people don't necessarily live in the region they work in. Like the City.

What should we expect from the Tories