We don’t believe the Resolution Foundation for a moment here

Of course, we rarely do believe the Resolution Foundation. We’ve found that to be a good guide to life in general. But specifically we don’t believe them here:

Britain’s deep regional income divide has barely changed in 30 years despite the promises of successive governments to narrow the gap, according to a report showing the challenge for Andy Burnham.

As the prime minister-in-waiting prepares for government, the Resolution Foundation said almost no progress had been made since 1997 to tackle stark divisions in household income, before housing costs are taken into account, between the richest and poorest parts of the country.

As we’ve pointed out for some time - and very recently with Polly Toynbee in mind - no one does in fact measure regional inequality in Britain.

Given the variance in housing costs around the country how can comparing incomes before those tell us anything useful? But more than that, all prices vary across the country. A pint will be £6 and up in London and there are still parts of the country where £2 and £3 is more normal. Yes, supermarket prices also vary by geography and so on.

The actual lived experience is markedly less unequal than the one recorded by the current system of measurement. And, well, you know, if we’re to undertake some massive programme about regional inequality shouldn’t we measure it properly first? This before we even start to consider how the tax system imposes heavier burdens upon higher cash, but not real consumption based, incomes.

Tim Worstall

We’d also like to repeat our more general complaint about people sending out PR copies and getting their reports written up without releasing that report more generally so we can all have a look. Yes, we know, it’s to get the carefully selected points into the public consciousness without anyone being able to ahem about it. But that’s what the Tsk is about.