Price of Twelve Days of Christmas Shows Modest Increase

Yeah I thought it was that time of year again to report on the Christmas Price Index, the index with looks at a basket of 12 goods (13 if you count the partridge and the pear tree as separate entities) preformed over last year.

Well if you really have a two love who repeats all 364 gifts over the traditional 12 loops the cost is up a mere 0.9% at $87,402.81, this is the smallest increase since 2002 when the index actually showed deflation. The price for only one of each gift rose 1.8% to $21,465.56 up $385.46.

The rise is gold is the main contributor to the rise, with a whooping 42.9% jump over last years prices they come in at $499.95, which has to be repeated 8 times.

Those swimming swans who rose by 33% in 2008 were down 6.3% this year, and those people at the CPI decided to remove this volatile commodity on your true love's shopping list to come up with an underlying rate of 4.8%.

Fowl News Is Good News

After last year the flock of birds that true loves had to spend being a major inflationary pressure on the price of Christmas this year they are dropping helping to keep the costs down.

• Partridge in a Pear Tree is down 27.3 percent to $159.99. (Partridge down 50%, tree up 25%)
• The Six Geese-a-Laying are down a sizable 37.5 percent to $150.00.
• Four Calling Birds was even with last year at $599.96.
• Two Turtle Doves, which rose a paltry 1.8 percent to $55.98
• Three French Hens though flying up 50 percent to $45.00; the largest percentage increase in this year’s index. Rumours that next year these will be called Three Freedom Hens by hard pressed Americans has yet to be verified.

Pay Rises and Freezes

The milk maids benefited from another rise in the Federal Minimum wage in the US for the third year running (they had none for the decade before that). Their total hire fee is $58.00 up $5.80 on last year. Though the Drummers Drumming ($2,475.20), Pipers Piping ($2,284.80) and Lords-a-Leaping ($4,413.61) all suffered the fate of many and took a pay freeze this year. But the Ladies Dancing saw the best deal from their union coming in 15% up on last year at $5,473.07.

Water Strike

Staff at Scottish Water will be the next public sector workers to strike over pay when they walk out for 24 hours at midday.

An agreement equivalent to a 3% rise over 15 months was agreed in September backdated to April. While this is within the public sector guideline it is not keep up with inflation, the consumer price index was 4.5% in October (the EU average was 3.7%) down from 5.2% in September and the Retail Price Index was 4.2% for October down from 5.0%. The RPIX which excludes mortgage payments was at 4.7% for the same period.

So while the employers at Scottish Water have stuck to their government directive on pay increases it clearly is a case that public sector pay is not pushing inflation but is sadly falling behind on that score. Maybe Labour really need to redress this target figure.

So employees are continuing to be crushed by the increasing prices and by not having additional money come their annual pay reviews to even hope to catch up.

All Silent from Nats on Pay Front

You probably won't read much about this in the Scottish blogosphere as there only a few small voices of non-SNP out here. But you'll hear even less about this from the Scottish Government themselves in fact so far they have "said nothing at all" with regard to the public sector pay dispute.

As today's Scotsman points out there are two reasons for this, first is the one they would have you believe is the one they want to lay the firmly at the feet of Westminster, must particularly Alistair Darlings reticent, and increasingly indefensible stance, over the 2% cap on public sector pay increases. The second however is that even if they wanted to break the salary cap all local authorities in Scotland are hamstrung by the SNP called for, and taken up, freeze on council tax increases and would have to rely on Holyrood to provide extra funding to do so.

So while the SNP, if they were in opposition, would be up in arms demanding action for Scots struggling to make ends meet they cannae of will nae act to allow public sector workers employed by local authorities to have a fair inflation compensatory wage. So while low wages is an argument the Nats cannot win the Scotsman is expecting us to see them attack Westminster on the inflationary prices ignoring the fact it takes two to tango.

Meanwhile of course on Newsnight Scotland the other week all three of the Labour leadership candidates defended the right for a fair wage for the public sector workers. So whoever comes to lead them this weekend Labour in Scotland may well be supporting strike action this winter in opposition to their Westminster colleagues while the Nats will be siding with Gordon Brown and Mr Darling. Oh what a tangled web that could create this autumn.

Dear Prudence Gordon has Failed You

Well Gordon was to one to set the government's inflation target at 2% so his best friend, while Chancellor, prudence has been let down today when the Consumer Price Index went more than double that expectation hitting 4.4% while the Retail Price Index hit 5.6%. The government is going to have to start acknowledging that pay rises above their 2% inflation target are no longer inflation creating pay increase but inflation keeping up increases to enable people to carry on paying bills, buying food and generally getting on with life.

Food prices themselves were the main contributer to his rise and were up 13.7% over the least year. If only I had a garden or access to an allotment, there are currently none in West Lothian, I'd be able to make savings not just in my food bill but also in my foods contribution to my carbon footprint.

Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word

Yesterday while out campaigning in the North East that Tim'rous Beastie of a Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said sorry for the botched changes he made in his last budget. With the removal of the 10p tax rate to make room for his cheer raising lowering of the 22p rate to 20p (a long held Tory goal), affecting so many lower paid workers earning less than £18k.

Why was it hard for him to say, because the went on to repeat the manta which makes many people squirm every time they hear it:

"But I do stress, as a result of the Budget, far more people are better off, people who are on low incomes are better off, people who are in poverty as families or as pensioners, many have been taken out of tax altogether."

For that many who are better off Gordon yet again forgot to mention everyone earning more than £18k leaving many on lower salaries who do not qualify for the benefits and tax credits he waves and dangles before them worse off. People who aren't looking to spend across the whole basket of goods that make up the Retail Price Index. People who's real inflation is well above the magic government top level 3%. When you consider that filing up a petrol tank in currently rising by £1 a week you can see the sort of problems people are facing when that pound or more is being taken from their wage packets through extra income tax every week.

Of course yesterday was also the day that the Conservative amendment to re-establish the 10p rate in January 2009 failed at Westminster but Frank Field, ably back I know from communication with him by my own MP Michael Connarty, has promised to keep up the fight to have every losing out compensated and backdated to 1 April.