Read This Bar Chart Before Voting (IFS/BBC)

(NB I have boosted this entry to the top. The latest entries appear below this one)

At last! A bar chart, produced from independent Institute of Fiscal Studies data. RReliable factually, and with real meaning and real resonance for the So Now Who Are We Going To Vote For project.

It is taken from the BBC's website :

http://tinyurl.com/dj2ux *

For those using a text reader this is a ten column bar chart showing the winners and losers under tax and benefit changes from each decile by wealth. 3.9% of the income of the richest tenth of the population is a lot more than 11.25% of the poorest.

Poorest - plus 11.25
2 - plus 11.5
3 - plus 8.1
4 - plus 5.25
5 - plus 2.5
6 - plus 0.5
7 - minus 0.6
8 - minus 2.0
9 - minus 2.8
Richest - minus 3.9

For me this is an important reminder of the power of Labour, even this Labour, to change people's fortunes. And a reminder why it must be forward not back to Tories who rotated the bar chart on its vertical axis - and then some.

So, please, no couldn't-care-less protests of the Tariq Ali "Liberal For A Day" school of "thought". No going to bed with Charlie and waking up with Michael. No Tories getting through the muddle.

Between us, instinctive Labour supporters as we are. In our varying degrees of disatisfaction with Blair and Co. We should really do our best to return Labour with a healthy majority. So the Labour left and the TU link are still important. And footsey in the muddle in the middle with the privatising and opportunistic Lib Dems is not the order of the day.

Print out a copy of the chart and take it with you to the polling station so you don't lose your nerve or keep it in view as the PV is cast. Show your friends. Call radio and TV phone ins. Write to the Postbag of your local papers.

Let's not throw this progress away.

* Full URL

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/41061000/gif/_41061315_redistribution_gra203.gif