Graph of the Week - What percentage of voters voted for their MP?

We've blogged about this before but with today's TUC demonstration at the Tory Party Conference and the proposed Trade Union Bill we thought it would be worth reprising this graph.

The government's Trade Union Bill aims to introduce a 50% voting threshold for union strike ballot turnouts, and a requirement that 40% of those entitled to vote must back action in "essential public services" - health, education, fire and transport. 

The recent General Election resulted in only 84 out of 650 MPs (less than 13 per cent) meeting the threshold of 40 per cent of the electorate voting for them. 

This week's graph of the week (to make it larger click on it) shows the proportion of the electorate voting for their MP. All parliamentary seats are shown by a bar but due to space limitations not everyone is labelled on the vertical axis. The graph shows the 566 red bars showing those that do not meet the 40 per cent threshold and the 84 green bars where the threshold was met.

West Midlands Regional Secretary said:

"Compared to the increasingly out of touch Tory MPs, working people now have a second class form of democracy when they fight for workplace justice,  It's one law for MPs and another law for workers."

Graph of the week - the National Living Wage con

This week George Osborne revealed his Budget and made much pay of introducing a new so called National Living Wage, which will start at £7.20 an hour in April. 

Apart from this being lower than the actual real Living Wage (£7.85 outside London and £9.15 in London) set by The Living Wage Foundation, it only applies if you are over 25. 

But the con does not stop there. At the same time as the National Minimum Wage effectively being raised to £7.20 the government will be reducing Working Tax Credits so despite the wage rise, low paid workers will be worse off. The graph above shows this clearly (hat tip for the graph to UNISON Scottish Organiser, Dave Watson).
 

Graph of the week - Proportion of the electorate voting for their MP

This week the government announced a further attack on workers with their proposed Trade Union Bill that would introduce a 50% voting threshold for union strike ballot turnouts, and a requirement that 40% of those entitled to vote must back action in "essential public services" - health, education, fire and transport. 

The recent General Election resulted in only 84 out of 650 MPs (less than 13 per cent) meeting the threshold of 40 per cent of the electorate voting for them. 

This week''s graph of the week (to make it larger click on it) shows the proportion of the electorate voting for their MP. All parliamentary seats are shown by a bar but due to space limitations not everyone is labelled on the vertical axis. The graph shows the 566 red bars showing those that do not meet the 40 per cent threshold and the 84 green bars where the threshold was met.

West Midlands Regional Secretary said:

"Compared to the increasingly out of touch Tory MPs, working people now have a second class form of democracy when they fight for workplace justice,  It's one law for MPs and another law for workers."

Graph of the week - The 10 seats where the Green vote was bigger than the Tory majority

There are 10 seats where the Green vote is bigger than the Tory majority.

Obviously it is not clear that every Green voter would have voted Labour, but some may have done if they had known it could have elected a Labour, instead of Tory MP.

With Sinn Fein not taking their 4 seats in Westminster, 324 seats are required for a working majority. The Tories got 331. If 8 out of 10 of the seats above were won by Labour the Tories would not have a majority in Westminster.

Graph of the week - this government broke the economy

The government claims that the economy was contracting when they came to power in May 2010, but the graph above shows the economy contracted after the global banking crash and started growing in 2009. The dip in economic growth comes after the first two of George Osborne's budgets.

It was this government that stalled the economic recovery after the global crash.

With a hat tip to Paul Mason on Twitter @paulmasonnews

Graph of the week - Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK and EU

The above graph is from a report from the Office of National Statistics that looks at poverty and social exclusion across the EU. The graph shows the percentage of each country's population that is at risk of poverty and social exclusion.

It is worrying that the UK, which is third richest country in the EU after Germany and France is only better than the EU average. It seems we are "all in it together."

For more info download the whole report here.

Graph of the week - In work poverty in the UK

This graph from the Office of National Statistics report on Poverty and Employment Transitions in the UK and EU, 2007-2012 clearly shows that despite the UK being the third richest nation in the EU (after Germany and France) we rank 16th for in-work poverty and are only just bellow the EU average.

This is a statistic the government should be profoundly ashamed about.

Graph of the week - The Rise of Zero Hours Contracts

Zero hours contracts have been in the news a lot over the past few months, and the government have been claiming economic success with more people in employment. But is this telling the whole story?

We grabbed the data from the ONS website and knocked up a quick graph. In 2013 there was a big jump of over 300,000 additional people on zero hours contracts. So these people may be off the unemployment register, but they are not in decent, secure full-time employment.

Hardly the job creation miracle that some are claiming.

Graph of the week - Tax Revenues by Country

With all the controversy about tax avoidance and evasion we thought it would be interesting to see how the UK’s tax revenue compared with other countries.

So we went to the OECD website, found some data for 2013, downloaded it, and then did a graph.

The graph above shows the tax revenue in dollars per capita. The UK is highlighted in blue. It shows that relative to other countries the per capita tax revenue is low. The graph shows that comparatively speaking the UK is not a high tax country in terms of tax revenue. So it's no wonder we are seeing such savage cuts to public services.

It is not possible to say conclusively that this because of tax avoidance and evasion, but it does leave you wondering.....

Graph of the week: Percentage of electorate voting for MPs

The data for the graph above came from the Electoral Commission website here and shows that not one MP was elected with over 50 per cent of the electorate (not just those voting).

The range goes from 17.6 per cent at the bottom to 46.1 per cent at the top. We're not claiming this means any MP does not have a democratic mandate – democracy is decided by those who turn up. But it certainly does put into context the Conservative party’s proposals to change the laws around strike ballots so that they will only be valid if 40 per cent of affected union members vote for it. Only 38 out of 650 MPs were elected by over 40 per cent of their electorate.

Aside from the obvious muzzling of workers with genuine disputes, this effectively means we would have two classes of democracy: one premier class of democracy for MPs where those who don’t vote don’t count; and a second class form for workers fighting for their rights where non-voters count as a vote against.

This is profoundly anti-democratic.

Graph of the week - Tory Hypocrisy on strike ballots

A few days ago the Tories announced, if elected they plan to change the laws around strike ballots so that they will only be valid if 40 per cent of the eligible members vote in favour of the strike. Given that a majority of memebrs voting is also required this means there would have to be a minimum 80 per cent turnout, even with every union member voting in favour of strike action.

We thought we'd take a look at the number of MPs, in the last general election, who were elected by more than 40 per cent of the electorate. The graph above shows that only 6 per cent of MPs met this criteria.

UNISON (West Midlands) Regional Secretary, Ravi Subramanian said "What this graph shows is that the Tories are hypocritical and want to have two classes of democracy. A premier class of democracy for the political elite, but a second class form of democracy for workers trying to defend themselves. Changing the system because you don't like the outcome of democracy is what despots and dictators do."

Graph of the week - how many major A&E depts meet the waiting time target?

The media continue to report on the NHS crisis in A & E with sad and worrying stories about what is happening in our hospitals.

This week's graph of the week is a simple pie chart that shows only 6 per cent of major A&E departments meet the government target of treating 95 per cent of A&E admissions within 4 hours.

It really is as bad as the media are reporting, and, as many NHS workers have been telling UNISON, the winter peak has not yet hit as we've not had a prolonged icy spell. The worst is mostly likely yet to come.

Graph of the week - is the change in council spending power a political fix?

Just before Christmas the central government grants to councils in England were announced, with the minister saying there was a funding cut of only 1.8% to councils. But as with everything with this spin obsessed government, the devil is in the detail.

The 1.8% figure looks at all 354 councils, but 200 of those councils are (small) district councils that make up less than 6% of total council spending. Hence the 1.8% average cut figure is achieved by including these councils with very small budgets, so the 1.8% figure is a gross distortion.

So if we only look at the 154 large councils (London Boroughs, Metropolitans, Unitaries and County Councils) this actually makes up over 94% of all spending by councils and it gives a far more realistic picture.  

The graph above shows the cut for each of these large councils, and the colour of the bar shows which party controls that council. Note the clear picture that the largest losers are mainly (red) Labour councils, and the gainers are mainly (blue) Tory councils.

Is this a political fix? Take a look at the graph, and decide for yourself.

Notes: 

1. Due to space limitations on the vertical axis not every council is labelled but every council is shown by a  coloured bar.

2. To see the actual figures for every council, look at the spreadsheet used to create the graph which can be found here: http://bit.ly/1z2vT9w

Graph of the week - Government borrowing predictions are way off

This week's Autumn Statement from the Chancellor George Osborne exposed what a mess he is making of the economy, and the graph above illustrates just one of the many things he has got wrong.

In 2010 he said that austerity would work and drive down government borrowing. The blue bars show his 2010 forecast for driving down government borrowing. But austerity strangled the economic recovery and we had a double dip recession, which meant income from taxes dropped off. And in turn that meant borrowing had to go up to plug the gap.

The red bars shows the actual borrowing that has happened and shows clearly George Osborne has got it badly wrong.

Graph taken from an article on the Independent website here.

Graph of the week - deficit is due to reduced taxation not too much spending

This week's graph of the week comes from The Resolution Foundation's report In The Balance: Public Finances in the Next Parliament. It is figure 15 on page 36.

What this graph clearly shows is:

1. The massive deficit in public sector finances that happened in 2008 was not because of an increase in spending, but due to a huge fall in tax receipts because of the recession caused by the global banking crash.
2. There has been a levelling off in spending in absolute terms, but given that this does not include inflation and increased demands due to an ageing population this actually amounts to massive cuts to services.
3. The best way to fix the deficit is to increase tax receipts so they match spending.

The best way the government can do this is to:

• have an economic plan that delivers good well paid jobs (as oppose to the zero hours low paid jobs that currently exist) so that workers then pay income tax and VAT and help build tax receipts.
• reverse the cut to the 50p tax rate for high earners.
• ensure that tax dodging companies like these pay their fair share

Spending cuts that hit the poor and the vulnerable are unnecessary and avoidable. There is a better way to close the deficit.