Yesterday in PMQ’s Gordon Brown said:
He added: “You may think VAT is unimportant but at the end of every week a typical family has more than £5 extra in their pocket. That may not matter to the Tories. But that’s £275 a year, more money for everyone in the community, not just for the few that you support.”
Now let’s work this out shall we.
£5 x 52 weeks = £260
No wonder our finances are in a mess if he can’t do basic multiplication. OK let’s give him the benefit of the doubt that he rounded the figures to make a nice soundbite. To get £275 a year the calculation must be
£5.29 x 52 weeks = £275.08
OK why not say over £260?
But that works out* that every person must spend approximately £11,000 a year on VATable goods per year, that’s a staggering £212 a week. Seriously, are we to believe that everyone spends £212 a week on VATable goods? Actually looking back at Gordon’s quote, he actually says MORE than £5 a week!
Are these the so called ‘Green Shoots’ that were mentioned the other day? That we’re all being given huge payrises so that we can spend £11,000 a year on VATable products?
* the linked calculator is for 13 months not 12 so calculations have taken into account spending over 12 months not 13
Ah – that’s not what Gordon said at all. He talk about a ‘typical family’, not ‘every person’. Assuming ‘typical’ equates with ‘mean’, I think it’s enitrely possible that a typical family could spend £212 per week on VATable goods.