Here in the UK, the election campaign has switched to economic matters. So that means a wave of abstract figures, jargonization and economic word-salad from the main three political parties.
This infographic for the Guardian datablog visualizes measures suggested by the parties to plug the enormous black hole in the UK’s finances. That deficit currently totals £167bn ($255bn) – more than the £152 bn ($237bn) the UK government earns from income tax every year.
See the graphic
Explore more detail, data and sources here: http://bit.ly/dotheycutit
DESIGN: David McCandless
RESEARCH: David McCandless, James Key, Matt Hancock
SOURCES: Institute Of Fiscal Studies, Guardian Datablog
DATA: Explore in this Google doc
RESEARCH: David McCandless, James Key, Matt Hancock
SOURCES: Institute Of Fiscal Studies, Guardian Datablog
DATA: Explore in this Google doc
6 Comments
I enjoyed this graphic quite a bit after several viewings, but it took me a while to realize that Labor is actually making the greatest proposals to reduce the deficit (I hope I got that right). Since there sphere had the most empty space, my quick interpretation was that their policies addressed the deficit least.
Oops, my previous comment was off. Labor policy proposals do not address the UK deficit the most, but more than Conservative policy does. I wonder if the ven diagram balancing could be made less symmetric in order to show the percent deficit reduction achieved. It would also be great if the main graphic more immediately suggested the size of the overall deficit that would remain under each approach.
I’m not sure I understand the percentages around the outside. How can Labour’s total 20% of deficit reduction targets when the actual figures in their circle add up to much less than the Conservatives, whose measures only total 17%?
I thought you might only be counting Committed measures, but if that were the case Labour should have nearly double the Conservative’s figure.
Are the deficit targets different for each party? If so, what are they?
This is soooooo awesome !!!
There is a simple reason why the Labour Party and the Lib Dems aren’t undertaking aggressive PPC strategies – they don’t have the money. Not every party is bankrolled by Ashcroft’s millions. Whilst the Tories are spending the maximum allowed in a election campaign (some £18m) the Labour Party have spiraling debts and no budget to spare beyond printing leaflets.
What was the cost of war in Iraq? If Labour and the Conservatives had not beed so eager to go to war, then not only all those lives, but all that money could have been saved, and the United Kingdom would not be in such a mess!