For someone who normally professes to give little credence to polls, it is noticeable that a certain Lib Dem AM blogger (no names, no Cardiff Bay second home) increasingly looks for solace from reports that portray the ConDem coalition as marginally more popular than radioactive lepers. But from a more practical standpoint, we’d like to hear his views on a survey which reveals UK consumer confidence has seen its biggest monthly drop in 16 years.
A report by GfK NOP Social Research of how people regard the economy and their own personal finances concludes that rising VAT was the main factor behind the "astonishing" fall in confidence fall.
A GfK spokesman said: “The VAT increase is the first of the government's austerity measures that has had a widespread impact on consumers, and it seems to have hit people's economic confidence hard, especially as the biggest drop was in consumers' appetite for major purchases”.
He added, "There is a chance that these figures represent a post-Christmas blip but even if there is a rally in February it is extremely unlikely that it will reverse this massive drop."
Bad news for Britain’s consumers and further evidence that savage public spending cuts plus tax and duty increases are in danger of damaging a very fragile economic recovery. Meanwhile, we feel sure that the Lib Dem blogger will take comfort from the news that Billy the cat has come home after seven years.
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