what family of should live on for year?

pink_princess

That website says I need £113 a week for social and cultural activities :eek:

geordie_joe

PuzzledDave wrote: »

Personally I would prefer a Prime Minister who knows how policy affects the country on a national & international level compared to a Prime Minister who knows the price of every single item thinkable in the local supermarket.

Have you ever noticed how some people, who know their argument is a none starter, push the opposing argument to the limit in an effort to prop up their failing argument.

For example, someone says "the PM doesn't know the price of bread"

and they come back with

"why should the PM know the price of every thinkable item in the supermarket"

Know body expects anyone to know the price of every item in a supermarket, but it is reasonable to expect a PM to know the cost of basic foodstuffs.

After all, if you don't know the price of bread you won't know if increasing it by a penny will double the cost of bread or just increase it by 0.5%. How can you tackle inflation if you don't know what it is?

Apart from that, knowing how policies effect things and knowing the price of bread are not mutually exclusive. It would be perfectly reasonable to expect a PM to know both.

Wizzbang

This minimum income calculator is ridiculous. It reckons as a couple we need over £26K a year. We've lived on half of that!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

according to that we need another £187 per week to live on!!!!!

paddyrg

geordie_joe wrote: »

Know body expects anyone to know the price of every item in a supermarket, but it is reasonable to expect a PM to know the cost of basic foodstuffs.

After all, if you don't know the price of bread you won't know if increasing it by a penny will double the cost of bread or just increase it by 0.5%. How can you tackle inflation if you don't know what it is?

I'm not so convinced, prices vary so widely across the country. A pint of milk in my corner shop is 69p, other people buy 6 pinters for £1.50 - so how much is a pint of milk? 69p or 25p? I'm sure ASDA do square bagged bread for far less than the local deli charge for organic stoneground poppyseed loaves. What does a loaf of bread cost?

It's a trap question lazy journalists throw at politicians. Should we expect our country's leader (who is often working late, overseas, etc.) to go ASDA for a weekly shop and take note of the prices? As an argument it's no more fatuous than the question. It's deliberately divisive and a cheap and lazy trick, much like every few years when an MP does a public 'live on NMW/dole/whatever'.

GwylimT

Apparently our family need an income of £34K a year to have a basic standard of living, we earn half of that and our living standards are far from basic.

HappyMJ

GwylimT wrote: »

Apparently our family need an income of £34K a year to have a basic standard of living, we earn half of that and our living standards are far from basic.

The website assumes a lot. It's assuming you pay market rent. You may have a mortgage which costs much less than market rent. You may live in a cheaper area than the average for the UK. In London £34k would not be anywhere near enough to rent a 3 bedroom house and support 2 adults and 2 children comfortably. It of course can be done but some things such as the 2 annual 1 week holidays may have to be cancelled. Eating out once a week may have to be cancelled....stuff like that..including Sky TV which for some reason the people surveyed for the website feel that is a need....and if they didn't have Sky then it's assumed they'd be visiting the cinema and spending the same amount instead...or hiring DVD's or having a Netflix/Lovefilm subscription. You may not do that...I don't I download all the films I want to watch for free and attend free preview screenings.

lincroft1710

paddyrg wrote: »

I'm not so convinced, prices vary so widely across the country. A pint of milk in my corner shop is 69p, other people buy 6 pinters for £1.50 - so how much is a pint of milk? 69p or 25p? I'm sure ASDA do square bagged bread for far less than the local deli charge for organic stoneground poppyseed loaves. What does a loaf of bread cost?

It's a trap question lazy journalists throw at politicians. Should we expect our country's leader (who is often working late, overseas, etc.) to go ASDA for a weekly shop and take note of the prices? As an argument it's no more fatuous than the question. It's deliberately divisive and a cheap and lazy trick, much like every few years when an MP does a public 'live on NMW/dole/whatever'.

A very sensible reply.

silverorange

Said I need another £110 per week to reach minimum income standard! I think their idea of "minimum" is completely wrong! In fact, I managed to save enough money last year (on the same income I'm on now) to spend 5 months in South America. How could I have done that if I'm that far below the 'minimum' level?

geordie_joe

paddyrg wrote: »

I'm not so convinced, prices vary so widely across the country. A pint of milk in my corner shop is 69p, other people buy 6 pinters for £1.50 - so how much is a pint of milk? 69p or 25p? I'm sure ASDA do square bagged bread for far less than the local deli charge for organic stoneground poppyseed loaves. What does a loaf of bread cost?

As I said, we can't expect anyone to know all the prices, but we can expect them to have an idea of the basic stuff.

paddyrg wrote: »

It's a trap question lazy journalists throw at politicians.

Indicating that it is not the first time a politician has been asked than and didn't know. So he should have seen it coming.

paddyrg wrote: »

Should we expect our country's leader (who is often working late, overseas, etc.) to go ASDA for a weekly shop and take note of the prices?

He has only been a PM for a very short percentage of his life.

paddyrg wrote: »

As an argument it's no more fatuous than the question. It's deliberately divisive and a cheap and lazy trick, much like every few years when an MP does a public 'live on NMW/dole/whatever'.

No, it's a legitimate way of showing the PM does not, and never has "lived in the real world".