Just how new is the news?

[New Judge]

The rise in VAT to 20% was announced, I think, last October (it may have been earlier).


The day before yesterday the news headlines (certainly on the BBC) were that shoppers were making last minute purchases to beat the rise. Yesterday the headlines were that VAT is going up tomorrow. Today, all the BBC’s news efforts on both radio and TV have concentrated on the VAT rise.

I’m currently watching the BBC’s news and for the last ten minutes the “news” has been on the same topic. We now have the BBC’s political correspondent standing outside No 11 spouting on about the “political implications” of the rise.

Just how long can the BBC make a one-liner last?

[Davethedog]

Not as long as Sky

[youngmafbog]

Quite a time if it slams the Tories.

Come on you know the BBC is left wing.

[Gromit]

It may be a one liner, but it affects everybody, and will do so for years.

Not to say news values are strange. There was an item about a phones alarm not going off on New Years Day, which was ten minutes of the BBC's News. It involved an outside broadcast from a shop, interviews with customers and an expert. Why something so trivial was on the news is a mystery.

[Davethedog]

That was just Iphone because the are so many and so many were given over christmas

[Ankou]

look, if stephen fry aint twitterin' about it, then it aint news.

anyone noticed how celeb tweets have become a news feature now ?

[lumination]

wow, ive only just noticed that the word 'news' has the word 'new' in it... i guess thats why its called news? cause its new?

[sandyRoe]

Just now, and during the month of August (the silly season) there's not a lot to report. So stories like the VAT increase get a lot more coverage than they might at other times.

[jno]

did you seriously expect that the media would have mentioned it last October then shut up about it for ever? News doesn't work that way. Just because an event is predicted (snow in winter, say), it doesn't mean it won't be news when it happens. It's news now because prices start to go up now.

[New Judge]

No I did not. But the time for debate and in-depth analysis of the consequences was when it was announced and whilst it was being debated in Parliament..

On January 4th it was just a one-liner: "VAT goes up to 20% today".

[jno]

I think when people find prices shooting up overnight, it's news, because it's happened. Or to be more precise it began to be news a few days earlier because people were rushing out to beat the rises. (Very sensibly; they could hardly stockpile petrol and mince last October.) The difference between saying 'I'm going to do something' and actually doing it is still significant. I think this is a genuine news story, and one that will have a noticeable effect on people's lives, and perhaps on political life too. I'd have been utterly amazed if any media outlet had ignored it this week.

[New Judge]

We clearly have differing expectations of the media, jno !!

Almost every year, round about October, the government announces changes in Income Tax allowances that usually allow people to earn a bit more money before paying tax. These do not come into force until April 6th but the commentary and analysis of the effects always take place shortly after the announcement (as indeed it did with the VAT rise). But we don’t then get a further three days of commentary and analysis in early April.

Anyway, thanks for your contribution.

[hc4361]

I am greatly amused by the reaction to this VAT rise.
When VAT was reduced to 15% to help the economy, it was dismissed by the majority and the media as 'trivial' and would make no difference. 2.5% did not go far enough to be of any help, overall the 2.5% decrease was considered to be a meaningless ploy that would benefit nobody.

Now VAT has risen by 2.5% it seems we are all doomed to a life of luxury less poverty and penny counting.

[New Judge]

Quite so, hc.

Someone on a low income with a disposable income of, say, £100 per week can currently buy £85.10 worth of pre-VAT goods. Assuming they still have only £100 to spend they can now purchase “only” £83.34 of pre-tax goods – a difference of just £1.76. Bearing in mind that a good proportion of purchases made by poorer people are on zero rated items such as food and children’s clothes this tax increase is not going to have a life threatening influence on them.

Someone with a more affluent lifestyle who spends, say, £250 per week on VAT rated items will have to pay just £5.32 more to buy the same goods – less than the cost of a packet of cigarettes. A lot of fuss over relatively small beer which is also small in terms of the nation’s deficit. (I believe it is estimated to raise about £13bn per annum). And certainly not worth the acres of coverage it has received on TV, Radio and in the press.

A more worthy story would be to cover the suggestion of the Boy Miliband that it is “the wrong tax at the wrong time”. Such coverage could include asking him to suggest what might be the right tax to get the country out of the mother of all financial messes (sorry, I omitted the word “global”) that his party left us in.

But I didn't see that get much air time.