Huw Pill says “in the UK, someone needs to accept that they’re worse off” (Britons ‘need to accept’ they’re poorer, says Bank of England economist, 25 April). If he wants to tell “someone” his private opinion of our economic situation, being chief economist at the Bank of England surely puts him in a good position to find a candidate.
It’s simply not true that “we’re all worse off”, as Mr Pill claims. Neither the prime minister nor King Charles appear to be in that category. Public sector workers and food bank clients don’t need a senior economist to tell them who is worse off and who isn’t.
Meanwhile, we’re told the UK can’t afford clean rivers, adequate health, education or prison systems, or international obligations. Oddly, though, “someone” manages to enrich shareholders in those matters. Can Mr Pill do no better than echoing George Osborne’s pretence that “we are all in this together” in 2009, as he promised to freeze nurses’ and teachers’ pay and slash civil service costs?
Janet Dubé
Peebles, Scottish Borders
• Huw Pill needs to take a wider look at the economy. The reason the economy didn’t completely tank in the much-maligned 1970s was because wages kept up with commodity price inflation. The one thing that didn’t inflate was house prices. People were able to live cheaply and take low-paid jobs if necessary, and just about get by. Today, extortionate housing costs and housing insecurity are the elephants in the room that are ignored by Bank of England grandees and politicians.
Today, there is commodity price inflation and house price inflation, but not wage inflation. Why is it so hard for the governing classes and their supporters in the media to understand this glaring problem?
David Redshaw
Saltdean, East Sussex
• So Huw Pill thinks Britons need to accept that they’re poorer and to stop “trying to maintain their real spending power”. No doubt he is highly qualified and experienced, but I am not convinced that he understands the full picture. I couldn’t agree more with him that there is a game of “pass the parcel” within the economy. However, unlike the traditional party game, the parcel he is referring to still goes round and round but also ever upward, gathering wealth as it goes, to the 1% of the population who get increasingly richer, leaving the 99% increasingly poorer. I still agree with Mr Pill that “we all have to take our share” – presumably of the pain. Unfortunately, the 1% are taking an increasingly larger share of the profits, and little of the pain.
Mike Alcock
Lucklawhill, Fife
• It is piss-poor advice from Huw Pill to tell British households to “accept” that they are poorer and to stop seeking “inflationary” wage rises. As the Unite union and others have pointed out, it is the “greedflation” of large corporations that is fuelling inflation. Workers striking for better pay do not stoke inflation. Their claims are “reflationary” – they are struggling only to reflate their household incomes to the point at which they can afford the cost of living.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
• Huw Pill receives about £180,000 as a salary. Customers at the rural food bank I coordinate are either on low-paying benefits or work in the care sector and receive minimum wage. How dare he tell them and countless others that they simply have to put up with penury.
Andy Stelman
Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire
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