tygerland.net

John Band has an interesting post here.

He claims that, despite the almost-constant media doom-mongering, the sky is not falling in on the UK’s economy. He makes a few valid points about like-for-like sales against the actual takings on the high street: -

It’s partly due to misleading reporting, of course. Hands up who read this morning’s paper and came away with the take-out that UK retail sales fell when comparing March 2008 to March 2007? Wrong: they rose by 1.1%. The fall was in ‘like-for-like’ sales - i.e. new shops are opening faster than people are increasing their spending. That’s not great news if you’re a retailer, for sure - but it also for sure doesn’t mean that sales are falling…

These points are valid. Also, UK economic watchers have always concentrated too hard on high street performance - we’re a nation of shopkeepers after all, rather than on more indicative economic measures. People seem to think if M&S sells fewer pairs of panties, the country is going to the dogs.

Anyway, a somewhat related post over at LC has prompted an interesting thread between John, myself, and a few others in the comments. Take a look.