tweaked

all of these characters below (minus the bankers) represent only the lowest income decile of the overall sections of the population they are from. each character = 100,000 people and the numbers have been rounded to the nearest 100,000. although these are the poorest people in the country, the lowest five income deciles are all below average in terms of income

note: the pregnant woman is now a symbol for a single mum as i thought that they are probably worse off in general

demographics

not to scale yet

number of workers in financial services in London = 333,162 = 0.005% of entire U.K. population

. number of adults of retirement age in U.K. = 20% = 12,358,400

. number of live births in U.K. (2009) = 698,323

. number of disabled people in U.K. (working/not working) = 19%/9.5% = 11,740,480/5,870,240

. number of under 16's in U.K. = 20% = 12,358,400

averages calculated from U.K. population for 2009 (61,792,000), percentages from Office for National Statistics website, Disabled Living Foundation website and the City of London website

isotype i

isotype is the name of the picture language invented by otto neurath that aimed to transform complex statistics into self-explanatory pictographs made up of signs and symbols. one of his examples below + more info and pics here

here's my own take on that idea that i'm probably going to make into some kind of infographic.

the City banker...

the old age pensioner...

the pregnant woman...

the disabled person...

and the child

the winners and losers of the emergency budget and the forthcoming spending review

thoughts

after a while spent researching the budget measures, responses and ifs analysis i have decided the aim of my project is to get across the message that it will be the poorest who will suffer most as a result of the actions taking place to cut the country's deficit.

my work is going to be aimed at people with lower incomes, specifically those who defected from 'the left' at the last election or who don't see a difference between the values of the left and right. it's not a party political thing, more of an educational thing. it really annoys me to see the same people who enjoyed increased public investment, benefits, etc over the last 13 years switch to a completely new set of principles that don't even favour them. i feel people who are not politically aware enough can be too easily bought over by weak (and sometimes false) claims such as:

it's a progressive budget

it's a necessary budget

we're all in this together

if we don't cut the deficit hard and fast we'll end up like Greece

it's what the markets want/need (only economists should be allowed to say this)

we can cut public spending by up to a quarter AND still have quality services

i want to do something that really clarifies for people what this budget is going to mean for them