GDP - fishy statistics
WORKERS, MARCH 2004 ISSUE
The government claims we have a booming economy with an ever increasing Gross Domestic Product. With manufacturing contracting every year, many will wonder how the figures add up.
GDP is a deliberately convoluted and obscure concept. Only occasionally is the true nature of its content revealed. The World Conservation Union says that £3 billion of our annual domestic product each year comes from "recreation". According to the BBC's Wildlife magazine this is mostly from angling.
Pensioners and unemployed workers will be pleased to know that every time a new fishing licence is issued, the government can say that national living standards have increased.