The National Archives are asking for volunteers to transcribe thousands of pages of declassified CIA documents. The endeavour is part of Sunshine Week, which is an open-government initiative started by a group of newspaper editors to educate people about the importance of government transparency and the dangers of excessive state secrecy.
You can browse some of the raw documents here.
[Editor's Note: The dates on most of the CIA documents are 25 years old or older, so perhaps are of more interest to amateur historians than government transparency watchdogs.]
(Score: 3, Touché) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:03AM
It said this was mainly a result of weak growth in earnings for those in work, but it said tax increases and benefit cuts, as part of the government's actions to reduce the deficit, had also had a negative impact on average incomes.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mrcoolbp on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:35AM
You are out of line sir!
(Score:1^½, Radical)
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:37AM
You sir are a poo poo head
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:50AM
What will be galling to both Labour and Tories is that the IFS also faces two ways on the contentious question of whether inequality of income has worsened since the Crash.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:55AM
It says that if you assume that inflation is the same for all households, then income inequality is lower in 2014-15 then in 2007-08 - largely because of those steep rises in benefit payments in 2008 and 2009 that I mentioned earlier.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:49AM
It says that the prime culprit is the UK's hard-to-explain woeful productivity performance - lacklustre rises in the output of workers - which has meant that significant wage rises have been unaffordable.
It's always my fault...
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Wednesday March 04 2015, @11:59AM
But in practice, it says, inflation between 2007 and 2010 was more pernicious for the poor than the rich, because of steep rises in food and energy prices which gobble up a disproportionately large portion of the incomes of the poorest.
It's always my fault...