Thought you were happy yesterday with the unexpected inflation dip?

Well today you are not exactly happier, but even less miserable than you were at the weekend. The surprise dip in unemployment of 17,000 has increased the spike in happiness that Guido’s Misery Index showed yesterday.

Ed Balls is quiet today.

N.B. Stats bods can check Guido’s adding up here.

Boffins at the University of Cambridge have confirmed what Guido has long suspected – Twitter is a leftie-dominated echo chamber. Analysis the influence of US media outlets on the site came out with some worrying numbers:

“We assumed that a user follows media sources that match his political leaning if all the media sources he follows are of one political leaning. These users with clear political preference, whom we call seeds, accounted for 7 million or 50.8% of all audience. Most seeds were either left-wing (62%) or center (37%). Only 61,164 users (1%) were right-wing.”

Despite the numbers not being in their favour, the right does still apparently hold their own. Retweets could be the key: ”17.8% of the left-wing seeds received retweets from right-wing media and 57.2%, vice versa.” So the lefties retweeting the righties weakens their inbuilt advantage. Not sure Sally got the memo…

If nerdy numbers are your thing, you can read all of “Media landscape in Twitter: A world of new conventions and political diversity” here.

On the day that Action for Happiness launches, a genuine membership organisation for the promotion of happiness, we have re-calculated the Misery Index with the latest RPI off highs but at a still eye-watering 5.3% in March. Guido’s Misery Index is taken from the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics and incorporates inflation and unemployment as well as a deficit component. In addition to inflation going sideways, the seasonal low in the public sector net cash requirement has seen a spike in happiness.

Perhaps the sunshine is helping a little too…

N.B. Stats bods can check Guido’s adding up here.

Norman Lamont has been wheeled out as one eye is turned to tomorrow’s budget. He claims.

“In many ways, the best Budget the Chancellor could introduce would be one that did nothing.  The Chancellor has courageously set out his strategy over five years, moving Britain back towards budget balance, largely through expenditure cuts but also with some tax increases.  The overwhelming important task is to stick to that strategy.”

That’s the Christmas card list sorted, but John Redwood has pointed out a few inconvenient truths in the last few days. Take a glance at the numbers for the next few years compared to the last year of Labour:

“Total spending plus £71 billion a year, Total tax revenue plus £176 billion a year, 5 years additional state borrowing £440 billion.”

Osborne is hardly the axeman. And nor are his Cabinet colleagues it seems. Redwood has put together a database of how the departments are getting on, specifically the promise to cut staff overheads by 30%:

“So far, they have lost around 4% of their staff numbers in an eight month period. This suggests the overall annual rate of  leavers is 6%. What is surprising is they have replaced half of these, meaning that the overall numbers are only down around 2%.”

Chris Huhne’s Department of Climate Change has seen its numbers increase, Pickles has managed to hire 263 new staff to replace 266 who left. Only Defence and the Home Office have made any real headway in the last few months:

Some three thousand people left the MOD and yet 1,700 of the posts have been re-filled. And that’s in the department making the most headway… The 30% target is still miles off.

Oh dear. Unemployment rose by 27,000 in the three months to the end of January to 2.53 million, the highest since 1994. The jobless rate is now 8%. The Misery Index is taken from the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics and incorporates inflation and unemployment as well as a deficit component. The continuing rise in unemployment means misery is creeping up…

N.B. Stats bods can check Guido’s adding up here.

As the left come together for another one of their circle-jerks this weekend, Guido thought he would check in and see how their online resurgence is coming along. While Guido has no doubt the Where Do the Left Go Online From Here? session will be both thrilling and motivating in equal measure, it seems they still have a long way to go:

To your keyboards lefties.

Uh oh. Here comes the pain. The Misery Index taken from the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics shows inflation and unemployment as well as the deficit cutting is really starting to hurt.

The Misery Index was steadily increasing since the beginning of the year. People got happier as Danny Alexander and Osborne took their axes to the deficit.

The continuing rise in unemployment and a leap in public sector borrowing means misery all round!

N.B. Stats bods can check Guido’s adding up here.

Since Will Straw exited stage left, his old “Evidence Based Blog” seems to have exited the confines of reality. This morning they signalled the petty gloves were very much off in the AV war. Apparently a Yes2AV campaigner deliberately signing up to make his Facebook picture appear on the No2AV site is a major “gaffe”. Not really when you see the Yes2AV portraying No supporters in a similar way. Guido isn’t sure either side are going to get much cut-through if this is the extent of the air-war.

However it’s Left Foot Forward’s editorial judgement that really made Guido laugh. Given that the Yes campaign has in the last few months been caught pushing Nazi smears, accusing Labour MPs of being BNP supporters, seen their budget splashed in Sunday newspapers, lost a staffer for an “anti-Islamic diatribe” and can only find Nick Clegg to support them, perhaps Shamik Das should be a little more careful throwing the word “gaffe” about. But it’s hardly the first time Left Foot Forward have let the truth get in the way of a good story…

Guido is contemplating catching up on Channel 4′s latest slice of leftism, but he thought he would test the water first…