Wait for it...

The Opposition are making the point - quite correctly - that although the indicators are that the economy is on the mend, people are not seeing any improvement in their standard of living.  I think this is down to what I think of as the "supertanker effect".  If you turn the wheel on a supertanker, there will be a significant delay before the ship starts to change course.  If you think back to 2007/8 I think you may well remember that there was this period when the news was full of doom and gloom, and yet you couldn't really understand what all the fuss was about, because as far as you were concerned, life was going on pretty well as normal.  It wasn't until a few months later that you started to feel the pain in your wallet.  Well, now we have the reverse effect - the news is better, but it will probably not be until well into next year that it will percolate down to household level.