Spread of butter

Press, 25 February 1980, Page 16

Spread of butter

By

PAUL KEEL

People in Wales eat more butter than anywhere else ih the British Isles — presumably,. because of their passion for the Welsh cake. A noble scone, it is nevertheless inedibly plain without generous lashings of that particular dairy product.

This exclusive form of in-dulgence,-with myriad other facts about contemporary life in the United Kingdom, is revealed in the 1980 edition of Regional Statistics. just published by the Central Statistics Office. Welsh people also “drink Si lot of tea” —- presumably to wash down the heavy scone — the survey reports with unexpected inexactitude.

The trouble with the statis- • tician’s art of illustration by numbers is that it never answers the natural question. “Why?” Consequently the inquirer is left to guess how it is that more butter (6oz a person, a week) comes to be scoffed on . the Celtic side of Offa’s Dyke. The 1980 edition provides a,number of regional comparisons over the past 10 years. The general picture is that regional differences have narrowed Over the decade. Incomes have become more equal, unemployment differences have been reduced, and spending patterns have become more alike. But, say the , authors, there are signs that this trend may have been reversed over the past two years. •>.. ■ -

On matters of health the Welsh, who also have the highest number of prescriptions per head (8.9), could be guided by the South-west where the comparable statistic is 6.8 — possibly attributable to. their more modest consumption of butter (4.80 z The healthy folk of the South-west also eat more cheese and fresh greens than elsewhere (4.2 and 16.9 oz respectively a person a week, compared with 3.8 and 12.8 oz for the rest of the United Kingdom). Many have a metropolitan background. The South-west had the highest net inward immigration (27,000 plus) during the period. Such was the region’s attraction that even its property, prices (the second highest) could not deter the ruralists. And the South-west has a higher than average stock of pre--1891 dwellings. Regional variations in gross domestic product (G.D.P.) per head narrowed during the period under review. Most of the poor regions tended to catch up, but Wales and Northern Ireland are still bottom of the league. The North, Scotland and Yorkshire and Humberside grew faster while G.D.P. in the richest regions — the South-east and the West Midlands — fell back.

National rates of unemployment more than doubled between 1967 and 1978, but the regional relativities nar-

rowed over the period. In Northern Ireland - the rate was the highest, but unemployment in the North-west and in the West and East Midlands grew faster in the latter years of the survey. Government spending per head in Northern Ireland was 53 per cent above that in England in 1977-78; expenditure in Scotland and Wales was also above the national average. Wales received the most cash benefits per head, including the . highest payments of sickness and invalidity benefits. The highest child and supplementary benefits per head were paid in Northern Ireland.

Regional characteristics depicted in the survey show that almost half the heads of households in the North are manual workers earning higher wages (£85.31, average) than in any other part of Britain except the Southeast (£95.30). Northern households spend the second largest amount each week on alcohol (£4.13) and also consume the most bacon and eggs.

In East Anglia average household expenditure on alcohol and tobacco- —£2.81 and £2.10 respectively — is the lowest in Britain. But the region’s people eat the most fresh fruit arid own more motor-cycles, mopeds and scooters (37 per 1000 population compared with 22 elsewhere), presumably because of the accommodatingly flat Fens.