The Hello effect

The BBC and the Telegraph have different takes on a new report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on equality.

The Telegraph reports the finding that the gap between rich and poor in the UK is one of the widest in the developed world, relegating the finding that "the situation has been improving since 2000... with the UK experiencing the largest drop in inequality among all developed nations. "

It is that finding that the BBC leads on and apparently that is what the researchers thought most significant.

Mark Pearson, who wrote the OECD report, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the UK government was not shouting about the drop in inequality.

"To some extent this reflects the Blairite approach; that you do, almost, the redistribution by stealth," he said. " ...you don't advertise the fact that you've actually put an awful lot more resources into helping the least well off in society.

Both picked up on the "Hello magazine effect", where the public would read about the super-rich getting richer and would feel worse off as result.