The coming election will no doubt see a barrage of statistics, all aimed at showing either how bad things are or what a splendid job the Government is doing.Thus it was no surprise to see the Progressive Labour Party pick over the terrible statistics contained in the recently released Labour Survey to find something anything that would show the PLP’s economic stewardship in a good light.It just goes to show that if you look for something hard enough, you will find it, since the report showed so much bad news:l An overall unemployment rate of eight percent;l Bermudian unemployment of ten percent;l Under-employment of 20 percent;l Youth unemployment levels of 35 percent; andl A drop in the workforce of 1,500 people and evidence that 1,000 non-Bermudian workers have left the Island since 2010.That’s all pretty grim.Still, the PLP found a figure that showed that since 2000 median incomes have risen from $38,000 a year to $58,600 a year, a rise of around 50 percent.At first glance, that looks impressive. But when inflation is taken into account it is less significant, given that it equates to an average increase of about four percent a year and that’s without compounding.Since 2006, inflation has increased by 20 percent, so that gives some idea of how prices have risen and wages have kept pace.Even more significantly, Bermudian wages have declined falling by three percent between 2010 and 2012 while wages for non-Bermudians have risen.This would appear to be an indictment of a party that claims to be standing strong for Bermudians.In fact there may be other reasons for this. If a larger number of non-Bermudians earning less than the median wage have left the Island, that will have the statistical effect of pushing the median wage for non-Bermudians up.So, to some degree this is a statistical anomaly.But the reality is that trying to prove that the economy has benefited, especially in the last five years, under the Government’s economic stewardship is a hard task, and the PLP’s efforts in this direction are tantamount to trying to convince people the Emperor has clothes on.The fact there are 3,300 people who are unemployed shows the Emperor is in fact naked.The PLP has also been attempting to justify its ballooning budget deficits by claiming that this spending has been “investment” or has been spent on helping people in need.A glance at the Budget shows this is incorrect.Leaving aside the cost overruns and waste on previous capital projects, the current Budget projects a deficit of $170 million. Of that sum, $76 million or less than half, is to be spent on capital expenditure, which might be seen as long term capital investment.In current account spending, spending on education and health account for $320 million, in what could be broadly be called helping professions, along with $40 million for financial assistance.It might be argued that this money could be spent more wisely, but it is designed to help people.But it is worth noting that $480 million is spent on personnel costs. Government’s biggest social assistance programme is its own employment practices.This in turn requires that the private sector pay taxes it can ill afford to enable the Government to employ people, when it would be better served using that money to pay its own staff.Interest on debt this year is $85 million.The truth is that there is no real plan to invest in the community, and for all of the talk of a ten-point plan to to turn around the economy, there’s no real plan for economic growth at all.