Gin ‘n’ jigsaws

The British public’s rekindled love affair with the juniper berry is now official, said Josie Cox in The Independent. Gin has been included for the first time in the annual rejig of “the metaphorical shopping basket” used by official statisticians to measure consumer price inflation. In all, there were 16 new additions to the basket in 2017, 11 removals and eight modifications, collectively shedding an interesting light on the country’s changing consumer tastes. As well as gin, we seem to be drinking “a lot of lactosefree drinks” these days and, perhaps more surprisingly, buying rather a lot of jigsaws. We’re very keen on bike helmets, a new entry this year, but have given up buying brake pads, which have fallen off the list.

The inclusion of jigsaws in the Office for National Statistics’ basket is “intended to be representative of adult-type hobbies” – a category that has “hitherto gone under-represented”, said Patrick Scott in The Daily Telegraph. Among the items the ONS axed this year were single-drainer sinks, non-smart mobile phones (surprising that they were still in), and “mentholated cigarettes” – smokers, it seems, are now more interested in the electronic versions. There were a couple of tweaks reflecting changing financial trends too. “Fees for stopping cheques” have been taken out of the basket, reflecting a fall in cheque usage, and the average price of a council tax bill will be included.