Money

Britain switched off its prison currency in 2018. Within months, inmates had reinvented money from scratch. What they chose tells you what money really is.

The Freddo was 10p for thirteen years. Cadbury itself now charges 45p, and cocoa only explains about 3p of the journey. A chocolate frog's guide to where your money went.

For thirty-eight years the ONS published what a pint cost, every month, in pence. The series stops in January 2025 at £4.83. Here is what replaced it, and why two official figures for the same pint are 41p apart.

22.7 million people hold Premium Bonds and nearly two-thirds have never won a penny. The advertised rate is an average that hides what most people actually get: nothing.

In 1997 the average home in England cost three and a half times a full-time salary. Today it costs 7.6 times. The house did not change. The thing we measure it in did.