"Well written, funny and wistful" - Paul Linford; "He is indeed the Lib Dem blogfather" - Stephen Tall "Jonathan Calder holds his end up well in the competitive world of the blogosphere" - New Statesman "A prominent Liberal Democrat blogger" - BBC Radio 4 Today; "One of my favourite blogs" - Stumbling and Mumbling; "Charming and younger than I expected" - Wartime Housewife
Friday, September 02, 2011
Seen in Northampton: There's nothing so lost as the recent past
When decimal currency was introduced my maths teacher had several rants about how it was wrong to show prices with 1/2p on the end instead of .5p, the proper decimal equivalent.
Years later I met him in the pub and he said he was pleased the 1/2p had been recently abolished. However, he then told me he was still incensed by people saying 'one pence', something which still happens. Gordon Brown spoke of a 'one pence' tax cut a few years ago.
As far as I can remember GB was consistent in his use of 'one pence'. I used to wonder whether Ladbroke's would take bets on the time of its first occurrence in a Budget speech.
Yes, the 1/2p, the tiddler.
ReplyDeleteWhen decimal currency was introduced my maths teacher had several rants about how it was wrong to show prices with 1/2p on the end instead of .5p, the proper decimal equivalent.
Years later I met him in the pub and he said he was pleased the 1/2p had been recently abolished. However, he then told me he was still incensed by people saying 'one pence', something which still happens. Gordon Brown spoke of a 'one pence' tax cut a few years ago.
As far as I can remember GB was consistent in his use of 'one pence'. I used to wonder whether Ladbroke's would take bets on the time of its first occurrence in a Budget speech.
ReplyDelete