StraightFact

In 2019, UK inflation was running at 1.7 percent — unremarkable, broadly benign, roughly where it had sat for most of the previous decade. Three years later it hit 11.1 percent, the highest in 41 years. Prices for everyday goods did not merely spike and return to normal. Most of them are substantially higher than they were before COVID, and they have stayed there. Here are the actual numbers, compared against what prices would look like today had inflation simply continued at the pre-COVID norm of 1.7 percent per year. That baseline is not an ideal — it is just what “normal” looked like before the shock. At 1.7 percent compounded over seven years, prices rise 12.5 percent by 2026. As you will see, almost every major household cost has blown far past that. ...

The seat you are sitting in today is not the seat you bought ten years ago. It is smaller in every dimension — less legroom, less width, less recline. You almost certainly paid more for it. And if you want what you used to have, the airline will sell it back to you as an upgrade. This is not an accident. It is a deliberate, industry-wide strategy. And it has worked almost perfectly. ...

Every year, UK drivers hand the government a sum most people couldn’t guess — and the story of where it goes has been quietly obscured for nearly ninety years. What Drivers Pay In Two taxes dominate. Fuel duty at 52.95p per litre raised £24.7 billion in 2024/25. Vehicle Excise Duty (road tax) raised a further £8.4 billion. Combined: £33.1 billion in direct motoring taxes — before VAT on fuel, which adds an estimated £5–7 billion more. ...

Most people have no idea how the UK’s electricity is generated, what it actually costs, or what risks have been quietly introduced into our national grid. Here are the numbers — from official government sources and engineering analysis, no spin in either direction. How Much Do We Use? The UK consumed 319 TWh of electricity in 2024. That is 319,000,000,000 kilowatt-hours. The average UK household uses 3,449 kWh per year — roughly 9.4 kWh per day. Consumption has fallen 26% since 2007, mainly due to LED lighting and more efficient appliances. ...

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