The price is right

It's almost enough to make us come over all nostalgic. Sound money, often promised but rarely delivered by politicians of any party, is perhaps still not with us. Anyone trying to buy a property in London will tell you that. But we seem to be making some solid progress. The retail price index, published yesterday, suggested that we may be turning the tide in the war against rip-off Britain.

It's almost enough to make us come over all nostalgic. Sound money, often promised but rarely delivered by politicians of any party, is perhaps still not with us. Anyone trying to buy a property in London will tell you that. But we seem to be making some solid progress. The retail price index, published yesterday, suggested that we may be turning the tide in the war against rip-off Britain.

It's a record-breaking month: the lowest increase in the price of all items since 1976; the price of food and household goods falling at the fastest rates since 1960 and 1959 respectively. Perhaps all that inflation in the 1970s really was a "blip" when seen from the perspective of today.

Suddenly Harold Macmillan's famous words, uttered at a meeting in Bedford in 1958, echo across four decades: "Let us be frank about it, most of our people have never had it so good." No wonder Mr Blair, that other great actor-politician of the modern age, seized on it in his encounter with Mr Hague in the Commons last week. It is a fine slogan, although, as Supermac found, it can come back to haunt you.