Alex Cann Column - 20th March 2025

With the cost of a first-class stamp set to rise to £1.70 in April, the sixth increase in the last three years. I'd suggest buying a book of stamps at the current price and stashing them away for a rainy day. Just call me Martin Lewis and be done with it.

Joking aside, the cost of pretty much everything is soaring, and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is tasked with tracking the rate of inflation. Their boffins look at a typical basket of goods and services to measure the rate of price increases, and each year they update the items being tracked to represent modern living.

Starting with a couple of things that are out of fashion, fresh minced turkey and DVD rentals are both out of the basket of goods. I can't say I'm especially crestfallen about the turkey, but it saddens me that renting films by post is now seen as an outdated thing. I've written before about the fact I still use a service called Cinema Paradiso. Every few days, a yellow envelope plops onto the front door mat, containing a film selected at random from a list of movies I've marked as ones I'd like to watch. Unlike streaming services, I can add anything that's available on DVD or BluRay. The joy of something tangible coming through the post that isn't junk mail or yet another bill represents a little ray of letterbox sunshine. I hope it continues for a while yet. For those sniggering at the back, I'd remind you it's how Netflix began life, and Lovefilm by Post also used to be huge before it was gobbled up by Amazon (who have recently done similar to Skype).

So what is going into the basket of goods? Yoga mats for one thing, as they are used for many forms of home exercise...so I'm told. We have one at home, which our cat Colin likes to lie on, but I can't say I've even been tempted to get my yoga groove on.

Men's sliders, or pool sandals, are also in, along with pulled pork to substitute an oven-ready gammon joint. VR headsets are another baffling addition (to me, at least), with spending on them expected to exceed £520 million by 2029. If you grew up in the 1980s, you might remember the white heat of technology that we enjoyed, in the form of a red plastic Viewmaster. Wow, those were great...as long as you were standing directly under the big light in the sitting room. I wonder if we'll all eventually be wandering around like zombies with our VR headsets on, and ridiculous-looking Airpods in, bumping into each other and barely exchanging a word. I'm sounding overly curmudgeonly now.
 

Mango is added to the fruit selection, which I have nothing sarcastic to say about, as I love it, and am surprised it wasn't already in the popular fruit items. Cushions are also in. The first thing I do when I sit down on a comfy chair is chuck the cushions on the floor. They may look nice, but they do nothing to add to the comfort of a nice armchair.

You may recall that vinyl records returned to the basket of goods last year, and they remain pretty popular, alongside air fryers. Hand sanitiser is no longer on the list. I still remember how difficult it was to find any during those strange times in 2020. Like gold dust.

Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, told the BBC why the basket of goods remains important, saying: "It gives us a crucial economic indicator of what's happening with prices, a data set that helps Bank of England rate setters determine their next steps and a measure used to work out how much benefits, pensions and train tickets should go up by".

Don't talk to me about my water bill, which has just shot up by an eye-watering amount. I even sent them a slightly indignant E-mail about it, even though I realise I might as well have stood in a phone box on a desolate country road and shouted into the void of the broken handset for all the good it will do. Joking aside, for those of us not on super salaries, the price of the weekly shop and utility bills is frightening. I think more politicians need to realise how difficult everyday life is for many of their constituents, rather than fighting like rats in a sack and trying to talk the toughest talk.