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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly e-newsletter.
Generally, good issues are available small cages. Or in 70-page paperwork. Or if you’re in an aeroplane over the ocean.
FT Alphaville was delighted to land at Washington Dulles airport to discover a freedom of knowledge response has landed in our inbox from one among our favorite UK authorities companies.
The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (for it’s they) have come via bigly with a response to our current request for:
any present ONS steerage relating to the precise kind of things the worth observers employed by the ONS (be they ONS employees or third-party brokers) are being requested to look at.
If that is all completely new to you: the ONS and its brokers observe costs for a “basket” of consultant gadgets in an try to watch worth modifications (aka inflation). Nonetheless, they’re not at all times tremendous clear about what these gadgets are, even when it’s actually, actually ambiguous and the outcomes are bizarre.
You’ll be able to learn the response and (unwieldy) doc in full right here.
As a result of civil servants are merciless, the doc’s formatting is horrible, half of its textual content isn’t precise textual content, and there are redactions. 🙃 However there’s some attention-grabbing stuff right here!
The ONS says . . .
We’ve got redacted particular person enterprise names from the discharge, as companies collaborate with us beneath the expectation that their info won’t be shared.
. . . and that . . .
Particular product names have additionally been redacted beneath Part 29(1)(a) of FOIA. This exemption applies when the disclosure of explicit info would probably prejudice the financial pursuits of the UK. Disclosure of the precise product names that do and don’t contribute to the CPI might allow main retailers to affect the CPI by altering the worth of the in-basket product, and maybe offset it with modifications in worth of different related non-basket merchandise.
. . . to which our response is: yeah, positive, OK.
So what can we discover out? Nicely, given our uncommon tastes, our first response was to seek for the phrase “mammal”.
And we discovered success!
We’re informed, moreover, that when observing small caged mammal costs, one should:
Value solely the animal, don’t embody cage or any equipment
We do nonetheless have questions. The place have the ONS’s brokers been constantly discovering £60 rabbits? They have to be posh rabbits, proper?
The doc has lots extra oddities (together with some attention-grabbing stuff about gig worth assortment dates, which we are going to DEFINITELY be returning to), together with stipulations that:
— cream crackers “Must state ‘Cream Crackers’ on pack”
— a person meat pie have to be chilly
— inflation-suitable onions have to be brown
— raisins are a banned dry fruit
— “No mini pizzas or pizza slices”
— a worth carpet should nonetheless include pure fibres, we’re not animals folks ffs
— a person’s informal sleeve prime should NOT absolutely open on the entrance
— applicable wall hanging mirrors selections are ordained solely by dimension, which is why final March the ONS took in a capacious worth vary for this merchandise of £1.99 —£3,695
— hair kind have to be tracked when recording conditioner inflation
Tell us within the remark part if you happen to spot different delights. We’ll attempt to make a tidier model of the ONS’s desk quickly, and get to protesting about these redactions.
Additional studying:
— small caged mammal
— small caged mammal infinity
— The thriller of the £39 orange
