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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favorite tales on this weekly publication.
Typically, 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 in all our favorite UK authorities businesses.
The Workplace for Nationwide Statistics (for it’s they) have come by means of bigly with a response to our latest request for:
any present ONS steering relating to the precise sort of things the worth observers employed by the ONS (be they ONS workers 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 adjustments (aka inflation). Nevertheless, they’re not at all times tremendous clear about what these gadgets are, even when it’s really, really ambiguous and the outcomes are weird.
You’ll be able to learn the response and (unwieldy) doc in full 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 redacted particular person enterprise names from the discharge, as companies collaborate with us below the expectation that their data is not going to be shared.
. . . and that . . .
Particular product names have additionally been redacted below Part 29(1)(a) of FOIA. This exemption applies when the disclosure of specific data would doubtless prejudice the financial pursuits of the UK. Disclosure of the particular 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 adjustments in worth of different comparable non-basket merchandise.
. . . to which our response is: yeah, positive, OK.
So what can we discover out? Nicely, given our unusual 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:
Worth solely the animal, don’t embrace cage or any equipment
We do nonetheless have questions. The place have the ONS’s brokers been persistently discovering £60 rabbits? They should be posh rabbits, proper?
The doc has lots extra oddities (together with some attention-grabbing stuff about gig price collection dates, which we are going to DEFINITELY be returning to), together with stipulations that:
— cream crackers “Should state ‘Cream Crackers’ on pack”
— a person meat pie should be chilly
— inflation-suitable onions should be brown
— raisins are a banned dry fruit
— “No mini pizzas or pizza slices”
— a worth carpet should nonetheless comprise pure fibres, we’re not animals folks ffs
— a person’s informal sleeve high should NOT absolutely open on the entrance
— applicable wall hanging mirrors decisions are ordained solely by dimension, which is why last March the ONS took in a capacious price range for this item of £1.99 —£3,695
— hair sort should 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 mystery of the £39 orange
