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Comment by droidist2 | Hacker News Reader

So pubs weren't insanely expensive back then?

Seemingly not, from a hasty look for data. [1] shows the price of a pint of lager across 1973 - 2017 increasing from 17p to 358p while the Bank of England calculator [2] shows an increase in line with inflation would have been 138p.

Of course pure inflation doesn't directly match changes in consumer spending ability, but crudely it suggests pub beer has become relatively more than twice as expensive, possibly because of tax increases (as with tobacco the govt can increase revenue and call it a health-improvement measure)

[1] https://barclayperkins.blogspot.com/2018/01/average-uk-draug... [2] https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/in...

In the Hitchiker's guide to the galaxy, circa 1978, six pints of beer would have costed around 2 pounds, and for some reasons this dialog always stuck with me:

https://boakandbailey.com/2014/04/six-pints-for-less-than-a-...

Now I'm depressed in two ways: firstly I didn't instantly recognise the reference (getting old...) and secondly, last time I was in London the bartender would have replied "From a fiver? That doesn't cover the first pint!" (getting old...)

When we did a family vacation in the UK in ... ~1997-1998 or so, a pint was a 2 pounds, everywhere we went. (Wales, Scotland, England; mostly rural). Could have been an "obviously not from here price" or something; I didn't see locals getting charged any less or at least I don't remember it.

Correct.

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