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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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pound in your pocket
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A useful phrase which became current after a much criticized broadcast by Harold Wilson in 1967, on the devaluation of sterling, in which he assured the public that 'the pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank' had not been devalued – true only until the owner tried to spend it on imported goods.
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The relative value of the pound in your pocket at different periods is a subject of great interest but of even greater inexactitude, because the cost of goods in relation to each other is always changing. Basic commodities tend to go up in price, while manufactured products come down; an early black-and-white TV set cost a great many more pints of beer or loaves of bread than its colour equivalent today, and in the 1950s a ball-point pen was a suitable coming-of-age present.
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