Sir: Spectator (Notebook'. 6 March) berates the new ip as
an irritating and useless little tiddler. There speaks the man! I trust that he will not seek to propagate this view in high places. Irritating the coin may be, but useless—no. It is its cumulative value that is import- ant, as any housewife could tell him. A weekly milk bill, before deci- malisation--eight pints at Is Id— was 8s 8d; at 5p it now costs the equivalent of 8s 10d; if there were no p it would be 6p and cost 9s 7d. Spectator should take a walk round a large self-service store. He would be surprised at the large number of smaller items of grocer- ies whose prices include the odd ip. If all these were 'upped' to the next whole penny (as they would be in the absence of a ip) the week's shopping would cost several. shil- lings more. And that on top of the continuing general rise in prices.
All right for some. But not all. In fact if anybody wants to see 'yet another round of inflated wage de- mands, withdrawal of the •jp would be as good a way as any to start It.
(Miss) B. M. Bartholomew 23 Gladwell Road, Bromley, Kent
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