Alex Cann's Weekly Blog from Thursday, March 19th, 2026

We live in sobering times. Just switch on the news, and it's a bleak picture. I'd have thought world events might make more people reach for the hard stuff, but it seems sobriety is extending to the 'basket of goods' used to work out inflation. For the first time, alcohol-free beer has been added to a list used by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), joining around 760 items that are closely monitored for price fluctuations.