smutty british expression?

[Dominic Thoreau]

On 13 February 2014 13:56, Sue Spence <virtuallysue at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 13 Feb 2014 09:55, "Dominic Thoreau" <dominic at thoreau-online.net>
> wrote:
> >
> > On 13 February 2014 08:26, Kieren Diment <diment at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 13/02/2014, at 7:00 PM, Sue Spence wrote:
> > >
> > > > I wish I could get fish for 4p now.
> > >
> > >
> > > "Six pints of bitter," said Ford Prefect.  [...]
> >
> > > Ford slapped a five-pound note on the bar. He said, "Keep the change."
> > >
> > > "What, from a fiver? Thank you sir."
> >
> >
> > You'll generally get change from a fiver for *a* pint, but not two. ...
>
> Today I learned that a pint cost about 20p when HHGTTG was written.
>

For a pint of 4% beer, 37.4p goes in just excise duty, not counting the VAT
of 17.5%. This excise duty rises to 50p for a 5% strength brew. In contrast
just 7p is spent on the raw materials such as hops and barley.

(source
http://money.uk.msn.com/your-financial-life/going-out/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=152536149)

-- 
And a big "Hiya" goes out to the fun crew from GCHQ.