I looked to see if I could book a room to find out when the new Abingdon (A34) Premier Inn would open. The earliest date I could book was October 6th, and the price was very reasonable. However, the price increased a lot on October 7th.

The Russia-Ukraine war significantly impacted petrol and diesel prices in the UK. In the immediate aftermath of the Russian invasion, prices rose rapidly due to concerns about the global oil supply, peaking in July 2022. They came close to £2 a litre and have since come down.

Supermarkets across the UK cut diesel prices in July 2023, making diesel cheaper than petrol at supermarkets for the first time in a decade.

30 years ago, in 1986, the £8m Abingdon marina was beginning to take shape. According to the Herald, water was gushing into the marina basin off Wilsham Road, in preparation for the first phase of up-market homes on the seven-acre site.

If I remember rightly the marina did not all get built in one go. A second phase was delayed after the boom of house prices in the 1980s was followed by a slump in the 1990s as interest rates went up dramatically to curb inflation. Base rate went from 7.5% in May 1988 to 15% in Oct 1989.

Rates have been at 0.5% since 2009, something we could never have imagined back in those days of inflation.

Vince Cable was at Our Lady’s Abingdon, as part of the school’s annual Reading Festival, to talk about his new book.

He said that the last five years in government, as Business Secretary, has been some of the most challenging he had ever experienced. Reading novels during those times helped keep him sane, and he was a great advocate of reading, and bookshops.

Vince came to talk about his new book “After the Storm”, a major update on his earlier book “The Storm”.

He said that sometimes one had to resort to metaphors to explain complicated matters, and a better metaphor for the storm that engulfed us all in 2008, with the near banking collapse, might have been “Heart Attack”. In 2015 the patient is still on life support, with historically low interest rates, and nobody dares take it off.

After talking through the key points in his book, he took questions, and explained economics in a way we could all understand – a very absorbing and interesting evening.

The Principal of Our Lady’s, Mr Stephen Oliver, introduced the evening and thanked Vince Cable at the end.

Mark from Mostly Books fielded questions, and Nikki from Mostly Books was on hand with a wonderful display of “After the Storm” books that people could buy and have signed afterwards.

Petrol prices at the pump in Abingdon are 113.9p per litre at BP in the Vineyard, 112.9p at Esso, and 111.9p at Tesco – the last time I looked.

Prices are much the same when I drive up the A34, but heading through Bicester I see 107.9p and 106.9p per litre advertised. Bicester looks the nearest place to Poundland for petrol that I have seen …

In the news over the last 24 hours … “The price of Brent crude oil has fallen below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2009.” and “The eurozone fell into deflation for the first time in more than five years” on the back of falling oil prices.

Petrol Prices at the Pump look about the same in 2015 as they did in 2009 – but they looked expensive then.