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Hello and welcome to More or Less, your weekly guide to the numbers all around us in

the news and in life. This week we fact check Springwatch, never let it be said that we

don't take on the sacred cows. The government has been asking people what they think about

imperial measures, but are they asking somewhat leading questions or asking highly leading

questions. But first, less than 48 hours into the job, the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss,

set out her government's response to the energy crisis in the House of Commons, capping

the soaring price of electricity and gas. It was widely reported as being a big policy

intervention, but with the death of Queen Elizabeth II, there's been little space in the

newspapers to examine just how big. And the answer is, huge, astonishingly huge. For moments

like this, we installed a special red phone in the More or Less offices that go straight

to the headquarters of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. In this week, we have its director

Paul Johnson on the other end of the line. I started by asking him what exactly it was

that the government had announced. Well, the households for probably two years, but certainly

one year, they're looking at holding the average price that a household pays for their

energy at about £2,500 a year. They're also for a shorter period, looking at holding

the price that businesses pay, but there's going to be a review in the meantime and they're

going to come back with more clarity about the longer term policy for business energy

use. So just holding with households for a moment, then, to £2,500 a year for the average

bill, that's less than it would have been more than it was not long ago. Yes, it's about

twice what it was a year ago, a bit more than twice what it's been in real inflation

adjusted terms for a very long time. Actually, energy bills have been remarkably constant

...