Star comment: We're all sharing in the pain of inflation

The pain begins. And as the year unfolds, it is only going to intensify.

Inflation is now running at 5.5 per cent, which is its highest level for 30 years – many Britons were not even born when it was last as bad as this. According to the forecasts, it will soon climb to above seven per cent.

The figures do not tell the whole story. This suddenly soaring inflation has come on top of a long period of low inflation.

For years that has been the norm and naturally consumers have become used to it and have managed their economic affairs accordingly. Now inflation has taken off vertically. This is a shock, and everybody is going to have to hold on tight.

If they have taken on financial commitments which took advantage of the previous low levels of inflation there is going to be a gaping black hole in household finances.

The prices of some things are going up faster than others, but the pain is being widely felt, whether in the supermarkets or on the filling station forecourts.

Amid it all, the Chancellor is about to hit people with a rise in their National Insurance rate, and the price cap protecting consumers from the full effect of energy price rises is going up by nearly £700.

Everybody has been looking forward to the lifting of Covid restrictions but that piece of positive news is being eclipsed by these dark economic clouds which will make 2022 a year of hardship and struggle for many.

In the post-pandemic period, the economic situation facing ordinary people is going to be the big political issue for the Government to contend with and worry about, because these are the bad times that the electorate will remember at general election time.

Drinking wine is good for you. Drinking wine is bad for you. Drinking wine makes no difference one way or the other.

One of those statements may be right, or may be right in some circumstances and wrong in others.

There is a lot of advice out there, and sometimes it seems conflicting.

Nevertheless, you may be surprised to learn that, according to a group called the Alcohol Health Alliance, your wine may be packed with sugar.

It says labelling of wines to give drinkers such information is woefully inadequate.

It is also calling for prominent health warnings to be placed on the bottles.

All very well intended.

But as you relax and sip from your glass after a hard day at work, or whatever you have been doing, you may not actually care about such matters.

You just like wine.