Here is an illustration taken from 1979 showing inflation for that decade.   We think we have it bad but it was much worse back then.   

Britain was brought to its knees by the unions.  Those who benefited most were workers backed by powerful unions, who forced the government into agreeing to pay rises. 

The before tax purchasing power of miners rose 146 per cent between 1970 and 1979 - whilst millions of other Britons suffered. 

The equivalent for bus drivers was a 144 per cent in crease, whilst railway workers benefited from a 142 per cent rise. 

In 1975, the inflation level reached beyond a staggering 25 per cent and by the end of the decade, interest rates - which were then set by ministers rather than the Bank of England - had risen to 17 per cent.

Then, the inflation crisis had been caused by workers' wages rising faster than the UK economy was growing thanks to militant trade unions - and at the same time the price of oil soared as Arab nations constricted supplies over the West's backing for Israel in the Yom Kippur War.

The then Prime Minister Edward Heath had to declare a three-day week, as strikes by coal miners led to a drastic shortage of energy.

Nearly all businesses had to limit their electricity use to three days a week and were banned from operating for long hours on those days.

In the 1980s Margaret Thatcher's decision to raise interest rates came at the cost of pushing the UK into recession.

In 1981, inflation reached the equivalent by today's standards of nearly 18 per cent.

 The following year, unemployment rose above three million for the first time since the 1930s, meaning one in eight people were out of work.

Shoppers were also suffering after a decade of rising food prices, with a basket of goods going from £9.40 in 1972 to £35 ten years later.

The decision to raise interest rates - hiking interest rates to an excruciating 17 per cent - saw inflation plummet to below five per cent in the mid-1980s, but did come at the cost of pushing unemployment beyond four million.

In the 1980s The basic rate of income tax was 30 per cent, 10 percentage points higher than where it is now, while the standard rate of VAT was 15 per cent, five points lower than the current rate.

The unemployment hit hardest in Northern Ireland, where one in five people were out of work in the early 1980s.

However, the industrial areas of northern England and Scotland also suffered.

In 1982, the year of the 9.1 per cent inflation figure, NHS staff went on strike over pay in September. With nurses campaigning for a 12 per cent pay rise, the three-day strike shook the health service.

Three months earlier, Welsh miners in South Wales downed tools in support of health service workers. In total, around 24,000 miners stopped working, with thousands marching through Cardiff.