£1.5 billion flushed down the toilet

derrick

I also found this on wikipedia:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billion
The following is from here: http://www.answers.com/topic/billion
The noun billion has 2 meanings:
Meaning #1: (in Britain) the number that is represented as a one followed by 12 zeros
Synonyms: one million million, 1000000000000
Meaning #2: (in the United States) the number that is represented as a one followed by 9 zeros
Synonyms: one thousand million, 1000000000
The adjective billion has one meaning:
Meaning #1: (U.S.) denoting a quantity consisting of one thousand million items or units; (Britain) denoting a quantity consisting of one million million items or units


So lets stay British not Yanky

Milarky

But as the article points out the English-speaking nations have now (long since) adopted the 'shortscale' nomenclature for large numbers (including the 'thousand million') for official use (Unavoidable when dealing with international finance etc). Yes, I would prefer if we referred to 'thousands of millions' instead of 'billions' of pounds - but not because the former is incorrect so much as it does not lend sufficient weight to these numbers. Politicians, as we have noticed slip into discussing 'billions' rather easily and it is their interests (and therefore not in our interests) to gloss over the magnitude of these numbers.

moonrakerz

Allan Leighton was on television yesterday saying that for every pound the government "invested" in the Post Office they would get five back.

If one of his employees delivered a letter to his house from a finance company, saying they could do the same - do you think he would "invest" HIS own money in that company !?!?!?!?!

PS: The Post Office is paying the rest of us 4.75% in its latest account.