It’s the most humble of chocolate bars and for years has been informally used to measure of the cost of living.
And now the Cadbury’s Freddo has spawned a role during the setting of Bury Council’s budget for 2022/23.
During a debate of full council setting council tax last week a bar of the delicious milk chocolate cartoon frog was bizarrely held up by council leader Eamonn O’Brien to illustrate a political point.
Coun O’Brien was countering a proposed Conservative amendment to the Labour-run council’s budget, which included a three per cent rise in council tax bills for residents.
The Conservatives amendment, which proposed a lower tax rise of two per cent, also included a 10 per cent decrease in Bury Market rents and promises to make the filling of potholes a top priority.
Coun O’Brien used the Freddo analogy saying the alternative proposals wouldn’t be enough to buy a bar a week for households.
He said: “We’ve heard a lot from the other side about how they are the champions of low tax and they wrestle at night over putting up council tax.
“Let’s look at this as a contrast to what we’re proposing and how it would impact our residents.
“If you break down the difference between ours and their proposals for a typical Band A property it would save them 3p a day – and that’s going to revolutionise lives in Bury is it?
“21p a week, it doesn’t even buy you a Freddo any more.”
Around a minute later, as he continued his speech, Coun O’Brien was handed a Freddo bar by another Labour member which he flourished above his head to laughter from his own side, saying: ‘That’s what you’ll get from the Tories, not even that, once a week.”
The Conservative amended budget was voted down by the council with Labour’s budget gaining approval.
For many years the price of Freddo has been playfully used by successive generations to measure the cost of living and inflation.
When the frog shaped bar was re-launched by Cadbury’s in the 1990s it retailed at 10p and remained stubbornly at that price until 2005.
Since then the price has steadily increased with much light hearted debate on social media every time the cost goes up.
Freddo bars are currently for sale on the Sainsbury’s website for 25p per bar.
