The trend of inflation in the UK looks very different when different measures or indices are used, to the extent that change in "the" inflation rate may reflect not recent events but those of a year ago -- or as one commentator remarked like a driver judging his current speed by observing that he has travelled 50 miles in the past hour. The period over which inflation is measured may distort "official" figures by more than 100%, depending on whether it is a 12-moth (or year-on-year) rate, or a month-on- month change expressed at an annual rate, or a three-month moving average, or a "smoothed" rate, or some other.