A bird in the hand is no longer worth two in the bush as The Office of National Statistics are to remove popular proverbs from the CPI calculation.
"Far too long the UK has clung onto popular, but flawed proverbs, which have been artifically skewing the figures, they either need updating or removing from the formula" explained Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher.
George Osbourne announced the decision to remove them after no consultation on the grounds it saved spending time and effort on a review. First for the axe are;
A stitch in time saves nine.
All that glitters is not gold.
Time is money.
Money doesn't grow on trees.
Penny wise, pound foolish.
EU directives have already removed "Give someone an inch and they will take a mile." and "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."