I was actually abroad on holiday when I spotted the headline in an English newspaper - 'NS&I withdraws index-linked savings certificates' - and it certainly had me choking on my cafe macchiato that morning, I can tell you! That's not the half of it though: tax-free fixed-interest savings certificates are also for the chop and rates on NS&I's Direct Saver and Income bonds are being reduced by 0.25% - and all this at a time when Bank of England base rate remains unchanged at 0.5%.