>> Because he doesn't realise he is using the same billions as America (as 
>> have the rest of the UK for a few decades now).
>
> More exactly, I didn't realise that that is how Wolfram Alpha would 
> interpret it.

Why not?  As UK and USA both use 1 billion = 1e9, it makes perfect sense for 
an English website to use that.

> I always assumed that 1 billion = 1 million million.

You assumed incorrectly.  Whenever you see "billion" mentioned in the UK it 
means 1e9.  For example in this news article from BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8686822.stm

The "59bn euro" means 59e9 euro.  Ditto for all other places "bn" or 
"billion" is mentioned.  The universe is also 13.7 bn years old, that means 
13.7e9 years old.  Note in some languages/countries they have two separate 
words for 10e9 and 10e12, so there is no such confusion.

> The solution, of course, is to simply never use the word "billion". Then 
> there can be no ambiguity.

Or just be aware that in some places (but not UK or USA) "billion" (or a 
word sounding like it) might have the alternative meaning.

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