Interesting Facts

The Chilcot report into the Iraq war cost £10,375,000.00. It consists of 12-volumes containing 2.6 million words. (The inquiry was launched on 30 July 2009, to cover the period of 2001 to the end of July 2009.  Over 100 witnesses were called. The findings of the report were that British military action was not the last resort, that policy on Iraq was made on the basis of flawed intelligence that was never challenged, and that the overall severity of the threat posed by Iraq, particularly the existence of weapons of mass destruction, was grossly overstated, and presented with a certainty that was not justified.) The whole report can be downloaded here: http://www.iraqinquiry.org.uk/

A thing of the past? According to a survey conducted by Linda McCartney Foods, 12% of Brits are vegetarian. (Each generation sees more people eschewing meat, 25 years ago only 6% of the popluation were vegetarian. The younger generation is more likely to turn to tofu, in the 18 to 30 age group 20% are veggies, and across the country people are eating less red meat, with "meat free Monday" becoming more popular. It seems there's gold in them there carrots, as the UK vegetarian market is worth an estimated £820m a year.) Soure: The Wright Stuff

According to educational charity, the Sutton Trust if you have a private education, you are considerably more likely to get to the top of British public life. (Their research shows that Oxbridge graduates are over represented in top jobs in fields as diverse as the law, politics, medicine, journalism, and even acting. In 2014 the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission reported that 59% of the Cabinet were Oxbridge graduates (compared to the average of less than 1% of the public as a whole). This recent research shows that although only 7% of the population attend independent fee-paying schools, almost three quarters (71%) of top military officers were educated privately, with just 12% having been taught in comprehensive schools. Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust, said: “As well as academic achievement, an independent education tends to develop essential skills such as confidence, articulacy and teamwork, which are vital to career success." Sir Peter, I think y...

The 5th of January is Fat Cat Tuesday in the UK, which is when, according to campaign group the High Pay Center, top bosses in the UK will have earned more money by the end of this day than the average worker will do in a year. (The High Pay Centre estimates that chief executives in the UK, presuming they work a 12-hour day and take few holidays, earn an average hourly pay rate of £1,260 an hour.  Using this rate, they only need 22 hours, which means, assuming they started work on 4th January, they will only need to work until this afternoon, to reach the median full-time employee salary in the UK. They would only need to wake up and switch on the coffee machine to reach my pay rate.) #FatCatTuesday pic.twitter.com/sNlW4p8xZ8 — Left Unity (@LeftUnityUK) January 5, 2016

An  £11,000-a-year private school in London has banned its pupils from watching TV or surfing the internet - even when they are at home. (With a strict no-tech policy, London Acorn School has banned all smartphones, computers, iPads etc., in the hope that the children will learn from the natural world instead. The school, for pupils aged 3 to 18, has also banned television for under-12s, with older pupils being allowed to watch "restricted programmes".  What? No Dr Who?)

Residents in Kensington and Chelsea, London are too posh for toilet paper and so they are using wet wipes instead. (Unfortunately this is putting a strain on London's aging drains, and leading to a £12 million annual bill to unblock the sewers. Eew! Sorry about that one.)

If you ever needed proof that remembering lists of words doesn't mean you can speak the language, here it is. 48-year-old New Zealander, Nigel Richards, is the French-language world Scrabble champion, but he can't speak French. (He is 3 times world Scrabble champion, 5 times US champion, and has won 12 titles in the King’s Cup championship in Bangkok, but became world Champion of Francophone Scrabble, after memorizing all possible words in the official French scrabble dictionary, with two to 10 letters. Throw those vocabulary lists away.)

According to a study by insurance company RIAS, younger workers in the UK take twice as much time off sick as people over 50. (Just a quarter of over-50s took time off sick in the past year, compared to half of those aged between 20 and 29. They are also more likely to fake an illness: 44%  of younger people were found to have faked being ill to avoid coming into work, compared to just 12% of over-50s. It's probably because older workers are more worried about getting another job.)

Over the last 50 years short-sightedness amongst children in the UK has doubled. ( In the 1960s just 10% of British 12 and 13-year-olds had myopia, today that is 23%. Experts are blaming this increase on our increasingly indoor lifestyles and use of computers.   And it's not just happening in the UK, in the US in the 1970s 25% of children were diagnosed myopic, by the year 2000 this had risen to over 40%.  In China The journal Nature reported that around 90% of China's teenage and young adult population are short-sighted, up from 10 to 20% of the total population 60 years ago. One Chinese city is so worried, they are experimenting with transparent classrooms to expose children to more sunlight. How about giving them more time and space to play outside?)

Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada is considering flooding 11km of cycle paths to provide a route for residents to commute through the city on --- wait for it --- ice skates. (With winter temperatures of -12C (9.5F) the paths would soon freeze over and the Freezeway would be born. Organisers say they’ll give the project a try, as early as winter 2016.

A dozen roses in the UK could set you back anything from a whopping £44.99, to a mere 3 quid. Here's a list of the War of the Roses:- Lidl - £3 Asda - £5 Tesco - £5 Morrisons - £5 Sainsbury's - £5 Marks & Spencer - £12 Interflora £44.99  (Shall we call that £45?) Gentlemen, if you do go for the Lidl option, might I suggest you remove the price tag? 12 x Fairtrade® red roses from M&S?  £22.00.

You might think there are only 3 political parties in the UK, but there are 12 different parties represented in the House of Commons. CC 2.0 - From Tony Moorey on Flickr (These are:- Conservative Labour Liberal Democrat DUP SNP Sinn Fein Plaid Cymru SDLP UKIP Alliance Respect Green As we enter an election year, imagine if they all take part in any TV debate.)

On the island of Foula, in the Shetlands, it is Christmas Day today. (Foula, located about sixteen miles from the west mainland of Shetland, is one of Great Britain’s most remote permanently inhabited islands. Way back, in 1752, they remained on the Julian calendar when the rest of the Kingdom of Great Britain adopted the Gregorian calendar. They even adhered to the Julian calendar by keeping 1800 as a leap year, but when they didn't observe a leap year in 1900, they ended up one day ahead of the Julian calendar and 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar. Confused?  You will be. This all means that they observe Christmas Day on 6th January, the day we all take down our decorations for 12th night (epiphany), and they celebrate New Year's Day on 13th January. Well, I guess it keeps Father Christmas busy.  Happy Christmas to the people of Foula. I will join in this evening with a glass of sherry, just to be polite.)

Turku is the official Christmas City of Finland. (The Declaration of Christmas Peace has been taking place there every year, almost uninterrupted since the Middle Ages (records show it was cancelled in 1939 during the Winter War). The declaration takes place at 12 noon in the Old Great Square of Turku, on the day of Christmas Eve. The declaration ceremony begins with the hymn Jumala ompi linnamme (Martin Luther's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott) and continues with the Declaration of Christmas Peace read from a parchment roll in Finnish and Swedish.  It is broadcast on TV and radio, and of course nowadays the internet.  The old laws guarantee everyone Christmas peace from Christmas Eve until the end of Christmastide on St Knut's Day. I wonder if we could extend that.)

We were talking about maternity and paternity / maternal and paternal in today's session, so this little factlet is very fitting. According to a survey carried out by the Family Matters Institute, 12% of fathers in the UK aspire to be like Homer Simpson. A good role-model? (The following "father figures" were most popular:- David Beckham - 21% Jamie Oliver - 14% Homer Simpson - 12% Prince William - 9% David Walliams - 7% Simon Cowell - 5% David Cameron - 4% Wayne Rooney - 1% The typical, modern UK dad was described as a food-loving, health-conscious, house proud family man, but their choices of role models leaves a lot to be desired.  For goodness sake! David Cameron left his 8 year-old daughter in the pub!)

According to the Road Safety Foundation, a 12-mile stretch of the A285 between Chichester and Petworth is UK's most dangerous road. (Seemingly the number of crashes has increased by 16% over the last 5 years. Road safety is a big problem in the UK; in the last five years serious crashes cost of £1.9 billion on motorways, £8.4 billion on primary A-roads and £5.9 billion on non-primary A-roads.)

According to a survey ­carried out by the ­British ­Chiropractic Association, two in three of us Brits have suffered serious neck or back pain by the time we hit 35, and what's worse, a survey Simplyhealth showed that 84% of 18-24 year olds admit to having suffered back pain in the last 12 months. (The biggest culprits? Computers, tablets and smartphones. So, sit up straight - stretch, and now, if you can, go for a walk for a couple of minutes.)

In a survey conducted by Mothercare, British children between the ages of 2 and 12 were asked what was most important in a job, and 34% said that ‘having fun’ and ‘helping others’ was more important than being rich or famous. (Unfortunately that means 66% didn't think that having fun and helping others was more important than being rich or famous.)

In an Internet poll of 4,000 children aged four to 12 by a children's Spanish television channel, Jetix, Spanish children think Santa Claus is "too fat". (The poll revealed that 53% of them think Father Christmas is "too fat," and 59% believe he should eat better to lose weight, or go to the gym (19%.) Many also think that his means of transport is outdated, as a sleigh is too slow for delivering presents. (It's a magic sleigh you numskulls.)

One-day strikes now account for 55% of industrial stoppages in the UK. (According to the Office for National Statistics, in 2005 and 2006, 55% of all stoppages lasted for just a single day. This was up from 49% in 2001. In 1988, the figure was 42%. In 1977, only 17% of stoppages lasted for a single day, while 18.5% lasted 12 days or more.)