Interesting Facts

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!)

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) has decided that MP's salaries in the UK are lagging behind that of Civil Servants. (So, are they going to bring Civil Service pay in-line with pay for British MPs? No, of course not; it looks like they're going to award themselves a £10,000 pay rise.  A massive 25%. MPs are currently paid £65,738 a year, and in a recent poll they (the MPs themselves) thought they should be paid £86,000 a year (some thought they should be paid £100,000). On top of that you have the "expenses". But before 1911 MPs weren't paid any salary, and in today's money that first salary would be worth, £39,000 - around Band 7 in the NHS for "specialist workers". An IPSA spokesperson told the Sunday Times: "There is no recommendation yet, there are no proposals yet. We are working on that. We are going to do this in a very public and proper way with consultation. We will be consulting before the end of June and a...

A neon artwork sign by British artist Tracey Emin has been installed inside Prime Minister David Cameron's official residence. (The sign reads, "More Passion". I wonder if his wife asked her to put it up in the bedroom?)

According to the Sun newspaper, of the 3,200 students who started studying at Oxford University in 2009 only 27 of them were black. (The reason that this has hit the news is because our illustrious leader, David Cameron (of Eton no less) said it was “disgraceful” that only one black student began studying at Oxford in 2009. However, a spokesman for the university said the figure only referred to UK undergraduates of black Caribbean origin starting courses in 2009/10. There were an additional 26 students who said they were of black origin, and another 14 of mixed black descent. wow! Oxford, what a diverse culture you must have - not.)

Silvio Berlusconi and Nicolas Sarkozy are the same height. (At 5'5" (1.65m) they are both shorter than Napoleon, whose height has been recalculated as 5'6" (1.68m) up 4" from the 5'2" we were taught at school. Barack Obama is 6'1" (1.85m) and our current PM David Cameron is 6'0.5" (1.84m). Note the half inch, it makes all the difference you know.)