Interesting Facts

At least £122 billion worth of property in England and Wales is owned by companies registered offshore. (The problem is that some of the world's most notorious criminals are buying Britain's luxury homes to launder crooked cash, and at the same time pushing up the price of property. Especially in the area of London. It all came to light in July 2015, when it emerged that the ownership of 221b Baker Street, home to the fictional super-sleuth Sherlock Holmes, was linked to a brutal former secret police chief accused of murder and money-laundering. What would Mrs Hudson say?) British Houses Source

According to the ONS (Office for National Statistics) there are 1.4m jobs in the UK offering zero hour contracts. (Companies are, not surprisingly, attracted to the idea that they can hire staff without guaranteeing a minimum number of paid hours.   These " con tracts" (emphasis on "con" deliberate), often tie a worker to a single firm, but do not guarantee any employment from week to week.)

This is more an interesting abbreviation, but I hope you will forgive me.  BYO is an abbreviation that's been in use for some time, usually seen in restaurants, it stands for 'Bring Your Own', and it usually applies to wine or alcoholic drinks. BYOD means Bring Your Own Device. (Seemingly more and more companies are asking employees to provide their own electronic devices, at their own cost. This means employees have the freedom to use a device that they prefer over one issued by their employer and employers don't carry the burden of providing computers, smart phones and other mobile devices. Of course I have no choice but to BMOD.)

There are over 26 energy companies in the UK. (According to Which , the average saving when switching gas and electricity is £217, but there are over 400 tariffs to choose from.) The energy companies I could find are:- Airtricity Atlantic British Gas Co-operative Energy Ebico Ecotricity EDF Eon First Utility Good Energy Green Energy UK iSupply Energy LoCO2 M&S Energy Npower Ovo Energy Power NI Sainsbury's Energy Scottish Hydro Scottish Power Southern Electric Spark Energy SSE Swalec Utilita Utility Warehouse

The UK is undergoing its worst drought since 1976. (Ridiculously, every day, 3.4bn litres of water leaks from the system. This is almost a quarter of the entire supply. And to add insult to injury, the water companies (who make huge profits every year) have been told they don't need to reduce this until 2015. Since the privatisation of the water industry in 1989, leakage reduction targets were set for the 21 water companies, but leaks have only been reduced across England and Wales by 5% over the past 13 years. Why? Well probably because, of the £2bn in pre-tax profits from 2010 - 2011, they paid out £1.5bn in dividends to shareholders. Money that could have been spent on preserving one of our most precious resources. So, never mind Wiki leaks, what about Water leaks?)