Interesting Facts

18th November 1307 - Famed marksman William Tell put an apple on his son's head and shot it off.  (Call Social Services) 1928 - Mickey Mouse appeared in Steamboat Willie, his first cartoon to be distributed. 2004 - Britain outlawed fox hunting in England and Wales.

In the 17th century, in Boston USA, the Puritan PTB banned Christmas for over two decades: from 1659 until 1681. (It was illegal to observe Christmas by taking the day off from work, feasting or celebrating in any other way, and anyone caught doing so was fined five shillings, which was a lot of money back then. The ban was finally lifted in 1681, but many Puritans continued to rally against the holiday, some would even march through the streets on Christmas Eve shouting, "No Christmas! No Christmas!"   In 1870, Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to declare Christmas a national holiday, but even then some schools stayed open on Christmas day until as late as 1870, with harsh punishments for any children who bunked off. I knew that Cromwell banned Christmas in the UK in the 1640s, but seemingly 8 countries have done so, and not just in the past. It is currently banned in 3 other countries, and "discouraged" in several others.  Suffice to say I...

For everyone who was in today's Skype session.  Who does Greece owe money to? In Euros Germany - 68.2bn France - 43.8bn Italy - 38.4bn Spain - 25bn IMF - 21.4bn  (International Monetary Fund) ECB 18.1bn  (European Central Bank) The Netherlands 13.4bn The US - 11.3bn The UK 10.8bn Belgium 7.5bn Austria - 5.9bn Finland 3.7bn (I told you everyone needs to start learning big numbers nowadays.)

7.5 million UK citizens who are eligible to vote are not yet registered for this year's (2015) General Election. (Changes to the voting system mean that many people are no longer on the electoral roll. This means that when they troll up to the polling station on May 7th, they will be turned away. They have till midnight tonight to get their skates on. It has to be said though; in the last General Election in 2010, out of 47 million voters, only 29.6 million bothered. Democracy in action? More like "Democracy inaction".)

According to Alzheimers Research UK, the estimated cost of caring for people with dementia in 2014 will be £23.6 billion. (The number or people in the UK aged 60+ who will be living with dementia is projected to double over the next 25 years and to reach 2 million by 2050, which will cost an estimated £59.4 billion. We can only hope current research will advance enough to prevent this silent plague.)

A survey by the media regulator Ofcom has found that only 7% of people in the UK trust the tabloid press to report the news truthfully. (The same report found that radio is the most trusted source of news in the UK, beating both TV and the internet. 66% of people polled said they trusted radio news most, 58% chose internet news, 54% said television. 34% said newspapers in general, but only 7% tabloid newspapers. The only problem I have with this is the Sun is still the most widely sold newspaper in the UK. I wonder why?) !Note - The tabloid newspaper format is particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where its page dimensions are roughly 430 × 280 mm (16.9 in × 11.0 in. They are often called "red tops" because they have a red masthead, and the usual ingredients are an emphasis on entertainment news, celebrities, gossip, sports and political scandals. The red tops include The Sun, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star, along with various local and regional newspapers....

British homes are, on average, 4°C warmer, than they were 50 years ago. (The fact is that only 7% of UK homes are without central heating and the average temperature in a home is 22°C, compared with 18°C in the 1950s.  This has completely changed the way people in the UK live.  Gone are the cosy little rooms, that were easy to keep warm, and the open plan living / dining / kitchen areas are in.  Of course with the increase in fuel prices, we may be rebuilding all those partition walls pretty soon.)

Opium poppies are grown in Hampshire, in the south of England. (The diamorphine - equivalent to heroin - created is then used for treating UK addicts and it is used in palliative care. But don't think you can simply 'grow your own', it can only be done under licence and there are strict controls on access to fields. In fact, the mere possession of opium poppies is a crime in the UK.)

According to a CBI report UK workers took an average of six and a half days off sick in 2009. (This was the lowest number of days since the CBI survey began in 1987, but at 180 million sick days it still cost the economy £16.8bn.)

The Met Office in the UK has issued its first heatwave alert. (It's the first time they have released a heat warning since the system was introduced a couple of years ago. Basically, it's to let frightened Brits know what that bright thing in the sky is.)

According to an article in The Guardian the 10 most stolen books in the UK are:- The London A-Z Lonely Planet Europe Lenny McLean: The Guv'nor Tintin and Asterix Harry Potter Abbie Hoffman: Steal This Book Spider-man Yolanda Celbridge: The Taming of Trudi Wall and Piece by Banksy Moleskin Diaries

According to the Tax Payers Alliance, in the fiscal year 2007/2008 13 out of 20 UK Government Departments spent over £18.5 million in flights. (£10.6 million went on business and first class flights. But, when you include quangos and other bodies,the total bill for public sector flights was almost £70 million. I've never even been in first class, or business class, which is probably because so much of my income goes on taxes to pay for this.)

The population of Britain is expected to pass 70 million by 2028. (It's currently only 61 million.)

The number of young people aged between 16 and 24 who are not in employment, education or training has risen by 94,000. (According to the Prince's Trust, NEETs cost tax payers in the UK over £20 million per week in Job Seeker’s Allowance, but the loss of productivity to the UK economy is over £70 million per week. I don't like to think of humans as being "productive units", but I do know if I didn't work, or do "something", I'd be bored out of my skull.)

According to David Cameron, the Tory leader, every child born in Britain starts life owing £17,000. (Seemingly this is the result of record borrowing under Labour. How accurate the figures are, I couldn't say. It's all part of a poster campaign, the poster reads: "Dad's nose, Mum's eyes, Gordon Brown's debt." Which is quite clever for the Tories.)

According to recently released figures, beer sales in the UK have sunk to the lowest level in since the Great Depression of the 1930s. (Maybe it will also reduce the size of beer bellies to their lowest girth since the Great Expansion of the 1990s.)

The possessive apostrophe is the punctuation mark that causes people in the UK the most problems. (According to a test conducted by SpinVox , nearly half of UK adults tested were unable to use it properly. The problems people have with apostrophes arise from the hopeless state of English punctuation and spelling," Professor Christopher Mulvey from the Museum of the English Language at Winchester University, told the Telegraph.)

The intellect of even the brainiest 14-year-olds in the UK has deteriorated dramatically since 1976. (This is despite an increase in the number of pupils achieving top grades in exams. Of course, being a '76er, I'm not at all surprised.)

According to government figures, a child under 10 is admitted to hospital due to alcohol problems every 3 days in England. (It's not that surprising when you realise that some supermarkets offer beer at 54p a pint, and a 750ml bottle of branded water, sells for the equivalent of 57p a pint.)

In the UK, the Royal Family costs the equivalent of 66p per person. (According to Buckingham Palace accounts the Treasury contributed the equivalent of 66p per person to help maintain the monarchy. I think they're worth it purely for the entertainment factor.)