Should a two-bedroom flat worth £2m be called a ‘mansion’?

Many mansions

Does a two-bedroom flat worth £2 million deserve to be called a ‘mansion’?

— The word ‘mansion’ is borrowed from the old French mansion, which means any old house. And so it was in English until the 18th century. It also had associations with a home lived in by a priest.

— The first instance of ‘mansion’ being used specifically for a grand home was in 1512, according to the OED. In 1865, the word was being applied to lodging houses in Brighton, while the Westminster Gazette in 1893 defined it as a house with a back staircase. By 1901 blocks of flats in London were being called ‘mansion blocks’.

Juries out

David Lammy proposed to do away with jury trials for most court cases. What is the chance of being called up for jury service?

— 197,007 people in England and Wales were called up for jury service in 2023, according to HM Courts and Tribunals Service. The eligible population of 18- to 75-year-olds is approximately 44m. Assuming the process is entirely random, the chance of being called up in 2023 was 0.45 – 4.5%. By implication, the chance of not being called up was 0.95 – 95.5%. The chance of avoiding jury service for all 53 of the years in which a person is eligible is 0.72 – or 7.2%.

Profits and losses

How profitable were UK companies in 2024?

— For non-financial companies the average rate of return on capital was 10.3% (unchanged from 2023). For services businesses it was 15.2% (unchanged since 2023). For manufacturers it was 11.7% (up from 11.3% in 2023). For UK continental shelf companies (i.e. oil and gas sector) it was -2.6% (down from -2% in 2023).

Source: Office for National Statistics

Staying power

How many people stay in Airbnbs?

— Between July 2024 and June 2025 93.8m guest-nights were spent in short lets booked through Airbnb, Booking.com or Expedia – a rise of 10% on the year before. The average stay was 3.3 nights and the average size of a party was 2.9. Bookings increased by 12.4% in Wales, 10.8% in England, 10.2% in N. Ireland and 5.5% in Scotland. Bookings rose just about everywhere except Edinburgh, where they fell by 1.4%. The biggest rise (21.2%) was in Lincolnshire. In an urban setting the biggest rise was in Westminster (16.7%). Cornwall saw the biggest variation, with 803,920 guest-nights in August and 78,700 in January.