Barometer | 17 April 2019

Embassy endurance

Julian Assange was thrown out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London, seven years after seeking sanctuary from extradition proceedings. But there are people who have hidden longer in embassies:
— Jozsef Mindszenty, a Hungarian cardinal, spent 15 years in asylum in the US embassy in Budapest. He had served eight years in jail for opposing the communist regime but was freed during the Hungarian uprising in 1956. In 1971, he was allowed to leave Hungary to live in exile in Austria.
— Berhanu Bayeh, Ethiopian foreign minister between 1986 and 1989, has been sheltering in the Italian embassy in Addis Ababa since 1991, when his government was overthrown by the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front.

The rent gap

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The government announced plans to give tenants in the private rental sector more security. How do private tenants measure up compared with social housing tenants?

	SOCIAL / PRIVATE
Lived in property less than a year	8.3% / 25.4%
Lived in property more than five years	62.7% / 25.1%
In full-time work	29.5% / 62.9%
Retired	27.2% / 8.6%
Unemployed	7.3% / 3.6%
Living with children	33.3% / 36.8%
Median weekly income	£354 / £614

Source: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Legal aid ledger

It was reported that Shamima Begum, who left Britain as a 15-year-old to fight Isis and who has since been deprived of her British citizenship, has been awarded legal aid. Where does the legal aid budget go?

— In 2017/18, £1.64 billion was spent on legal aid.
— £887 million of that went on criminal cases and £707 million on civil cases.
— Of the £887 million on criminal cases, £269 million was spent on cases in magistrates’ courts.
— £126 million was spent on solicitors’ advice in police stations.
— £17 million went on advice and representation regarding prison law.
Source: Ministry of Justice