Barometer | 17 September 2011

The comedian David Walliams performed the impressive feat of swimming 140 miles of the River Thames from Lechlade to Westminster. That is still a long way short of the swims undertaken by Martin Strel, a 56-year-old Slovenian.

— After swimming the length of the Danube (1,866 miles), the Mississippi (2,360 miles) and the Yangtze (2,487 miles),Strel was challenged to swim the Nile but dismissed it as ‘not challenging enough’.

— He swam instead 3,272 miles down the Amazon, employing a support team to pour buckets of rancid blood into the water in order to distract the piranhas.

— His next project is the Colorado, which is shorter but has faster rapids.

What about the workers?

Miners and steelworkers once dominated the Trades Union Congress. But which industries have most trade unionists now?

Largest Proportion of Unionised Workers

Education  54%
Public administration and defence  52%
Electricity, gas and water supply  45%
Professional occupations  45%
Health and social work  42%

Smallest Proportion of Unionised Workers

Hotels/restaurants  4%
Agriculture, fisheries and food  7%
Real estate  11%
Wholesale retail and motor trade  12%
Sales/customer service  13%

Source: Labour Force Survey, ONS

News values

Coverage of some waterborne disasters reported on British-based news websites last week:

One penguin re-released into wild loses transmitter, might have drowned:
7 mentions, 1900 words

190 people drowned after ferry sinks off Tanzania:
7 mentions, 1750 words

10 oil workers go missing in storm in Gulf of Mexico, of whom two drown:
2 mentions, 400 words

Two men drown in Cambridgeshire lake:
2 mentions, 300 words

Two tankers collide off Tioman Island, Malayasia:
0 mentions, 0 words

Of human bondage

Twenty-four suspected slaves have been rescued from a trailer park in Bedfordshire. How many people still live in slavery worldwide? Here are some estimates:

Anti-Slavery Society  2.7m
International Labour Organisation  12.3m
‘Free the Slaves’  27m