Trouble with stags
In addition to next year’s royal wedding, Prince William will have to organise the royal stag party. William got into trouble in 2008 for flying a Chinook helicopter from Lincolnshire to his cousin Peter Phillips’s stag party on the Isle of Wight — at a cost of £8,716 to the public purse. In 1981 Prince Charles announced that he would hold a fireworks party in Hyde Park in lieu of a stag do — but he slipped off to meet friends at White’s. Prince Andrew was less successful at setting a decoy for his stag party in 1986: the press tracked him down, thwarting a plan by Sarah Ferguson and Princess Diana to crash the party dressed as policewomen. Prince Philip in 1947 held two stag parties, the first at the Dorchester with the press invited. His second, the night before the wedding, was held with friends at the Belfry and went on into the early morning.
House arrest
The crisis in the Irish economy has its roots in a property boom fuelled by low interest rates after the country joined the euro. The boom and bust have been even bigger than in Britain. Average house price in Ireland in the third quarter of each year:
1996 €79,270
1998 €115,384
2000 €165,501
2002 €198,046
2004 €233,808
2006 €308,180
2007 €300,763
2008 €270,461
2009 €233,137
2010 €198,689
Source: Economic and Social Research Institute
Home alone
Burmese pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi was released after 21 years under house arrest. No one wants to be under house arrest but the average Briton spends most of their time — 1,003 out of 1,440 minutes a day — at home, where their main activities are:
Sleep 476 minutes
TV/video/radio/music 152 minutes
Eating/drinking 59 minutes
Washing/dressing 42 minutes
Cooking/washing up 40 minutes
Source: ONS Time-Use Survey 2005
Back home
The release of Rachel and Paul Chandler by Somali pirates focused attention on the ‘lawless’ seas off Somalia. How big is the problem of piracy on the seas? In the first nine months of 2010 pirates boarded 128 ships; and fired at 52. There were 39 ship hijackings, 35 in Somali seas. One person was killed, 27 injured and 773 taken hostage.
Source: International Maritime Bureau
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