Barometer | 22 June 2017

A mountain to climb

Brexit secretary David Davis gave the EU’s chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, a copy of Regards vers l’Annapurna by Maurice Herzog and Marcel Ichaq. What can be read into the gift?

— The book is about the 1950 French expedition to scale Annapurna 1, a 26,414ft peak in Nepal. Although the expedition was a success, it was eclipsed by the British Everest expedition three years later.

— Annapurna 1 was not scaled again until 1970, when a British army expedition and a separate bid by Chris Bonington to scale the south face reached the summit within days of each other. The latter bid ended with a British climber being killed by a falling ice pillar, establishing an unenviable record: the Annapurna massif has the highest rate of fatalities to climbing attempts of any mountain range in the world.

We’re having a heatwave

According to the World Meteorological Organisation, the official definition of a heatwave is five consecutive days where the maximum temperature exceeds the mean maximum for that month of the year. What does the temperature have to reach in various places in June to qualify?

A change of leadership

Tim Farron resigned as leader of the Lib Dems. Which party has had the longest-serving leaders over the past 50 years?
In months, working backwards in time: Conservatives: 11 (Theresa May), 127, 25, 26, 51, 79, 189 and 113 months.
Average of completed terms: 87 months

Liberal Democrat/Liberal: 23, 91, 21, 65, 133, 144, 113. Average: 84 months

Labour: 21 (Jeremy Corbyn), 56, 35, 155, 22, 105, 35, 55, 158. Average: 77 months

Domestic fires

How many people die in fires in domestic properties in England?

Source: Home Office