The Spectator

Barometer | 25 April 2019

Spires on fire

Paris was lucky not to lose its medieval cathedral entirely, a fate which London suffered in 1666 in spite of great efforts to keep the Great Fire away from it by pulling down surrounding buildings. The original St Paul’s, commissioned by William I in the 1080s and completed in the early 14th century, would still be one of the world’s largest cathedrals. It was 586 ft long, 68 ft longer than the current St Paul’s and 30 ft longer than Winchester cathedral. Its spire was estimated at between 60 and 80 ft higher than that of Salisbury cathedral (404 ft) — although still 30 ft short of Lincoln cathedral, whose spire collapsed in a storm in 1549. By the time of the Great Fire, St Paul’s had also lost its spire — in an earlier fire in 1561, which had also melted the bells.

Protest arrests

Responding to criticism that the Met police had not been tough enough on climate change protesters, commissioner Cressida Dick said she had not seen a time when so many people (more than 1,000) were arrested in relation to a single incident. Some comparisons:
 

ARRESTS
Brixton riots 1981 82
Battle of Orgreave, 1984 miners’ strike 82
Poll tax riots 1990 339
2000 fuel protests 1
London riots, 2011 3,927
2015/16 football season 1,895

Declining carbon emissions

Has Britain really done nothing to tackle climate change? UK carbon emissions based on the ‘end user’ of products and services (million tons CO2 equivalent).
 

1990 794.4

1995 745.6
2000 707.5
2005 683.7
2010 600.9
2015 498.0
2017 460.2

Source: BEIS
 

Where there’s smoke

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