Electric dreams
Manganese Bronze, the manufacturer of the most familiar model of London taxi, went into administration, putting a question mark over the black London cab.
— Although they enjoy the status of a timeless icon, London cabs only became universally black after the second world war, while their less welcome signature, diesel fumes, only came in during the 1950s. Remarkably, the first non-horse-drawn London cab was in fact electrically powered.
— Introduced by Walter C. Bersey in 1896, the cabs could achieve 12 mph and had a range of 15 miles.
— The 12 cabs were withdrawn by 1900, however, on account of unreliability, not so much because of their batteries as their pneumatic tyres.
House prices
The housing benefit bill has reached £23bn. How many housing benefit claimants are there and what are they claiming?
| No. of claimants |
Ave. weekly payout |
|
| 4.17m |
Nov 2008 | £77 |
| 4.41m |
Nov 2009 | £83 |
| 4.79m |
Nov 2010 | £84 |
| 4.95m |
Nov 2011 | £87 |
| 5.03m |
May 2012 | £89 |
Master racers
Frankel, a racehorse, retired after winning all of the 14 races in which he had been entered.
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