Kill or cure
An anti-war protester on a march against the Syrian missile attacks claimed that President Assad couldn’t be a bad man because ‘he’s a doctor, for heaven’s sake’. Some other qualified medics who provide counter-evidence for this theory:
— Dr Harold Shipman GP in Hyde, Manchester, convicted of 15 murders in 2000, though it is thought that he may have killed more than 250 patients.
— Dr Crippen US-trained homeopath and ear and eye specialist who dispensed medicines, though his qualifications were not recognised in Britain. He was hanged in 1910 for murdering his wife.
— Josef Mengele Gained a PhD in anthropology, researched genetics, then gained a doctorate in medicine before taking a job as physician at Auschwitz.
Windie days
Overzealous Home Office officials are accused of unfairly targeting the post-war ‘Windrush generation’ by demanding that they prove their right to live in Britain. How large is this generation?
— West Indies immigration peaked in 1955-1962 , averaging 32,850 arrivals a year.
— Controls after 1962 reduced this to 15,000 by 1966 and 5,000 by 1971.
— Successive censuses recorded UK residents with a birthplace in West Indies (first figure) and their UK-born children.
1st generation / 2nd generation | |
1951 | 17,218 / N/A |
1961 | 173,659 / 26,000 |
1966 | 330,780 / 50,000 |
1971 | 304,070 / 244,000 |
1981 | 295,179 / 250,000 |
Toxic dump
How is the world getting on at destroying stocks of chemical weapons? (In tonnes)
Declared / Destroyed | |
VX nerve agent | 19,586 / 19,162 |
Mustard gas | 17,439 / 15,033 |
Sarin | 15,047 / 14,022 |
Soman | 9,057 / 8,803 |
Lewisite | 6,746 / 6,617 |
Home nations
The Resolution Foundation suggested that a third of Britons born between 1980 and 1996 will never own their own home. Which European countries have the highest and lowest rates of homeownership?
Highest | |
Romania | 96.2% |
Slovakia | 90.3% |
Lithuania | 89.9% |
Croatia | 89.7% |
Hungary | 88.2% |
Lowest | |
Switzerland | 44.5% |
Germany | 52.5% |
Turkey | 61.1% |
Denmark | 63.3% |
UK | 64.4% |
Source: Eurostat
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