Barometer | 26 February 2011

University challenge

An analysis of university applications has suggested that 30,000 students had committed plagiarism when writing personal statements on their forms. An earlier trawl through applications found:

175 applicants were inspired to apply for medicine by an infirm grandfather
234 had developed an interest in medicine after ‘burning a hole in my pyjamas aged 8’
370 professed ‘a fascination for the way the human body works’.

Source:  UCAS

Top guns

The government has said it will review arms exports to Bahrain after the suppression of peaceful protests there. Who are the biggest arms exporters and importers?

Arms exported in 2009
USA: $10.3bn
Russia: $6.8bn
Germany: $3.8bn
France: $2.8bn
UK: $1.6bn

Arms imported in 2009
India: $3.2bn
Singapore: $2.6bn
Malaysia: $2.3bn
Greece: $1.9bn
South Korea: $1.8bn

Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Values are standardised for each type of weapon.


The big 80

Mikhail Gorbachev turns 80 on 2 March, celebrating the event with a £300-a-ticket concert in the Albert Hall. Other people who will become octogenarians in 2011:    

Rupert Murdoch: 11 March
William Shatner: 22 March
Raùl Castro: 2 June
Desmond Tutu: 7 October
John Le Carré: 19 October
Mwai Kibaki: 15 November
Lionel Blair: 12 December

Odds on Boris

Boris Johnson has declared there is ‘not a cat’s chance in hell’ of his being the next Prime Minister — yet bookmakers have him at 8/1. Who are the other contenders?

Ed Miliband                  7/4
Yvette Cooper              10/1
George Osborne          10/1
David Miliband             12/1
Ed Balls                        12/1
William Hague              16/1
Michael Gove               20/1
Nick Clegg                    50/1
Harriet Harman             66/1

Source: Paddy Power