Barometer | 3 September 2011

The taxes of sin

Bonn has introduced a flat-rate tax of €6 a night for prostitutes working in the city, payable at a ticket machine. Attempts to tax prostitution have been made since at least Roman times: a receipt from Roman Egypt suggested that a male prostitute paid four drachmas in tax for a two-month period.    
— Sweden has taxed prostitutes since 1982 at the normal rate; workers qualify for sick leave pay and a pension.    
— The Netherlands imposes a sales tax of 19 per cent on each act.   
— Nevada has proposed a tax at a flat rate of $5 for every sex act.

Whether the weather

A Glaswegian woman living in New York was ridiculed for saying she didn’t think that Hurricane Irene could exceed anything that the Scottish weather could throw at her. How did the reality measure up?

NYC during Irene                          Scottish record
                     Highest wind gust:  
67mph                     Fraserburgh, 1989:  142mph
                     Rainfall in 24 hours     
7.6in                        Stoy Main Adit, 1974:    9.4in
                     Tidal surge
33in                                            Leith, 1953:  48in

Miraculous recoveries

Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, was back on his deathbed more than two years after his release from jail in Scotland. Being released on compassionate grounds has often led to a miraculous extension of life. Regulations advise that prisoners should be released if they are expected to live three months or less. The following did better:
Ronnie Biggs, still alive, two years and two weeks following his release from prison in Norfolk, suffering from pneumonia
Ernest Saunders, former Guinness boss, is still alive, two decades after being released from a fraud sentence following a diagnosis of ‘pre-senile dementia’.