Target practice
The government hit its target of giving a first Covid vaccine to 15 million of the most vulnerable people by the middle of February. Some other government targets which have been met (sort of):
— 100,000 Covid tests a day by the end of April. The government did claim to have achieved this — but did so by counting testing kits which had been posted out and not necessarily returned.
— There was a rise of 7,600 people applying for teacher training courses last year, which meant that the government hit its target for secondary school teachers to the tune of 106% and primary school teachers by 130%.
— The target of spending 0.7% of GDP on aid has been achieved every year since 2013. The target has now been temporarily reduced to 0.5%.
Gender split
Students at St Andrews complained after the university’s Institute for Gender Studies declined to renew the contract of its female head. Do our gender studies departments have a gender problem?
— LSE Department of Gender Studies: 2 faculty staff are male and 14 female.
— University of Cambridge Centre for Gender Studies: 6 lecturers male, 10 female.
— University of Sussex Centre for Gender Studies: 9 staff male, 29 female (includes research students).
Locked up in lockdown
What has Covid-19 done for the prison population? Week ending 12 February:
2020 | 2021
Total population | 83,626 | 78,114
Male | 79,924 | 74,982
Female | 3,702 | 3,132
Usable capacity | 84,937 | 81,063
Home detention curfew | 2,716 | 2,276
Source: Ministry of Justice
Roads less travelled
How was tourism affected in 2020?
— In April, international air traffic was just 1.9% of what it had been in February. It reached a peak of 36.7% of February levels in August before declining again.
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