How many people have swum the Channel?

Journey’s end

Holidaymakers are being flown home after travel company Thomas Cook failed. The idea might have horrified the company’s eponymous founder, whose first excursion was a temperance outing from Leicester to Loughborough on 5 July 1841, on a charter train from the Midland Railway Company. All 500 tickets were swiftly sold. A holiday from Leicester to Liverpool and North Wales followed in 1845, including several nights in temperance hotels and a night-time ascent of Snowdon. Thomas Cook went on to organise trips to the 1851 Great Exhibition for 150,000 from the Midlands.

Financial health

A Labour activist and parent of a patient accused the Prime Minister on a visit to a London hospital of ‘destroying’ the NHS. How has the budget for health and social care in England changed since the last Labour government left office in 2010? (At 2018/19 prices)

Source: King’s Fund

Going nuclear

Which European countries generate the highest proportion of their electricity from nuclear?

Source: International Energy Agency

Channel bobbing

Sarah Thomas, an American, became the first person to swim the Channel four times in succession. How many people have swum the Channel?
— There have been 2,373 successful solo swims since Matthew Webb in 1875; 63.1% have been by men, 36.9% by women.
— The average age of a successful swimmer is 35 years and 131 days.
— 32% came from the UK, 17% from the US and 9% from Australia.
— The average time is 13 hours, 32 mins.
— The most popular day is 22 August, with 66 successful crossings on that day.