Special Offa
A regulation passed by the Welsh government to prevent people travelling from Covid hotspots in England has brought comparisons to Offa’s Dyke.
— There is no firm evidence that the dyke, which takes its name from the king of Mercia between ad 727 and 796, even stretched along the entire English-Welsh border. Moreover, some of the sections which do survive have been dated as early as ad 430, 300 years before Offa’s reign.
But whoever built it, its design seems to confirm that it was designed to keep the Welsh out of England rather than the other way round: the ditch is on the west, Welsh side and the dyke takes such a path as to ensure that there are uninterrupted distant views into Wales.
Going untreated
How did the lockdown affect the number of hospital admissions for non-Covid-related conditions? Admissions in April/May vs the five-year average for the same period:
2020 / Average
Gastrointestinal 4,642 / 45,901
Septicaemia 10,961 / 31,024
Prostate cancer 4,640 / 12,859
Arthritis 6,114 / 12,865
Lung cancer 9,261 / 16,270
Chest pains 24,496 / 41,516
Bowel cancer 8,185 / 13,488
Source: Dr Foster
Men who teach
How many school teachers are male, and have the numbers changed this decade?
2010 / 2019
All schools 37.7% / 35.5%
March 12.8% / 14.2%
April 31.6% / 30%
Source: Education Policy Institute
Rape prosecutions
The Crown Prosecution Service published a list of 39 ‘rape myths’ in response to complaints that in 2019-20 only 2,102, or 1.4%, of reported rapes resulted in a prosecution. Who does get prosecuted?
In the past year:
— 98.2% of those prosecuted were male.
— 1.3% were female.
— In 11 cases no gender was recorded.
— 7.6% were aged under 18.
— 18% were aged 18 to 24.
— 61.7% were aged 25 to 59.
— 50.9% were recorded as being white.
— 7% were black.
— 5.3% were Asian.
In only a few cases was the gender of the alleged victim recorded. Of those, 2,249 were female and 415 were male.
Source: ONS
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