The first nimby
Who coined the term ‘nimby’?
— The expression, from ‘Not In My Backyard’, entered the political sphere in Britain in 1989 when it was used by the then environment secretary Nicholas Ridley to describe people who were in favour of house-building in general, just not near where they lived. He was later ridiculed when it emerged that he had objected to a development next door to his own Gloucestershire home.
— But the term originated around a decade earlier in the United States, when it was applied to people who were opposed to the dumping of nuclear waste near their homes. The first mention has been traced to a piece in the Daily Press in Virginia in 1979, quoting a member of the Atomic Energy Commission saying that the ‘nimby syndrome must be eliminated’.
Suit yourself
We don’t all get our work outfits for free. How much do we spend on workwear?
Last year, the UK workwear market was worth £15.07bn – an average spend of £475 for each of the UK’s 31.7m workers. The market broke down as follows:
Corporate office wear 46%
Industrial protective clothing 37%
Uniforms 17%
Source: essentialworkwear.com
Track record
Which cities have the best-used trams?
Includes only systems which feature an element of street-running (millions of journeys in year ending March 2024):
Manchester 42
London 20
Nottingham 15.5
Edinburgh 10.1
Sheffield 8.7
West Midlands 8.3
Blackpool 4.7
Source: Department for Transport
Moving the needle
Has the Covid pandemic had any lasting effect on the vaccination rate in children?
Percentage receiving primary jab by their first birthday:
2018/19
Diphtheria/polio/tetanus/pertussis – 92.1
Rotavirus – 89.7
Meningococcal B – 92.5
2023/24
Diphtheria/polio/tetanus/pertussis – 91.2
Rotavirus – 88.5
Meningococcal B – 90.6
Percentage receiving primary jab by their fifth birthday:
2018/19
Measles/mumps/rubella – 94.
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