The Spectator

Is any song more lucrative than ‘Happy Birthday’?

iStock 
issue 12 December 2020

Last orders

The new tier restrictions have made life difficult for pubs. How many are closed?

— According to the British Beer and Pub Association, 16,500 of England’s 37,000 pubs have had to close for everything except takeaway owing to their being in Tier 3 areas.

— Of the 21,000 pubs in Tier 2 areas, 14,000 have had to remain closed because they are unviable if they can’t serve drinkers without also serving a substantial meal.

— That leaves 732 pubs in Tier 1 areas which can open more or less as normal.

— The number of pubs has fallen by 22 per cent this century. However, 2019 saw the first year-on-year rise, with a net gain of 320 pubs across the country.

Payback – or not

Banks were reported to be trying to end a voluntary agreement made last year to refund more victims of ‘push-payment’ fraud, whereby customers are tricked into making a payment to fraudsters. Did the agreement actually result in more people being refunded — or dissuade fraudsters?

2018 | 2019

No. of payments | 123,657 | 185,449

Amount lost | £354m | £456m

Amount refunded | £83m | £116m

Off the scale

Bob Dylan sold his back catalogue of 600 songs to Universal Music for a reported $300 million. Which songs have earned the most royalties in history?

‘Happy Birthday’ (Patty Hill and Mildred J. Hill) | £37m

‘White Christmas’ (Irving Berlin) | £27m

‘You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling’ (Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Phil Spector) | £24m

‘Yesterday’ (Paul McCartney) | £23m

‘Unchained Melody’ (Alex North and Hy Zaret) | £21m

Family matters

What is often claimed to be Britain’s largest household, Sue and Noel Radford of Morecambe, their 19 children and one grandchild, were reported to be self-isolating after one tested positive for Covid. How common are large families?

— In 2019 the ONS counted 597,000 households of six people or more — up from 469,000 20 years ago.

— The government’s biggest nightmare would be that the Radfords took advantage of the three-household rule to spend Christmas with the Bretts of Dingwall (all 13 of them) and the Lewises of Bournemouth (again, 13 of them) for a legal gathering of 48.

Comments