Bigger Bens
Big Ben will have a £29m refurbishment. Who has the biggest clock tower? Kremlin Clock: Installed on the 232ft Spasskaya Tower. Clock has a diameter of 20ft. Big Ben: Installed on 315ft Elizabeth Tower. Clock faces are 24ft across. Metropolitan Life Insurance Building, New York: 700ft high (although the clock is only two-thirds of the way up). Clock is 26ft 6in in diameter. Abraj Al-Bait Towers, Mecca: Clock is on 1,972ft tower and visible from 15 miles away. Clock faces are 151ft in diameter.Brussels clout
How important is the EU as an export market? Britain’s top ten export markets by value in August this year:|
Value |
|
| US | £3.2bn |
| Switzerland | £2.3bn |
| Netherlands | £1.5bn |
| China | £1.4bn |
| Ireland | £1.2bn |
| France | £1.2bn |
| Belgium | £896m |
| Hong Kong | £655m |
| Spain | £625m |
|
Change since August 2014 |
|
| US | +15% |
| Switzerland | +290% |
| Netherlands | +2% |
| China | +35.8% |
| Ireland | -1.3% |
| France | -19.4% |
| Belgium | +7.8% |
| Hong Kong | +49.3% |
| Spain | -9.3% |
Steel away
Tata Steel announced 1,200 job losses at its Scunthorpe plant in the latest contraction in the industry. Between 1970 and 2014, UK steel production fell from 27.8m to 9.4m tonnes. The fall in jobs has been more precipitous still.| Workers in UK steel industry | |
| 1971 | 320,000 |
| 1978 | 271,000 |
| 1991 | 44,000 |
| 2001 | 30,000 |
| 2014 | 24,000 |
Jet set
President Xi flew into Heathrow in his jumbo. Who has the biggest presidential/prime ministerial jet?| Operating empty weight in lb | |
| UK: Bae146 (x2) | 52,000 |
| Russia: Ilyushin Il-96-300PU | 265,000 |
| Germany: Airbus A340 (x2) | 284,000 |
| US Boeing 747-200 (x2) | 383,000 |
| China: 747-400 | 393,000 |
| India: 747-400 (x4) | 393,000 |
| Saudi Arabia: 747-400 | 393,000 |
| Kuwait 747-8 (on order) | 472,000 |
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