Which pope has served the longest?

Papal reign

The mostly elderly runners and riders to be the next pope are unlikely to challenge the record for the longest papal reign – still held by the very first pope, St Peter, who served for 34 years in the 1st century. The second-longest reign was the 31 years and 7 months served by Pius IX between 1846-78, while third was Pope John Paul II (1978-2005). John Paul II was preceded by one of the shortest papal reigns in history, that of Pope John Paul I, who died just 33 days after being chosen in August 1978. Nine have lasted less than a month: Urban VII lived for just 13 days in 1590. 

Power play

Ed Miliband claimed that Britain has such high electricity prices because of our reliance on gas. Is that true? Electricity prices (in pence/kWh equivalent) in some other countries which generate significant proportions of electricity from gas (2023):

 Source: IEA / Ember / Dept for Energy Security

Grown apart

How big a gulf is there between the best and worst forecasts for 2025 UK GDP growth?

Most optimistic

CBI 1.6%

NIESR 1.5%

OECD 1.4%

ICAEW 1.2%

Most pessimistic

Barclays Capital 0.5%

NatWest Markets 0.6%

Pantheon; UBS 0.7%

Capital Economics; Nomura 0.8%

Home stretch

Are private sector housing rents out of control? Average monthly rent in Britain: 

March 2015 £915

March 2016 £946

March 2017 £925

March 2018 £984

March 2019 £1,000

March 2020 £1,022

March 2021 £1,034

March 2022 £1,066

March 2023 £1,133

March 2024 £1,236

March 2025 £1,332

Had the average rent increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) over the past decade it would now be £1,252.