In the beginning
How did Britain mark its entry into the European Economic Community on 1 January 1973? There were no official celebrations, though George Thomson, one of Britain’s first two European commissioners, led a torchlit procession through London. In Brussels, a Union Flag was raised. Prime Minister Edward Heath was present at neither event: he was flying back from Ottawa, having attended the funeral of former Canadian prime minister Lester Pearson. Already, there were signs that many Britons saw it as nothing to celebrate: a poll for the BBC found 38 per cent were happy about joining — and 39 per cent already wanted to leave.
Huawei hegemony
The government argues that Huawei is the only option for providing the right sort of 5G equipment at the right price. Who leads the global market in 5G equipment, as judged by the number of patents they hold?
Huawei | 13,474 |
Qualcomm | 12,719 |
Samsung | 9,299 |
Ericsson | 8,116 |
LG | 7,694 |
Mind your language
Only 38 per cent of boys and 50 per cent of girls take a foreign language at GCSE. Which languages are most popular?
— There were 4.2 million GCSE entries in 2019. Among them were:
French | 125,700 |
Spanish | 101,080 |
German | 42,175 |
Other | 32,100 |
Ancient languages | 11,275 |
— Of the 745,585 A-level entries:
Spanish | 7,995 |
French | 7,680 |
Classics | 4,995 |
German | 2,905 |
Flying fatalities
An airliner crashed in Afghanistan killing all 83 on board, the latest in a spate of disasters. The number of deaths globally in airliner accidents peaked at 2,389 in 1972. What is the trend over the past ten years?
2010 | 943 |
2011 | 525 |
2012 | 477 |
2013 | 232 |
2014 | 692 |
2015 | 186 |
2016 | 258 |
2017 | 59 |
2018 | 561 |
2019 | 287 |
Source: Aviation Safety Network
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