Who still smokes?

By George

Keir Starmer was mocked for showing footage of Glasgow in a video he made to celebrate St George’s Day. But the legend of St George (who is, after all, also the patron saint of Georgia and Ethiopia) did not leave Scotland untouched.

– Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Stirling all have churches dedicated to St George. St George’s Cross is an area of central Glasgow which gives its name to an Underground station and also boasts a statue of St George and the Dragon. Central Glasgow also had a St George’s Place, outside St George’s Church, but it has since been renamed Nelson Mandela Place.

– There is a girls’ school, St George’s, in Edinburgh, whose badge incorporates St George, a dragon and the words ‘trouthe and honour, fredom and and curteisye’.

Up and down

The Bank of England’s chief economist said Brits were ‘reluctant to accept’ that inflation has led to a fall in living standards and that ‘moderation’ was needed on wage rises. But have wages been climbing in real terms? Year-on-year change in average weekly earnings (adjusted for inflation)

Feb 2022 0.1%

March 2022 0.9%

April 2022 0.2%

Foreign investments

How much do UK companies earn from investing abroad?

– Earnings from outward foreign direct investment (i.e. UK firms investing abroad) stood at £134.7bn in 2021, more than double that of 2020 (£49.6bn). Business based in London (£62.8bn) followed by the south-east (£31.8bn) and Scotland (£7.2bn) earned the most. Earnings from inward foreign direct investment (i.e. overseas firms investing in Britain) stood at £71.8bn in 2021, up from £56.1bn in 2020. Earnings were highest in London (£31bn), the south-east (9.6bn)