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Site test What’s on offer in the town of Barnard Castle? — Ruined 12th-century castle perched high above the Tees, built by Bernard de Balliol and later passed into the hands of Richard III, whose emblem appears above an inner window. — Bowes Museum: magnificent 19th-century French-style gallery built by mine-owner John Bowes and his

Unusual crowd FC Seoul apologised after using sex dolls to try to create some atmosphere as games went ahead behind closed doors because of coronavirus. It is not the first time a football club has got into trouble over a fake crowd. In 1992 Arsenal covered up works at the north end of its Highbury

Safety first The government was criticised for its new coronavirus slogan, ‘Stay alert’. What are the most common safety slogans in use in workplaces?— ‘Safety is our number one priority’— ‘Safety is no accident’— ‘Take five and stay alive’— ‘The key to safety is in your hands’— ‘No safety, know pain’The word ‘alert’ doesn’t appear

Admitting defeat 8 May is celebrated as VE Day, but it is also a date which marks a significant English military defeat. It was the day in 1429 when the Earl of Salisbury’s forces were driven from Orleans by Joan of Arc, an event which provoked an English retreat from the Loire Valley and marked

Multiplying by hundreds The Queen penned a personal 100th birthday message to Captain Tom Moore, who has raised money for NHS charities by walking around his Bedfordshire garden. — The tradition of the monarch sending 100th birthday greetings began with George V in 1917, when he sent out a telegram with the words: ‘His Majesty’s

Oldies and goodies Captain Tom Moore, 99, raised more than £26 million by walking 100 laps of the garden of his old people’s home. Who are the oldest people to have achieved various feats? — Yuichiro Miura climbed Everest aged 80 in 2013.— Dr Fred Distelhorst climbed Kilimanjaro at the age of 88 in 2017.—

TV quizzes An ITV drama told the story of Major Charles Ingram, who was convicted of cheating in the gameshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? TV gameshows go back a bit further than many people imagine. The first, Spelling Bee, was broadcast by the BBC on 31 May 1938, just two years after the

Game on A few things which are still going on, in spite of coronavirus: — Football in Belarus, where the 2020 season recently began. Choice fixture over the weekend is Sunday’s clash between league-leaders FC Minsk and BATE. — Practice games in Sweden’s 5th and 6th divisions are going ahead as gatherings of fewer than

People power Boris Johnson said that the reaction to the coronavirus crisis showed ‘There really is such a thing as society’ — an apparent reference to an interview Mrs Thatcher gave to Woman’s Own in 1987. A reminder of what she actually said: ‘I think we have gone through a period when too many people

Time out When did British workers start being ‘furloughed’? The word furlough is first recorded in the English language in 1625, believed to be derived from the Dutch verloffe, meaning a leave of absence of a sailor from the navy. It seems to have come back into parlance in Britain thanks to it being used

Taking off Who came up with the concept of ‘helicopter money’? — The term is derived from an essay in 1969 by the economist Milton Friedman, who suggested a theoretical experiment where a helicopter flew over a community suffering from low growth and dropped $1,000 of banknotes which were then eagerly collected by the residents

Heathrow’s nine runways When was a third runway for Heathrow first proposed? Heathrow was always planned to have multiple runways. On 10 April 1946, before the airport was even open, the Minister for Civil Aviation, Lord Winster, announced that the then London Airport was to have nine runways. Six would be in a Star of

What a hole The World Health Organisation added processed meats to its list of ‘known’ carcinogens. A few of the other things which have been claimed to be linked to cancer in the past fortnight: A hole built into the wall of a NatWest bank branch in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, became an unlikely tourist destination with

Going viral A few of the businesses which chose ‘Corona’ as a brand name and now have a bit of an image problem: — Corona beer — brand of lager owned by Anheuser Busch InBev. — Corona Energy — gas and electricity supplier to businesses and the public sector. — Corona Pine Furniture — range

Mumbo jumbo The Prime Minister called opposition to imports of US-produced food ‘mumbo jumbo’. The expression was introduced to the English language in 1795 by Mungo Park in his Travels in the Interior of Africa. It was his way of writing down ‘Maamajomboo’ — the name used by the Mandinka people of West Africa for

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

Parliamentary motions The government floated the idea of moving the House of Lords permanently to York. Until it was found a home in the Palace of Westminster in Henry VIII’s reign, parliaments were regularly held all over the country. A few of them: 1266 Parliament convened at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, while Henry III besieged Simon de

Royal flush The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have registered the trademark ‘Sussex Royal’ as part of their plan to become financially independent. Some ideas from eBay for how they could make their brand pay:   Photograph of Harry, Meghan and Archie (from the couple’s Christmas card) £2 China thimble from the Duke and Duchess’s