Trust us
The National Trust opened the Big Brother House at Elstree Studios at the weekend. Some other less grand National Trust properties:
— 575 Wandsworth Road, Lambeth. 19th-century terraced house that was home to Kenyan-born civil servant Khadambi Asalache who, to keep out the damp, decorated the walls with elaborate panels made from pine salvaged from skips.
— Birmingham Back-to-Backs. A 19th-century courtyard of artisans’ dwellings which survived slum-clearance.
— Mr Straw’s House. 1920s semi in Worksop kept just as the day it was built.
— 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool. 1950s council house that was the childhood home of Paul McCartney.
Trust me
George Osborne said he had been vindicated on the economy. How good were the forecasts in his 2010 budget?
Economic growth
| Forecasts |
Actual |
| 2010 | |
| 1.2% |
1.7% |
| 2011 | |
| 2.3% |
1.1% |
| 2012 | |
| 2.8% |
0.2% |
Inflation (Consumer Price Index)
| End of 2010 | |
| 2.7% |
3.7% |
| Falling to: | |
| 2% |
2.8%) |
Togetherness
How does membership of the largest unions compare with the Labour party’s 190,000 members?
| Unite | 1.5 million |
| Unison | 1.4 million |
| GMB | 610,000 |
| Usdaw | 387,000 |
| PCS | 302,000 |
| NUT | 295,000 |
Source: TUC
The spying game
The Home Affairs Select Committee published a list of over 100 businesses and individuals who were clients of a private investigator jailed for fraudulently obtaining information. What can you expect to pay for private investigator services, according to their websites?
| Surveillance (includes photographic footage): | £40-£45 per hour |
| Tracing and people search: | £155-£225 |
| Asset search/sweep: | £850 to £1250 |
| Vehicle tracking: | Seven days from £550
14 days from £700 28 days from £900 |
| De-bugging: | from £550 |
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