Off the shelf

How do we boycott Putin? Some things we traded with Russia, by value, between March and May 2014:

Source: UK Trade Info

If you have to ask…

A property developer complained after being charged £75 for three small bottles of water in the bar at the Wellesley Hotel, Knightsbridge. A few other notable bills:
S$707 (£335) for a king crab at Forum Seafood Valley Restaurant, Singapore $275 (£160) for pasta with white truffles at Nello, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side
€100 (£76) for four coffees and three liqueurs at Caffè Lavena in St Mark’s Square, Venice
€64 (£49) for four ice creams at Antica Rome, a parlour near the Spanish Steps

Emission statement

The Mayor of London proposed that diesel cars should pay an extra £10 congestion charge in London. How much of various pollutants does a diesel car emit compared with a petrol car (with catalytic converter)?

Source: Enviropedia

Migrating money

David Cameron proposes that migrants only be able to claim benefits for three months, rather than six. Are migrants a net benefit or burden on the public purse?
— According to the Institute for Public Policy Research, migrants who arrived in the year 2003/04 paid £41.2bn in taxes and received £41.6bn of benefits and other public services, meaning they were a net burden of £0.4bn on the public purse
— According to MigrationWatch, this figure ignores the cost of state support for children born to one migrant and one native parent. If you add half that cost to the bill for migrants, they place a net burden of £5bn on the public purse.