Biergate

Sir Keir Starmer was facing the scandal of ‘beergate’. Biergate is a lane in the Lincolnshire village of Grainthorpe. It is a noted area for grain production, although the origin of the name is not clear as it has also been recorded as Beargate on old maps. – It would not be happy hunting ground for Starmer or Labour as it has both a Conservative district and county councillor. – One thing you won’t find close by is beer. The village used to have a pub, the Black Horse Inn, but it closed in 2017.

Not sharing

Bill Gates declined to deny that he is shorting Tesla shares. What are the largest car companies by market capitalisation?

Tesla $897bn

Toyota $241bn

Volkswagen $106bn

BYD (China) $93bn

Mercedes-Benz $69bn

GM $58bn

Ford $57bn

BMW $54bn

Honda $46bn

Stellantis (Fiat/Chrysler/Peugeot/Citroen and others) $44bn

Flights of fancy

Prince Harry used a Maori TV programme to launch a new venture claiming to tell airline passengers how they can improve the ‘sustainability’ of their flights. How large are airline passengers’ carbon emissions?

– A return flight from London to Barcelona emits 0.5t CO2 equivalent per passenger. That exceeds the annual per capita emissions of 36 nations, accounting for 10% of the world’s population.

– Return flight from London to LA: 3.3t of CO2 equivalent; more than the annual per capita emissions of 130 countries, representing 53.7% of the global population.

– London to Auckland: 7.9t CO2 equivalent; more than per capita emissions of 135 countries, 84% of the world’s population.

Open wide?

It was reported that in Somerset not one NHS dentist is taking on new patients. How easy is it to get an NHS dental appointment?

– In 2020/21, 15.8m adults and 5.1m children saw an NHS dentist.

– In a survey of 850,000 NHS patients, 56% said they had tried to get an appointment with a dentist in the past two years. Only 74% were successful. Of those who had not tried, 34% said they used a private dentist, 23% said they had not needed a dentist, and 13% said they hadn’t tried because they thought they wouldn’t get an appointment.

Source: NHS England