Bank on it

Does the August bank holiday actually celebrate anything?

– When bank holidays were first established in 1871, the August bank holiday fell at the beginning of the month, allegedly because it was an important week for cricket in Yorkshire, the home county of MP Sir John Lubbock, who introduced the parliamentary act creating bank holidays.

– It was moved to the Monday after the last Saturday in August as an experiment in 1965, largely because early August coincided with the annual factory closure, and many workers were on holiday then anyway.

– In 1968 and 1969 the holiday fell in September, so in 1971 it was fixed as the last Monday in August. Except, that is, in Scotland, where it remains in early August.

Complete sentences

The former nurse Lucy Letby was handed a whole life order. Are these becoming more common? Total number of prisoners serving life vs number serving whole life orders:

Life (inc WLOs) / WLO

2012 7,676 / 45

2013 7,564 / 43

2014 7,468 / 48

2015 7,439 / 51

2016 7,361 / 53

2017 7,247 / 59

2018 7,117 / 63

2019 7,027 / 63

2020 6,985 / 63

2021 6,963 / 60

2022 7,084 / 65

Source: Ministry of Justice

Mother countries

Some 30.3% of babies born last year were to mothers who were themselves born outside the UK, up from 28.8% in 2021. In which countries were the mothers born?

India 17,745

Pakistan 16,654

Romania 5,518

Poland 11,107

Nigeria 8,458

Bangladesh 7,007

Afghanistan 3,875

Albania 3,515

US 3,200

Germany 3,154

Source: Office for National Statistics

Profits of doom

Are UK companies becoming more or less profitable? Net rate of return for non-financial corporations:

1998 13.8%

2000 11.3%

2002 10.7%

2004 11.1%

2006 10.9%

2008 10.9%

2010 10.4%

2012 10.9%

2014 11.9%

2016 11%

2018 10.1%

2020 9.5%

2022 10%

Source: ONS

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