Polls apart
When was the last time an upstart party not represented by George Galloway won a UK by-election?
– In November 2014 Ukip won by-elections in both Clacton and Rochester and Strood. In each case the winner was the sitting MP: Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless, who had defected from the Conservatives.
– A more obscure party was Blaenau Gwent People’s Voice in June 2006. The Blaenau Gwent seat had been won at the 2005 general election by Peter Law, a former Labour councillor who had resigned from the party in protest at women-only shortlists and stood as an independent. A year later he died of a brain tumour and the new party was formed to back Law’s agent Dai Davies in the by-election, which Davies won (although he didn’t use the People’s Voice name on the ballot).
Waste of electricity
The government started consulting on a ‘toaster tax’ which could oblige retailers to take back electrical goods no longer wanted by customers – even when the retailers didn’t sell the items in the first place. How much waste could stores potentially have to handle? Waste electric goods produced by households in 2023:
Tons
Large appliances 159,272
IT and telecoms 39,600
Small appliances 33,576
Electrical and electronic tools 25,318
Consumer equipment 20,944
Lighting equipment 5,534
Source: Environment Agency
Mining data
Contrary to what some believe, Britain still has a coal industry – but it is tiny compared with the year before the miners’ strike:
1983 170 mines; 119 million tons of coal produced; 148,000 people employed.
2023 6 deep mines and 2 surface sites; 93,243 tons of coal produced; 363 people employed.
Source: Coal Authority
US and them
How would a Nato without the US measure up against Russia?
Russia Nato excl US
Regular troops 1m 1.77m
Reserves 2m 1.95m
Tanks 12,267 7,513
Artillery 18,266 8,754
Fighter aircraft 340 643
Attack aircraft 689 162
Aircraft carriers 1 8
Destroyers 14 25
Submarines 66 75
Source: armedforces.eu
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