Barometer
Barometer
New normal Why have so many people started saying ‘normalcy’ rather than ‘normality’? — Normalcy has been traced back to…
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Bad service Economic growth fell by 2.6% in November, the month of the second lockdown, compared with falls of 7.3%…
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Parliamentary objections The US Capitol was raided by Donald Trump supporters trying to prevent the confirmation of Joe Biden’s election…
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A ferry tale Gerry Marsden, who died aged 78, was credited with making the ferry across the River Mersey world-famous.…
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Now and then Were households allowed to mix at Christmas during the plague? Samuel Pepys’s diary entry for 25 December…
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Last orders The new tier restrictions have made life difficult for pubs. How many are closed? — According to the…
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Dangerous games Sage scientists advised against playing board games at Christmas. Some games to consider if you are feeling subversive:Pandemic…
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Gloss over Should we be worried that the head of research into respiratory drugs at AstraZeneca is called Dr Pangalos,…
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Boris and the butcher’s dog Who first coined the phrase ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’? It has been traced…
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Shot in the arm Global stock markets reached a new high after pharmaceutical firm Pfizer announced a vaccine it is…
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The start of lockdown The earliest known use of ‘lockdown’ in its current sense was in a 1973 story in…
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The Moon under water Nasa scientists using spectrometers claim to have found good evidence of water on the surface of…
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Special Offa A regulation passed by the Welsh government to prevent people travelling from Covid hotspots in England has brought…
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Red light, green light The three tiers of Covid restrictions have been described as a ‘traffic light’ system. — The…
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Vice squad Donald Trump catching Covid-19 has concentrated minds on what happens if a US president dies in office. Normally,…
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Word for word US presidential debates are often traced back to the first televised debate, between Richard Nixon and John…
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It’s electrifying! Who invented the circuit-breaker? Thomas Edison patented it in 1879, realising what damage could be caused to electrical…
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Information overload The government’s plan to put ‘Covid wardens’ on the streets to enforce the new rule against more than…
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Lyrical errors ‘Rule, Britannia!’ begins with the lines: ‘When Britain first, at heaven’s command/Arose from out the azure main.’ —…
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Culture clashes The pop star Adele was accused of ‘cultural appropriation’ for adopting a Jamaican hairstyle for the online Notting…
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About Last Night It was suggested that the BBC might ‘decolonise’ the Last Night of the Proms by removing ‘Rule,…
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Pink and twisted Bernard Matthews, which stopped making Turkey Twizzlers in 2005 after criticism about unhealthy school dinners from Jamie…
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Some like it hot Are heatwaves becoming a devalued currency? Last year the Met Office defined a heatwave as three…
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The other Argos The Argos catalogue, known as the ‘Book of Dreams’, is no longer to appear in printed form.…
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The first nanny state The Prime Minister’s strategy on obesity has been labelled a work of the ‘nanny state’ —…
