Out of office
French prime minister Sébastien Lecornu resigned after just 27 days – making his time in office 22 days shorter than that of Liz Truss. But even Lecornu doesn’t hold the record for Europe’s shortest-lived PM.
– That honour belongs to Magdalena Andersson, elected Swedish PM on 24 November 2021. She lasted just 7 hours before resigning – although a few days later she did come back as PM leading a minority administration which lasted nine months.
– Pedro Lascurain’s presidency of Mexico lasted 45 minutes on 19 February 1913. He was appointed only to give an appearance of legitimacy to leaders of a coup.
Name drop
A terrorist shot dead after launching a knife attack at a synagogue in Manchester was revealed to have been a Syrian-born British citizen called Jihad. How many babies have been given that name in England and Wales?
1997 – 4
1998 – 5
2000 – 4
2001 – 3
2002 – 3
2003 – 4
2012 – 4
None have been registered since 2012.
Degrees of separation
Keir Starmer dropped Tony Blair’s target of getting 50% of people to university. Which countries have the highest, and lowest, percentage of 25- to 34-year-olds who have completed higher – or tertiary – education?
Highest
South Korea – 71%
Canada – 69%
Japan; Ireland – 66%
Luxembourg – 65%
UK – 60%
Lowest
South Africa – 9%
Indonesia – 18%
Argentina – 19%
India; Romania – 23%
Brazil – 24%
Source: OECD
Second base
Would cracking down on second home owners really help solve the housing crisis?
– In the 2021 census 1.627m properties were used as second addresses. However, many are occupied family homes used by some, such as students, as a second address.
– On census day there were 1.507m properties in England recorded as having no normal residents. But this includes those undergoing renovation or between tenants.
– The number of second homes in England was put at 172,545. The highest proportion was the south-west (1.3%).
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