Barometer

Black Friday When and where did the term ‘Black Friday’ originate? — It was used to describe a collapse in financial markets on 24 September 1869, prompted by the revelation of a Wall Street conspiracy to drive up the gold price. But in modern usage it was coined by police in 1950s Philadelphia, who had all leave cancelled following Thanksgiving after an influx of shoppers and American football fans into the city centre. — In 1961 retailers in the city saw the potential to boost business by adopting the term. Another explanation is that they saw it as the day by which they would have taken sufficient revenue to ensure making a profit for the year — the day when their accounts moved from red to black. Weighing up Brexit The CBI welcomed the deal on Brexit.

Hard bitten A British tourist died after contracting rabies from a cat bite in Morocco. Whatever happened to the prominent anti-rabies posters at British ports? — The last case of rabies contracted in the UK was in 1922 but rising cross-Channel traffic led to a fear that infected animals could unwittingly be brought in. — A 1974 regulation introduced long spells of quarantine and those once-familiar posters, then restrictions were eased in the 1990s thanks to pet passports. — The last case of human infection in France was in 1923, but the country was not declared rabies-free until 2001 – a status it lost for two years from 2008. — Worldwide, rabies kills 59,000 people a year, 95 per cent in Africa or Asia and 99 per cent with infections from dogs.

It is cricket The use of a baseball expression, backstop, for possible arrangements over the Irish border could upset some Brexiteers. Yet the concept of a ‘backstop’ can be traced to a much more British game, cricket. The use of ‘backstop’ for what we would now call a wicket keeper was first recorded in the Oxford Dictionary in 1819. Seventy years later it cropped up in baseball, as a name for a fence rather than a person. When, in 1890, baseball players started calling the catcher a backstop too, the fence became, in effect, a backstop to the backstop. Big swims Ross Edgley became the first person to swim round the British coast, covering 1,791 miles in four months, starting and finishing in Margate.

Global warnings How much time do we have to save the world from catastrophic climate change? 5 years         (according to the WWF, 2007) 5 years         (International Energy Agency, 2011) 3 years      (Christiana Figueres of the United Nations, 2017) 12 years   (IPCC, 2018) Doctor the figures The NHS estimated it had been defrauded of £1.29 billion in 2016-17. By whom? Patients £341m NHS staff £94m Opticians £79m Dentists £126m Chemists £111m GPs £88m   Home stretch What percentage of 25-34-year-olds can afford the cheapest local properties with the aid of a mortgage worth 4.

Trans mission Equalities Minister Penny Mordaunt ordered research into a huge rise in referrals of under-18 girls to transgender services. What are the relative numbers of men and women seeking this help? — The Tavistock and Portman Trust reports a rise in gender identity referrals from 97 (41 per cent born female) in 2009-10 to 2,519 (72 per cent born female) in 2017-18. — A 2009 survey by the Gender Identity Research and Education Society found 80% seeking medical care for gender variance were born male and 20% female. — A 2015 study by the US Census Bureau revealed that 65% who had changed their social security gender identity were born male and 35% female. Flawed forecasts The IMF said UK growth would struggle to top 1.

Cultured tastes Dawn Butler accused Jamie Oliver of ‘cultural appropriation’ for coming up with his own recipe for jerk rice. Some other culturally appropriated dishes she might find hard to swallow: Chop suey is said to have been invented in 1896 — during a visit to New York by China’s US ambassador Li Hung Chang — to appeal to American and Chinese tastes. Balti was invented in Birmingham in the 1970s by restaurants to appeal to a clientele beyond the local Pakistani population. Fish and chips were first recorded in the East End in the 1860s, derived from the Jewish method of frying fish.

Black list Jeremy Corbyn was attacked for attending a ceremony for members of Black September, the terrorist group which carried out the Munich Olympics massacre in 1972. The group took its name from a PLO terror campaign in Jordan two years earlier.

Relax Asked about her spare time, Theresa May said she liked walking, cooking (she has 150 cookbooks) and watching the US TV series NCIS. How typical is she in choosing how she spends her leisure time? — A Sport England survey in 2016 suggested that 18.6 million Britons had walked for leisure in the past 28 days. — An Aviva survey last year claimed Britons had an average of 158 books in their homes. One in ten homes did not have a single book. — The fifth series of NCIS (which stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service) has an average of 2.6 million viewers when shown on Channel 5. In the US, it has 18.6 million. Attacks A three-year-old boy had acid thrown at him in Worcester. Who throws acid at whom?

Trapped Twelve Thai boys and their football coach were found in a cave ten days after being trapped by rising water. It may be months before they can be brought to the surface. — The longest anyone has been trapped underground and then rescued is 69 days, after the San José mine in Chile collapsed in 2010. The 33 miners were rescued via a shaft drilled to 2,257ft below the surface. — Less fortunate was Floyd Collins, a caver trapped 55ft below ground in Crystal Cave, Kentucky, in January 1925. He survived 14 days, but died around three days before a rescue shaft reached him. Bouncy castles A four-year-old girl died after a bouncy castle on a Norfolk beach was reported to have exploded and blown her 30 feet into the air. How dangerous are bouncy castles?

Nursing numbers Was there ever a time when the NHS wasn’t in crisis? According to a report by NHS Health Improvement in February 2016, the health service was then short of 15,000 nurses. A year later the Royal College of Nursing was claiming a shortfall of 24,000. But that is a lot less than the shortage of nurses reported in its early years. In December 1948, five months after the NHS was founded, it was reported by the government to be short of 48,000 nurses, 30 per cent of the number employed. The shortage meant that 53,000 beds were lying unused (a disproportionate number in women’s psychiatric care). In early 1949 the NHS recruited an extra 4,000 full-time and 2,250 part-time nurses.

Well oiled The government last week ordered a review into the medical use of cannabis. Some cannabis oil available on the internet: — Hemp oil for pain relief. ‘Great peppermint flavour. Promotes overall health and wellness when combined with a regular workout routine and diet.’ $24.97 — Ultra hemp 500 oil drops. ‘Helps with anxiety, chronic pain, sleep, mood, skin and hair. Boosts immunity, sharpens brain function and helps with sleep.’ $36.98 — Heaven’s Bounty ultra refined premium hemp oil. ‘Better sleep, healthy skin and smooth hair… no earthy aftertaste.’ $39.99 Track trespassers Three graffiti artists were killed by a train in south London. Where did people most trespass on railways in 2016?

Mortal combat Health secretary Jeremy Hunt promised more protection for medical staff accused of criminal malpractice after a doctor was struck off over a boy’s death from sepsis. How many people die as a result of inadequate healthcare? — In 2016, the ONS listed 141,101 out of 597,206 UK deaths as ‘avoidable mortality’, which was 24 per cent of the total. — The leading causes were neoplasms (cancer and non-cancerous growths), cardiovascular disease, injuries, respiratory diseases and drug use. — Among children, 1,674 out of 4,995 deaths were judged avoidable. — The highest rate was in Merthyr Tydfil (384.4 per 100,000 population) and the lowest in Monmouthshire (232.4).