Barometer | 11 July 2019

Ode to all sorts

Brexit party MPs were likened to Nazis for turning their backs on a recital of ‘Ode to Joy’, the EU’s anthem. Yet Beethoven’s melody itself has one association which liberal-minded folk might find unsavoury — between 1965 and 1979 it served as the national anthem of Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, using the words: ‘Rise, oh voices of Rhodesia,/ God may we Thy bounty share./ Give us strength to face all danger,/ And where challenge is, to dare.’ It was during this period, in 1972, that the Council of Europe adopted the tune as its own anthem. It then became the European Community’s anthem in 1985.

Police numbers

Boris Johnson promised to spend £1 billion on an extra 20,000 police officers. The number of officers in England and Wales peaked at 144,274 in 2009 and fell to 123,507 in 2017. How many police officers do we have per 100,000 population compared with other G7 countries?

Women’s football fans

How does interest in women’s football compare with that in men’s?

— TV viewing audience for the semi-final of the Women’s World Cup (involving England): 11.7 million

— For the semi-final of the 2018 World Cup (also involving England): 26 million

— Global viewing figures for the most-watched game of the 2019 Women’s
World Cup: 59 million

— Global TV audience for the final of the 2018 World Cup: 1.12 billion

— Attendance for the FA Cup final 2019: Women’s 43,264; Men’s 85,854

— Average attendance at Women’s Super League 1,010; Premier League 38,168

Heads for heights

George King, 19, climbed to the 95th storey of the Shard in London without ropes.
— He has some way to go to match the feats of the high-wire artist Philippe Petit, who in 1971 walked along a wire strung between the two towers of Notre Dame.