Selling with honesty
An Essex estate agent sold a flat in Westcliff-on-Sea for £22,500 over the £125,000 asking price after advertising it with the words: ‘Wipe your feet on the way out…this property is full of rubbish, there is mould on the walls and I think there may even be fleas.’ The original honest estate agent was Roy Brooks, who operated from Chelsea in the 1960s and won fame by describing properties he was selling with such accolades as ‘erstwhile house of ill-repute’, ‘rather theatrical — in keeping with the pretentious style of the owner’ and ‘ten rather unpleasant rooms with slimy back yard’. The latter property, advertised for £4,650, would now be worth 1,000 times that..
Genesis fans
Dan Walker, who has been appointed to present BBC Breakfast, is said to believe in creationism. Is he unusual? A 2009 poll asked whether people believed in ‘Young Earth Creationism’ — that the Earth was created by God in the past 10,000 years.
| Definitely true | 11% |
| Probably true | 21% |
| Probably untrue | 22% |
| Definitely untrue | 38% |
| Don’t know | 8% |
The age groups most inclined to believe were 18–24s and over-65s.
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