Barometer | 22 March 2018

Spin doctors

The BBC has denied it photoshopped a Newsnight backdrop to make Jeremy Corbyn’s hat look more Russian. The art of doctoring photos is, appropriately enough, often credited to the Bolsheviks. One photo of Lenin in 1920 had Trotsky and Kamenev edited out after they fell from favour.
— Yet manipulating photos for political purposes really began 50 years earlier. One photo, an attempt to flatter Abraham Lincoln, had his head fixed on the body of a more shapely politician, John Colhoun.
— A photo of Ulysses S. Grant inspecting his troops on horseback has been exposed as being made of three different images.

Course work

Graduate salary data for degree courses is to be released. Which places are the best and worst at getting you a job? The percentage of 2008-09 graduates in further study or sustained work or both, five years on:

HIGHEST </
University of Chester	83.0
University of Hull	82.6
Royal Veterinary College	82.4
Edge Hill University	82.1
University of Keele	82.1

LOWEST (ALL LONDON-BASED)
School of Oriental and African Studies	61.3
Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Drama	57.2
Royal College of Music	55.2
Guildhall School of Music and Drama	54.4
Conservatoire for Dance and Drama	52.8

High flyers

The Zoological Society of London warned that uncleaned bird feeders spread deadly avian diseases. Which bird populations have changed most since 1970?

LOSERS % CHANGE
Turtle dove	-98
Willow tit	-93
Grey partridge	92
Corn bunting	-90
Tree sparrow	-90

WINNERS % CHANGE
Greylag goose	+3,647
Gadwall	+1,295
Collared dove	+799
Black-tailed godwit	+739
Avocet	+703

Source: Defra

Old money

University lecturers continued a pensions dispute — but how much do pensioners get? Median weekly income in 2015-16 was £357 for the newly retired, £342 for under-75s, £258 for over-75s. Proportion with the following forms of income in 2015/16:

State pension	97%
Investment income	63%
Occupational pension	62%
Income-related benefits	25%
Personal pensions	18%
Part-time earnings	17%