The Spectator

Barometer | 26 February 2011

This week's barometer

issue 26 February 2011

University challenge


An analysis of university applications has suggested that 30,000 students had committed plagiarism when writing personal statements on their forms. An earlier trawl through applications found:

175 applicants were inspired to apply for medicine by an infirm grandfather
234 had developed an interest in medicine after ‘burning a hole in my pyjamas aged 8’
370 professed ‘a fascination for the way the human body works’.

Source:  UCAS


Top guns


The government has said it will review arms exports to Bahrain after the suppression of peaceful protests there. Who are the biggest arms exporters and importers?

Arms exported in 2009
USA: $10.3bn
Russia: $6.8bn
Germany: $3.8bn
France: $2.8bn
UK: $1.6bn




Arms imported in 2009

India: $3.2bn
Singapore: $2.6bn
Malaysia: $2.3bn
Greece: $1.9bn
South Korea: $1.8bn



Source: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Values are standardised for each type of weapon.

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