Barometer | 27 September 2018

Beastly crimes

Police in Croydon stopped investigating a series of cat killings after concluding that foxes were likely to blame. Other crimes which turned out to be the work of animals:
— In 2016 a crow named Canuck swooped down and took a knife which Vancouver police had been guarding as evidence. A year later Canuck attacked a postman.
— In 2008, a vandal was suspected of repeatedly fusing the lights at an aquarium in Coburg, Germany, putting many creatures at risk. In fact it was an octopus called Otto who found he could extinguish the light on his tank by squirting water at it.
— Novelist Michael Peterson served eight years in jail for murdering his wife in North Carolina in 2001. He was freed after experts said marks on her scalp were consistent with the talons of an owl, which may have attacked her and caused her to slip on stairs.

Red and blue cities

As Conservatives head to Birmingham, in which of the usual conference cities would they feel least unwelcome, according to the 2017 general election result? Figures show the number of Labour votes for every Conservative one across all constituencies:

Femmes fatales

Most popular

Brendan O’Neill

The moment in the ‘grooming gangs’ debate that shamed Jess Phillips

The Met Office began its sixth season of named storms with Storm Ali. In the US, a study at the University of Illinois found that over six decades female-named storms were more deadly than male storms:

Lease resistance

New rules will make it easier for leasehold owners to acquire the freehold or a share of it. How many properties are leasehold?

In a 2016 survey, 57% of leasehold owners said they regretted their purchase.

Source: MHCLG