The Spectator

Barometer | 31 August 2017

Also: how does the Queensferry Bridge measure up and the vehicles that are the most lethal for pedestrians

issue 02 September 2017

Ethnic ethics

Actor Ed Skrein withdrew from a cartoon film after protests that he had the wrong ethnic background to play a Japanese-American. Some famous performances which, on the same principle, could be regarded as unacceptable:

— Laurence Olivier blacked up to play the lead role in the 1965 film of Othello.

— Andrew Sachs, son of a German Jew, played Manuel the Spanish waiter in Fawlty Towers in 1975 and 1979.
— Eddie Redmayne, who is not disabled, played Stephen Hawking in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything.

— Lin-Manuel Miranda, who is of Puerto Rican descent, played founding father Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway musical Hamilton, which he also wrote.

Bridge of size

How does the Queensferry Bridge, the new road bridge across the Forth, measure up against its predecessor?

Queensferry bridge / Forth bridge

Opened 2017 / 1964

Cost £1.35bn / £11.5m (£210m today)
Main span 2,130ft / 3,300ft
Height above
high-tide level
683ft / 512ft

Tonnes of steel 35,000 / 39,000
Construction deaths 2 / 7

Vicious cycles

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