Ballots drawn
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders tossed a coin to decide which of them was the winner in some precincts of Iowa. What would we do if we had a tied election?
— The closest British election in modern times was the council election in Bury, Greater Manchester, in 2011. With Labour needing one more seat to take control of the council, the Labour and Conservative candidates in the ward of Ramsbottom were found to be tied. They drew straws, the longer of which went to the Labour candidate, Joanne Columbine.
— The closest recent parliamentary election was that in Winchester in 1997, where Liberal Democrat Mark Oaten won by two votes. His Conservative opponent, Gerry Malone, had the result declared void on the grounds that some ballot papers had been unstamped, but lost the subsequent by-election by 21,556 votes.
High tee
Members of Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey threatened legal action over plans by its new Chinese owners to double its fees to £16,000 a year, and to charge a one-off joining fee of £100,000. Would it be the world’s most expensive golf club?
| Cost of membership over five years | |
| Singapore Island Country Club | £26,800 |
| Fancourt, South Africa | £40,000 |
| Trump National, Los Angeles | £124,000 |
| Bear’s Club, Florida | £129,000 |
| Wentworth | £180,000 |
| Liberty National, New Jersey | £240,000 |
Source: golfmagic.com
Race for admission
David Cameron attacked Oxford University for supposed racial bias. Which ethnic groups had the highest success rate of applications between 2012 and 2014?
| No. of applications | |
| White | 26,500 |
| Mixed: white/black African | 180 |
| Mixed: white/Asian | 938 |
| Gipsy/traveller | 5 |
| White/black Caribbean | 194 |
| Chinese | 660 |
| Indian | 1,470 |
| Bangladeshi | 215 |
| Pakistani | 483 |
| % accepted | |
| White | 26% |
| Mixed: white/black African | 26% |
| Mixed: white/Asian | 25% |
| Gipsy/traveller | 20% |
| White/black Caribbean | 18% |
| Chinese | 17% |
| Indian | 15% |
| Bangladeshi | 9% |
| Pakistani | 9% |
Final demands
How many people file their taxes on time?
— In 2014, HMRC reported that of 10.7 million returns, 93.4% were returned by the 31 January deadline.
— Of these, 570,000 (5.3%) were filed on 31 January itself, with 21,000 (0.2%) arriving between 11 p.m. and midnight.
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