Parliamentary motions
The government floated the idea of moving the House of Lords permanently to York. Until it was found a home in the Palace of Westminster in Henry VIII’s reign, parliaments were regularly held all over the country. A few of them:
1266 Parliament convened at Kenilworth, Warwickshire, while Henry III besieged Simon de Montfort’s followers in the castle.
1283 Parliament met at Shrewsbury so that members could watch the execution of Welsh rebel Dafydd.
1414 ‘Fire and Faggot Parliament’ met at Leicester and passed the Suppression of Heresy Act, allowing Lollards to be burned with bundles of sticks.
1459 ‘Parliament of Devils’ met in Coventry to try Yorkists with High Treason.
— On more than 30 occasions up to 1380 parliament met at Northampton, which was also the site of King John’s Treasury.
— Even after settling in Westminster, parliament decamped to Oxford in 1625 and 1665 because of plague outbreak in London.
Princely sums
How much public income did the royal family receive in 2019?
| Sovereign Grant | £82.2m |
| Duchy of Lancaster (Queen’s private income) | £21.7m |
| Duchy of Cornwall (Prince of Wales’s private income) | £21.6m |
| Functions paid for by other government departments | £7.6m |
| Royal Collection (entrance fees for Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace) | £7m |
| Rent from royal palaces | £3.2m |
Off track
How the estimated cost of HS2 has risen:
| 2010 | £33bn |
| 2015 | £56bn |
| September 2019 | £81-£88bn |
| January 2020 | £106bn |
Testing times
England beat South Africa on the fifth day of the third Test match. But some international cricket boards want to reduce Test matches to four days. What percentage of matches finish before the fifth day?
| 2010 | 27.6% |
| 2015 | 43.1% |
| September 2019 | 47.8% |
| January 2020 | 57.9% |
Source: espncricinfo.com
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