Big Ben protests
An Extinction Rebellion protestor climbed to the top of the Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, with a bit of help from the scaffolding. Who has achieved this before?
— A Greenpeace protestor scaled the tower in 2004 to protest the Iraq war.
— A protestor was arrested in May last year as he began an ascent. Police did not disclose what he was protesting about.
— Two films have reached a climax with their heroes swinging from the arms of the clock, both successfully preventing the detonation of a bomb. They were Will Hay in My Learned Friend (1943) and Richard Hannay (played by Robert Powell) in The Thirty-Nine Steps (1978).
Shopping for statistics
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) have put out dramatically different figures for sales in September.
— According to the BRC, the value of retail sales in September was 1.3%
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