Name calling
Springwatch presenter Gillian Burke says she finds it ‘jarring’ to call animals by their English names, preferring Swahili. Some popular Swahili translations:
– Elephant: tembo/ndovu
– Giraffe: twiga
– Lion: simba
– Hyena: fisi
– Hippopotamus: hippopotamus
– I’m fed up of paying for a TV licence: Nimechoka kulipa leseni ya TV
Full Marx
A Labour politician named Karl Peter Marx Wardlow was elected as a councillor in Stockport. The fondness for left-wing parents to name their children after their political heroes is most obvious in Keir Starmer – his first name is also shared with Keir Mather, who won the Selby and Ainsty by-election for Labour last year. What were the most popular names of left-wing heroes used for boys’ names last year? Number of boys registered with the name:
Anthony 269
Tony 33
Aneurin 23
Karl 23
Clement 17
Harold 13
Gordon 10
Keir 6
Ramsay 4
Source: ukbabynames.com
Hard cell
How violent are prisons? Here are some annual figures for the past couple of years:
2022/23
No. of assaults on staff per 1,000 prisoners 92
Prisoner-on-prisoner assaults per 1,000 185
Acts of self-harm per 1,000 733
Self-inflicted deaths (total) 85
Barricades 1,372
Escapes 8
2021/22
No.
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