Lonely fortress
Weoley Castle in Birmingham was revealed to be the least-visited tourist attraction in England, with 5,205 visitors last year. What is there to see?
— It is described as the ruins of a fortified manor house built by the Lords of Dudley as a hunting lodge in the 1270s. Visitors can view the ruins from a platform most days, but can access the stones by special arrangement or for events such as the Easter egg hunt.
— It is also possible to hire the Event Space for conferences and corporate events — described as an ‘open-plan multi-functional space with a digital projector and screen, and with room for 30 people’.
Power games
EDF’s finance officer resigned after warning that the Hinkley Point C reactor could bring the company to its knees — in spite of British consumers being forced to pay a guaranteed, index-linked price of £92 per MWh ($134/MWh) for electricity from the plant. How does this cost compare with current electricity generation costs in OECD countries?
— Natural gas: $61 per MWh (US) to $133 per MWh (Japan).
— Coal: $66 per MWh (Germany) to $95 per MWh (Japan).
— Nuclear $29 per MWh (South Korea) to $64 per MWh (UK).
— Solar: $69 per MWh (Austria) to $142 per MWh (Belgium).
— Onshore wind: $33 per MWh (US) to $135 per MWh (Japan).
Source: IEA
Talking Turkey
How many Turkish migrants might come to live in the UK if Turkey joined the EU?
— To take Poland as an example, in 2001 there were 60,711 Polish-born people living in the UK. Since Poland joined the EU that has grown to 688,000. The extra arrivals are equivalent to 1.6% of a population of 39m.
—If 1.6% of the 79m population of Turkey migrated to the UK, it would mean 1.3m arrivals. There are 72,000 people of Turkish birth currently living in the UK (excluding the Turkish Cypriots who fled the civil war in 1974).
— However, there is a bigger disparity in wealth between Turkey and the UK than there is between Poland and the UK, meaning that Turkish migrants would have more incentive to travel. According to the International Monetary Fund, GDP in Poland is 64% of that in the UK. In Turkey it is just 49%.
Comments