The outsiders
Did the seven members of Harold Wilson’s cabinet who campaigned to leave the Common Market in the 1975 referendum damage their careers?
Michael Foot, Employment Secretary. Made deputy leader by Jim Callaghan in 1976. Elected leader in 1980.
Tony Benn, Industry Secretary. Challenged Denis Healey unsuccessfully for Labour deputy leadership in 1981.
Barbara Castle, Social Services Secretary. Sacked from cabinet by Jim Callaghan when he became prime minister in 1976.
Eric Varley, Energy Secretary. Swapped jobs with Tony Benn after referendum. Fifth in shadow cabinet elections in 1979.
John Silkin, Planning and Local Government Secretary. Became agriculture secretary in 1976. Stood for Labour leadership in 1980 but was defeated.
Peter Shore, Trade Secretary. Became environment secretary in 1976, shadow foreign secretary in 1979. Stood for Labour leadership in 1980 but came last. Made shadow chancellor by Foot.
Willie Ross, Scotland Secretary. Retired from Commons in 1979; made a life peer.
Cities of death
Where in Britain is your home most likely to be flooded? These, according to the Environment Agency, are the districts with the greatest number of properties at risk of being flooded at least once every 75 years:
Boston | 22,000 |
North Somerset | 19,000 |
East Lindsey | 15,000 |
Windsor and Maidenhead | 12,000 |
Hull | 11,000 |
Shepway | 10,000 |
Sedgemoor | 9,000 |
East Riding | 8,000 |
Runnymede | 8,000 |
Warrington | 7,000 |
Serves you right
A British mineworker in Kyrgyzstan was deported after referring to the country’s national dish, chuchuk, as ‘horse’s penis’. What do people really eat there? A suggested menu, with explanations, from the website www.kyrgyz.net.my:
— Tea with katama (deep-fried refined starch bread)
— Chuchuk (horse-fat sausages)
— Besh barmak (‘horse or sheep boiled in a big cookware — every attending gets a piece of broth according to their social position’)
— Plov (‘large hill of cooked rice with carrots, garlic and onions served with sliced boiled meat cooked with spices’)
— And to drink: kumys (‘horse’s fresh milk fermented in the stomach of a horse’)
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