Pippa goes public

Church of England lawyers ruled that the public must be allowed to attend the wedding of Pippa Middleton at St Mark’s Church, Englefield, Berkshire on 20 May. Other rulings that could put the dampers on your celebrity wedding:

— Marriages are public services. All parishioners, and possibly all members of the public, must be let in ‘unless a genuine question of safety or security arises’.

— It is not legally clear whether marriage services can be ticketed, but if they are then they must be publicised.

— No video can be produced without the consent of the organist.
 

Time off

Jeremy Corbyn wants another four public holidays. Which countries have the most?

Argentina
18

Hong Kong, India
17

Russia, Japan, South Korea,
Saudi Arabia, Brazil
15
Singapore
14
Netherlands, China, Germany,
France, Spain, Italy
11
USA, Canada, Mexico
10
Germany, Austria
9
UK
8

Red’s not dead

The Communist Party of Great Britain is not fielding any general election candidates and is throwing its weight behind Jeremy Corbyn. How much weight is that?

The Communist vote in recent elections:

Election year (seats fought)
Votes
1979 (38)
16,858
1983 (35)
11,606
1987 (19)
6,079
1992 (4)
603
1997 (5)
639
2001 (6)
1,003
2005 (6)
1,124
2010 (6)
947
2015 (9)
1,229

Grow more

Emmanuel Macron wants to make France more business-friendly. Which countries host the highest numbers of Europe’s 1,000 fastest-growing companies?

Germany
239
UK
235
Italy
186
France
139
Spain
102
Netherlands
29
Sweden
13
Poland
6
Switzerland
5
Czech, Romania
4
Ireland, Finland, Iceland,
Belgium
3
Austria, Norway
2
Bulgaria, Portugal, Hungary,
Denmark, Croatia, Malta
1

Source: FTSE 1000 fastest-growing companies