Whitaker's 2016 Sample

WHITAKER’S 2016

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3

CONTENTS PREFACE

THE YEAR 2016 2016 Calendar 2017 Calendar Forthcoming Events Centenaries

8 9 10 12

UNITED KINGDOM The UK in Figures The National Flag

15 19

THE ROYAL FAMILY

20

Private Secretaries Finance Military Ranks and Titles Kings and Queens The House of Windsor Descendants of Queen Victoria

24 26 28 31 35 36

PRECEDENCE

38

PEERAGE

40

Hereditary Peers Life Peers Courtesy Titles and Peers’ Surnames Lords Spiritual Orders of Chivalry Baronetage and Knightage The Order of St John Dames Decorations and Medals Chiefs of Clans in Scotland Privy Council

PARLIAMENT

Members of Parliament General Election 2015 Results Manifesto Commitments

THE GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC BODIES

The Cabinet Government Departments Executive Agencies Non-ministerial Government Departments Public Bodies

DEVOLVED GOVERNMENT

Wales Scotland Referendum Northern Ireland

REGIONAL GOVERNMENT

London

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

41 60 69 75 76 79 104 105 109 112 113

117

128 136 174

176

176 178 188 192 196

216 216 221 230 231

237 237

241

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

244

LAW AND ORDER

287

DEFENCE

315

EDUCATION

326

HEALTH

378

SOCIAL WELFARE

384

UTILITIES AND TRANSPORT

398

RELIGION

415

COMMUNICATIONS

442

Political Composition of Councils England Principal Cities English County Councils London Borough Councils District Councils Metropolitan Borough Councils Unitary Councils London The City Guilds Wales Scotland Northern Ireland Isle of Man Channel Islands Law Courts and Offices Scottish Judicature Northern Ireland Judicature Tribunals Ombudsman Services Police Prisons Salaries Pensions

The Education System Universities Professional Education Independent Schools National Academies Research Councils National Health Service Social Services National Insurance Pensions War Pensions Tax Credits Benefits Water Energy Transport

Religion in the UK Churches Postal Services Telecommunications Internet

250 255 256 262 262 263 266 267 269 271 274 277 282 284 285

287 294 296 298 304 307 311 323 325 326 344 355 364 373 375 378 384 385 386 389 390 391

398 401 406

415 421 442 443 445

4

THE ENVIRONMENT

447

HERITAGE

458

Conservation and Heritage World Heritage Sites

Historic Buildings and Monuments Museums and Galleries Sights of London Hallmarks

447 456

458 466 474 481

BANKING AND FINANCE

483

TAXATION

503

LEGAL NOTES

519

THE MEDIA

546

ORGANISATIONS

560

British Currency Banking and Personal Finance Financial Services Regulation National Savings National Debt London Stock Exchange Economic Statistics Cost of Living Insurance

Income Tax Value Added Tax Stamp Duty Intellectual Property

Broadcasting Television Radio The Press Newspapers Periodicals

Trade and Professional Bodies Trade Unions Sports Bodies Clubs Charities and Societies

483 485 490 492 493 494 495 497 499 503 516 517 544

546 546 548 551 551 555 560 564 568 573 575

THE WORLD The World in Figures Air Distances Travel Overseas

591 598 599

European Union International Organisations Countries of the World A–Z The North and South Poles UK Overseas Territories

601 611 634 929 932

THE YEAR 2014–15 Events A Century Ago: Events 1914–15 UK Affairs Arts and Media Crimes and Legal Affairs Environment and Science Sport International Affairs Obituaries Archaeology Architecture Art Business and Finance Conservation Natural Environment Built Heritage Dance Film Literature The Media Television Radio The Press Internet Classical Music and Opera Pop Music Parliament Acts of Parliament Science and Discovery Sports Results Sports Records Theatre Weather

943 943 944 947 948 950 953 955 969 971 975 981 984 987 987 990 992 996 999 1003 1003 1004 1005 1006 1008 1014 1017 1022 1024 1029 1050 1053 1057

TIME AND SPACE Astronomy Time Measurement and Calendars Tidal Predictions

1065 1123 1137

Abbreviations Index

1144 1148

76

ORDERS OF CHIVALRY THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER (1348)

KG Ribbon, Blue Motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense

(Shame on him who thinks evil of it) The number of Knights and Ladies Companion is limited to 24 SOVEREIGN OF THE ORDER

The Queen LADIES OF THE ORDER

Sir Thomas Dunne, 2008 Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, 2011 Lord Boyce, 2011 Lord Stirrup, 2013 Baroness Manningham-Buller, 2014 Lord King of Lothbury, 2014

Prelate, Bishop of Winchester Chancellor, Duke of Abercorn, KG Register, Dean of Windsor Garter King of Arms, Thomas Woodcock, CVO Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, Lt.-Gen. David Leakey, CMG, CBE Secretary, Patric Dickinson, LVO

THE MOST ANCIENT AND MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE THISTLE (REVIVED 1687)

HRH The Princess Royal, 1994 HRH Princess Alexandra, The Hon. Lady Ogilvy, 2003 ROYAL KNIGHTS

HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 1947 HRH The Prince of Wales, 1958 HRH The Duke of Kent, 1985 HRH The Duke of Gloucester, 1997 HRH The Duke of York, 2006 HRH The Earl of Wessex, 2006 HRH The Duke of Cambridge, 2008 EXTRA KNIGHTS COMPANION AND LADIES

Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg, 1972 HM The Queen of Denmark, 1979 HM The King of Sweden, 1983 HM King Juan Carlos, 1988 HRH Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, 1989 HIM The Emperor of Japan, 1998 HM The King of Norway, 2001

KNIGHTS AND LADIES COMPANION

Lord Carrington, 1985 Lord Bramall, 1990 Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover, 1992 Lord Ashburton, 1994 Sir Ninian Stephen, 1994 Sir Timothy Colman, 1996 Duke of Abercorn, 1999 Sir William Gladstone, 1999 Lord Inge, 2001 Sir Anthony Acland, 2001 Duke of Westminster, 2003 Lord Butler of Brockwell, 2003 Lord Morris of Aberavon, 2003 Sir John Major, 2005 Lord Luce, 2008

Earl of Home, 2013 Lord Smith of Kelvin, 2013

Chancellor, Earl of Airlie, KT, GCVO, PC Dean, Very Revd Prof. Iain Torrance, TD Secretary, Mrs C. Roads, LVO Lord Lyon King of Arms, Dr Joseph Morrow Gentleman Usher of the Green Rod, Rear-Adm. Christopher Layman, CB, DSO, LVO

THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH (1725)

GCB Military GCB Civil GCB KT Ribbon, Green Motto, Nemo me impune lacessit (No one provokes me with impunity) The number of Knights and Ladies of the Thistle is limited to 16 SOVEREIGN OF THE ORDER

The Queen ROYAL KNIGHTS

HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, 1952 HRH The Prince of Wales, Duke of Rothesay, 1977 HRH The Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, 2012 ROYAL LADY OF THE ORDER

HRH The Princess Royal, 2000 KNIGHTS AND LADIES

Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, 1981 Earl of Airlie, 1985 Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, 1996 Lady Marion Fraser, 1996 Lord Macfarlane of Bearsden, 1996 Lord Mackay of Clashfern, 1997 Lord Wilson of Tillyorn, 2000 Lord Sutherland of Houndwood, 2002 Sir Eric Anderson, 2002 Lord Steel of Aikwood, 2004 Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, 2004 Lord Cullen of Whitekirk, 2007 Lord Hope of Craighead, 2009 Lord Patel, 2009

KCB DCB CB

Knight (or Dame) Grand Cross Knight Commander Dame Commander Companion

Ribbon, Crimson Motto, Tria juncta in uno (Three joined in one) Remodelled 1815, and enlarged many times since. The order is divided into civil and military divisions. Women became eligible for the order from 1 January 1971.

THE SOVEREIGN GREAT MASTER AND FIRST OR PRINCIPAL KNIGHT GRAND CROSS

HRH The Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM

Dean of the Order, Dean of Westminster Bath King of Arms, Admiral of the Fleet, the Lord Boyce, KG, GCB, OBE Registrar and Secretary, Rear-Adm. Iain Henderson, CB, CBE Genealogist, Thomas Woodcock, CVO Gentleman Usher of the Scarlet Rod, Maj.-Gen. Charles Vyvyan, CB, CBE Deputy Secretary, Secretary of the Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood Chancery, Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood, St James’s Palace, London SW1A 1BH

117

PARLIAMENT The UK constitution is not contained in any single document but has evolved over time, formed by statute, common law and convention. A constitutional monarchy, the UK is governed by ministers of the crown in the name of the sovereign, who is head both of the state and of the government.

The organs of government are the legislature (parliament), the executive and the judiciary. The executive comprises HM government (the cabinet and other ministers), government departments and local authorities (see Government Departments, Public Bodies and Local Government). The judiciary (see Law Courts and Offices) pronounces on the law, both written and unwritten, interprets statutes and is responsible for the enforcement of the law; the judiciary is independent of both the legislature and the executive.

THE MONARCHY The sovereign personifies the state and is, in law, an integral part of the legislature, head of the executive, head of the judiciary, commander-in-chief of all armed forces of the crown and supreme governor of the Church of England. In the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which are crown dependencies, the sovereign is represented by a lieutenantgovernor. In the member states of the Commonwealth of which the sovereign is head of state, her representative is a governor-general; in UK overseas territories the sovereign is usually represented by a governor, who is responsible to the British government.

Although in practice the powers of the monarchy are now very limited, and restricted mainly to the advisory and ceremonial, there are important acts of government which require the participation of the sovereign. These include summoning, proroguing and dissolving parliament, giving royal assent to bills passed by parliament, appointing important office-holders, eg government ministers, judges, bishops and governors, conferring peerages, knighthoods and other honours, and granting pardon to a person wrongly convicted of a crime. The sovereign appoints the prime minister; by convention this office is held by the leader of the political party which enjoys, or can secure, a majority of votes in the House of Commons. In international affairs the sovereign, as head of state, has the power to declare war and make peace, to recognise foreign states and governments, to conclude treaties and to annex or cede territory. However, as the sovereign entrusts executive power to ministers of the crown and acts on the advice of her ministers, which she cannot ignore, royal prerogative powers are in practice exercised by ministers, who are responsible to parliament.

Ministerial responsibility does not diminish the sovereign’s importance to the smooth working of government. She holds meetings of the Privy Council (see below), gives audiences to her ministers and other officials at home and overseas, receives accounts of cabinet decisions, reads dispatches and signs state papers; she must be informed and consulted on every aspect of national life; and she must show complete impartiality.

COUNSELLORS OF STATE If the sovereign travels abroad for more than a few days or suffers from a temporary illness, it is necessary to appoint members of the royal family, known as counsellors of state, under letters patent to carry out the chief functions of the

monarch, including the holding of Privy Councils and giving royal assent to acts passed by parliament. The normal procedure is to appoint three or four members of the royal family among those members remaining in the UK, provided they are over 21. There are currently five counsellors of state.

In the event of the sovereign on accession being under the age of 18 years, or by infirmity of mind or body, rendered incapable of performing the royal functions, provision is made for a regency.

THE PRIVY COUNCIL The sovereign in council, or Privy Council, was the chief source of executive power until the system of cabinet government developed. Its main function today is to advise the sovereign on the approval of various statutory functions and acts of the royal prerogative. These powers are exercised through orders in council and royal proclamations, approved by the Queen at meetings of the Privy Council. The council is also able to exercise a number of statutory duties without approval from the sovereign, including powers of supervision over the registering bodies for the medical and allied professions. These duties are exercised through orders of council.

Although appointment as a privy counsellor is for life, only those who are currently government ministers are involved in the day-to-day business of the council. A full council is summoned only on the death of the sovereign or when the sovereign announces his or her intention to marry.

(For a full list of privy counsellors, see the Privy Council section.)

There are a number of advisory Privy Council committees whose meetings the sovereign does not attend. Some are prerogative committees, such as those dealing with legislative matters submitted by the legislatures of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man or with applications for charters of incorporation; and some are provided for by statute, eg those for the universities of Oxford and Cambridge and some Scottish universities.

Administrative work is carried out by the Privy Council Office under the direction of the Lord President of the Council, a cabinet minister.

JUDICIAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL Supreme Court Building, Parliament Square, London SW1P 3BD T 020-7960 1500 W www.jcpc.uk

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the court of final appeal from courts of the UK dependencies, courts of independent Commonwealth countries which have retained the right of appeal and courts of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It also hears very occasional appeals from a number of ancient and ecclesiastical courts.

The committee is composed of privy counsellors who hold, or have held, high judicial office. Only three or five judges hear each case, and these are usually justices of the supreme court.

Chief Executive, Jenny Rowe, CB

PARLIAMENT Parliament is the supreme law-making authority and can legislate for the UK as a whole or for any parts of it

Constituencies, England 137

PARLIAMENTARY CONSTITUENCIES AS AT 7 MAY 2015 GENERAL ELECTION UK Turnout

E. 46,424,006 T. 30,697,845 (66.1%)

ENGLAND ALDERSHOT E. 72,434 T. 46,191 (63.77%) C. hold Gerald Howarth, C. 23,369 Gary Puffett, Lab. 8,468 Bill Walker, UKIP 8,253 Alan Hilliar, LD 4,076 Carl Hewitt, Green 2,025 C. majority 14,901 (32.26%) 1.18% swing C. to Lab. (2010: C. majority 5,586 (12.31%)) ALDRIDGE-BROWNHILLS E. 60,215 T. 39,497 (65.59%) C. hold *Wendy Morton, C. 20,558 John Fisher, Lab. 8,835 Anthony Thompson, UKIP 7,751 Ian Garrett, LD 1,330 Martyn Curzey, Green 826 Mark Beech, Loony 197 C. majority 11,723 (29.68%) 4.92% swing C. to Lab. (2010: C. majority 15,266 (39.51%)) ALTRINCHAM & SALE WEST E. 72,004 T. 50,517 (70.16%) C. hold Graham Brady, C. 26,771 James Wright, Lab. 13,481 Jane Brophy, LD 4,235 Chris Frost, UKIP 4,047 Nick Robertson-Brown, Green 1,983 C. majority 13,290 (26.31%) 0.11% swing C. to Lab. (2010: C. majority 11,595 (23.47%)) AMBER VALLEY E. 70,226 T. 45,717 (65.10%) Nigel Mills, C. Kevin Gillott, Lab. Stuart Bent, UKIP Kate Smith, LD John Devine, Green C. majority 4,205 (9.20%) 4.02% swing Lab. to C. (2010: C. majority 536 (1.17%))

C. hold 20,106 15,901 7,263 1,360 1,087

ARUNDEL & SOUTH DOWNS E. 77,272 T. 56,477 (73.09%) C. hold Nick Herbert, C. 34,331 Peter Grace, UKIP 8,154 Christopher Wellbelove, Lab. 6,324 Shweta Kapadia, LD 4,062 Isabel Thurston, Green 3,606 C. majority 26,177 (46.35%) 2.87% swing C. to UKIP (2010: C. majority 16,691 (29.81%)) ASHFIELD E. 77,126 T. 47,409 (61.47%) Lab. hold Gloria De Piero, Lab. 19,448 Helen Harrison, C. 10,628 Simon Ashcroft, UKIP 10,150 Philip Smith, LD 7,030 Mike Buchanan, JMB 153 Lab. majority 8,820 (18.60%) 3.55% swing C. to Lab. (2010: Lab. majority 192 (0.40%))

ASHFORD E. 85,189 T. 57,372 (67.35%) C. hold Damian Green, C. 30,094 Gerald O’Brien, UKIP 10,798 Brendan Chilton, Lab. 10,580 Debbie Enever, LD 3,433 Mandy Rossi, Green 2,467 C. majority 19,296 (33.63%) 7.98% swing C. to UKIP (2010: C. majority 17,297 (31.34%)) ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE E. 67,714 T. 38,918 (57.47%) Lab. hold *Angela Rayner, Lab. 19,366 Tracy Sutton, C. 8,610 Maurice Jackson, UKIP 8,468 Charlotte Hughes, Green 1,531 Carly Hicks, LD 943 Lab. majority 10,756 (27.64%) 1.99% swing C. to Lab. (2010: Lab. majority 9,094 (23.66%)) AYLESBURY E. 80,611 T. 55,419 (68.75%) C. hold David Lidington, C. 28,083 Chris Adams, UKIP 10,925 Will Cass, Lab. 8,391 Steven Lambert, LD 5,885 David Lyons, Green 2,135 C. majority 17,158 (30.96%) 7.21% swing C. to UKIP (2010: C. majority 12,618 (23.73%)) BANBURY E. 86,420 T. 58,008 (67.12%) C. hold *Victoria Prentis, C. 30,749 Sean Woodcock, Lab. 12,354 Dickie Bird, UKIP 8,050 John Howson, LD 3,440 Ian Middleton, Green 2,686 Roseanne Edwards, NHAP 729 C. majority 18,395 (31.71%) 0.97% swing C. to Lab. (2010: C. majority 18,227 (32.41%)) BARKING E. 74,004 T. 43,023 (58.14%) Lab. hold Margaret Hodge, Lab. 24,826 Roger Gravett, UKIP 9,554 Mina Rahman, C. 7,019 Tony Rablen, Green 879 Peter Wilcock, LD 562 Joseph Mambuliya, TUSC 183 Lab. majority 15,272 (35.50%) 7.98% swing Lab. to UKIP (2010: Lab. majority 16,555 (36.51%)) BARNSLEY CENTRAL E. 64,534 T. 36,560 (56.65%) Lab. hold Dan Jarvis, Lab. 20,376 Lee Hunter, UKIP 7,941 Kay Carter, C. 5,485 Michael Short, Green 938 David Ridgway, LD 770 Dave Gibson, TUSC 573 Ian Sutton, Eng. Dem. 477 Lab. majority 12,435 (34.01%) 4.29% swing Lab. to UKIP (2010: Lab. majority 11,093 (29.98%)) (2011: Lab. majority 11,771 (48.60%))

BARNSLEY EAST E. 69,135 T. 38,517 (55.71%) Lab. hold Michael Dugher, Lab. 21,079 Robert Swiffen, UKIP 9,045 Katharine Harborne, C. 5,622 Ruth Coleman-Taylor, LD 1,217 Tony Devoy, Yorks 647 Kevin Riddiough, Eng. Dem. 440 Ralph Dyson, TUSC 364 Billy Marsden, Vapers 103 Lab. majority 12,034 (31.24%) 5.65% swing Lab. to UKIP (2010: Lab. majority 11,090 (28.89%)) BARROW & FURNESS E. 68,338 T. 43,275 (63.32%) Lab. Co-op hold John Woodcock, Lab. Co-op 18,320 Simon Fell, C. 17,525 Nigel Cecil, UKIP 5,070 Clive Peaple, LD 1,169 Robert O’Hara, Green 1,061 Ian Jackson, Ind. 130 Lab. Co-op majority 795 (1.84%) 4.98% swing Lab. Co-op to C. (2010: Lab. Co-op majority 5,208 (11.80%)) BASILDON & BILLERICAY E. 68,459 T. 43,028 (62.85%) C. hold John Baron, C. 22,668 Gavin Callaghan, Lab. 10,186 George Konstantinidis, UKIP 8,538 Martin Thompson, LD 1,636 C. majority 12,482 (29.01%) 0.34% swing C. to Lab. (2010: C. majority 12,338 (29.68%)) BASILDON SOUTH & THURROCK EAST E. 73,210 T. 45,593 (62.28%) C. hold Stephen Metcalfe, C. 19,788 Ian Luder, UKIP 12,097 Mike Le-Surf, Lab. 11,493 Geoff Williams, LD 1,356 Kerry Smith, Ind. 401 None Of The Above X, ND 253 Stuart Hooper, Ind. 205 C. majority 7,691 (16.87%) 10.55% swing C. to UKIP (2010: C. majority 5,772 (12.90%)) BASINGSTOKE E. 79,662 T. 53,076 (66.63%) C. hold Maria Miller, C. 25,769 Paul Harvey, Lab. 14,706 Alan Stone, UKIP 8,290 Janice Spalding, LD 3,919 Omar Selim, Ind. 392 C. majority 11,063 (20.84%) 4.64% swing C. to Lab. (2010: C. majority 13,176 (26.01%)) BASSETLAW E. 77,480 T. 49,289 (63.62%) Lab. hold John Mann, Lab. 23,965 Sarah Downes, C. 15,122 David Scott, UKIP 7,865 Leon Duveen, LD 1,331 Kris Wragg, Green 1,006 Lab. majority 8,843 (17.94%) 0.69% swing C. to Lab. (2010: Lab. majority 8,215 (16.57%))

174

MANIFESTO COMMITMENTS THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY MANIFESTO 2015 Below are selected key commitments made by the Conservative Party in their 2015 manifesto.

ECONOMY AND TAXATION • Increase the income tax personal allowance to £12,500 • Increase the higher rate income tax threshold to £50,000 • Freeze income tax, national insurance and VAT rates for the duration of the next parliament • Reduce government spending by 1 per cent in real terms for the first two years of the next parliament • Increase annual tax charges paid by those with nondomiciled status • Invest in infrastructure and devolve power to support industry growth and jobs in the English regions HEALTH • Provide an additional £8bn of real terms funding to NHS England over the five years to 2020 • Ensure everyone can access a GP and necessary hospital care seven days a week by 2020 • Guarantee same-day GP appointments for those aged 75 and over if they need one • Continue to invest in the Cancer Drugs Fund and deliver earlier detection and diagnosis, and better treatment and care for cancer and dementia patients • Increase funding for mental health care and enforce new access and waiting time standards for those with mental ill-health EDUCATION • Train an extra 17,500 maths and physics teachers over the next five years • Create 3 million new apprenticeships • Ensure there is no cap on university places • Turn every ‘failing’ secondary school into an academy • Support the delivery of free schools for parents and communities that want them LAW AND ORDER • Replace the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights; curtailing the role of the European Court of Human Rights and making the UK Supreme Court arbiter of human rights matters in the UK • Develop the role of Police and Crime Commissioners • Prioritise victim support • Deploy new technology to monitor offenders in the community and to bring persistent offenders to justice quickly • Continue to reform the police and prison systems SOCIETY • Support museums, libraries, media, press freedom, creative industries and tourism • Introduce three days a year paid volunteering leave for those in the public sector and with big companies • Guarantee a place on the National Citizen Service scheme for every 16 and 17-year-old who wants one

• Build 200,000 new starter homes for first-time buyers aged under 40 • Increase the state pension by at least 2.5 per cent, in line with inflation, or in line with earnings – whichever is higher IMMIGRATION • Continue to work towards the goal of reducing annual net migration to under 100,000 a year* • Maintain an annual cap of 20,700 on the number of skilled migrants who can come to the UK from outside the EU • Reform welfare rules so that EU migrants have to be resident in the UK for at least four years before they can claim certain benefits or social housing • End the provision of out of work benefits for all EU migrants • Migrants will be required to leave the UK if they have not found a job within six months • Enhance border security and strengthen the enforcement of immigration rules * For the year ending December 2014 net migration stood at 318,000 (Source: ONS)

POLITICAL REFORM • Maintain the Westminster Parliament as the UK’s lawmaking body • Give English MPs a veto over matters only affecting England • Introduce a Scotland bill, to ensure that more than 50 per cent of the Scottish parliament’s budget is funded from revenues raised in Scotland and also devolve further powers in welfare, taxation and spending to the Scottish parliament • Devolve new powers to the Welsh Assembly, including control over its name, size, assembly electoral system and voting age • Fully implement the Stormont House Agreement in Northern Ireland ENVIRONMENT • Establishing a new ‘Blue Belt’ category to protect marine habitats • Spend £3bn over this parliament enhancing England’s countryside • Build 1,400 new flood defence schemes to protect 300,000 homes • Work with the natural capital committee on a 25-year plan to restore the UK’s biodiversity • Phase-out public subsidies for new onshore wind farms DEFENCE AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS • Give the UK people a say in whether we should remain in the EU, with an ‘in-out’ referendum by 2017 • Work for peace and stability in Iraq and Syria; pursuing a comprehensive political and military strategy to defeat IS • Uphold the sovereignty of Ukraine by continuing to reject Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea • Invest at least £160bn in new military equipment over the next decade • Spend 0.7 per cent of GNI on international development

221

SCOTLAND SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG T 0300-244 4000 E ceu@scotland.gsi.gov.uk W www.gov.scot

The devolved government for Scotland is responsible for most of the issues of day-to-day concern to the people of Scotland, including health, education, justice, rural affairs and transport.

The Scottish government was known as the Scottish executive when it was established in 1999, following the first elections to the Scottish parliament. There has been a majority Scottish National Party administration since the elections in May 2011.

The government is led by a first minister who is nominated by the parliament and in turn appoints the other Scottish ministers who make up the cabinet.

Civil servants in Scotland are accountable to Scottish ministers, who are themselves accountable to the Scottish parliament.

CABINET First Minister, Rt. Hon. Nicola Sturgeon, MSP Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy, John Swinney, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities, Keith Brown, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Europe and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Angela Constance, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Shona Robison, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Michael Matheson, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights, Angela Constance, MSP Cabinet Secretary for Fair Work, Skills and Training, Roseanna Cunningham Minister for Children and Young People, Aileen Campbell, MSP Minister for Community Safety and Legal Affairs, Paul Wheelhouse, MSP Minister for Business, Energy, and Tourism, Fergus Ewing, MSP Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform, Aileen McLeod, MSP Minister for Europe and International Development, Humza Yousaf, MSP Minister for Housing and Welfare, Margaret Burgess, MSP Minister for Learning, Science and Scotland’s Languages, Alasdair Allan, MSP Minister for Local Government and Community Empowerment, Marco Biagi, MSP Minister for Parliamentary Business, Joe Fitzpatrick, MSP Minister for Public Health, Maureen Watt, MSP Minister for Transport and Islands, Derek Mackay, MSP Minister for Youth and Women’s Employment, Annabelle Ewing, MSP Minister for Sport and Health Improvement, Jamies Hepburn, MSP LAW OFFICERS Lord Advocate, Frank Mulholland, QC Solicitor-General for Scotland, Lesley Thomson

STRATEGIC BOARD Permanent Secretary, Leslie Evans Director-General Communities, Sarah Davidson Director-General, Enterprise, Environment and Digital, Graeme Dickson Director-General, Finance, Alyson Stafford Director-General, Health and Social Care, Paul Gray Director-General, Learning and Justice, Paul Johnston Director-General, Strategy and External Affairs, Ken Thomson GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS DIRECTOR-GENERAL ENTERPRISE, ENVIRONMENT AND INNOVATION St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh EH1 3DG

Directorates: Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; Chief Scientific Adviser for Rural Affairs and the Environment; Chief Economist; Economic Development; Energy and Climate Change; Environment and Forestry; Marine Scotland; Scottish Development International Director-General, Graeme Dickson Executive Agencies Accountant in Bankruptcy Drinking Water Quality Regulator James Hutton Institute Moredun Research Institute Scottish Agricultural College Transport Scotland Waterwatch Scotland DIRECTOR-GENERAL FINANCE Victoria Quay, Edinburgh EH6 6QQ

Directorates: Legal Services (Solicitor to the Scottish Government), Financial Management; Financial Strategy; Office of the Scottish Parliamentary Counsel; Scottish Procurement and Commercial; Internal Audit Director-General, Alyson Stafford Executive Agencies Audit Scotland Scottish Public Pensions Agency DIRECTOR-GENERAL COMMUNITIES Saughton House, Broomhouse Drive, Edinburgh, EH11 3XD

Directorates: Digital; Housing, Regeneration and Welfare; Local Government and Communities Director-General, Sarah Davidson Executive Agency Scottish Housing Regulator DIRECTOR-GENERAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE St Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh EH1 3DG

Directorates: Chief Medical Officer; Chief Nursing Officer; Children and Families; Finance, eHealth and Analytics; Health and Social Care Integration; Healthcare Quality and Strategy; Office of the Director-General Health and Social Care and Chief Executive NHS Scotland; Performance and Delivery; Population Health Improvement Director-General Health and Social Care and Chief Executive NHS Scotland, Paul Gray Executive Agencies Disclosure Scotland Scottish Children’s Reporters Administration DIRECTOR-GENERAL LEARNING AND JUSTICE St Andrew’s House, Edinburgh EH1 3DG

London Forces 309

POLICE FORCES The telephone number for each local police force in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is T 101 ENGLAND Force Avon and Somerset Bedfordshire Cambridgeshire Cheshire Cleveland Cumbria Derbyshire Devon and Cornwall Dorset Durham Essex Gloucestershire Greater Manchester Hampshire Hertfordshire Humberside Kent Lancashire Leicestershire Lincolnshire Merseyside Norfolk North Yorkshire Northamptonshire Northumbria Nottinghamshire South Yorkshire Staffordshire Suffolk Surrey Sussex Thames Valley Warwickshire West Mercia West Midlands West Yorkshire Wiltshire WALES Dyfed-Powys Gwent North Wales South Wales POLICE SCOTLAND POLICE SERVICE OF NORTHERN IRELAND ISLANDS Isle of Man States of Jersey Guernsey

Strength† 2,716 1,161 1,337 1,878 1,434 1,137 1,889 3,073 1,268 1,199 3,090 1,178 6,749 3,283 1,923 1,760 3,196 3,059 2,072 1,108 3,978 1,551 1,392 1,364 3,506 2,106 2,690 1,684 1,180 1,941 2,831 4,209 791 1,902 7,401 4,774 1,022 1,094 1,272 1,515 2,853 17,234 7,791

Strength† 210 230 148

Chief Constable John Long (acting), QPM Colette Paul, QPM Simon Parr, QPM Simon Byrne Jacqui Cheer, QPM Jeremy Graham Mick Creedon, QPM Shaun Sawyer Debbie Simpson, QPM Mike Barton, QPM Stephen Kavanagh Suzette Davenport Sir Peter Fahy, QPM Andy Marsh Andy Bliss, QPM Justine Curran, QPM Alan Pughsley, QPM Steve Finnigan, CBE, QPM Simon Cole, QPM Neil Rhodes Sir Jon Murphy, QPM Simon Bailey Dave Jones Adrian Lee Sue Sim Chris Eyre, QPM David Crompton, QPM Jane Sawyers Douglas Paxton, QPM Lynne Owens, QPM Giles York, QPM Sara Thornton, CBE, QPM Andy Parker, QPM David Shaw Chris Sims, OBE, QPM Mark Gilmore, QPM Patrick Geenty

Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens Olly Martins Sir Graham Bright John Dwyer Barry Coppinger Richard Rhodes Alan Charles Tony Hogg Martyn Underhill Ron Hogg Nick Alston Martin Surl Tony Lloyd Simon Hayes David Lloyd Matthew Grove Ann Barnes Clive Grunshaw Sir Clive Loader Alan Hardwick Jane Kennedy Stephen Bett Julia Mulligan Adam Simmonds Vera Baird Paddy Tipping Dr Alan Billings Matthew Ellis Tim Passmore Kevin Hurley Katy Bourne Anthony Stansfeld Ron Ball Bill Longmore David Jamieson Mark Burns-Williamson, OBE Angus Macpherson

Simon Prince, QPM Jeffrey Farrar, QPM Mark Polin, QPM Peter Vaughan, QPM vacant

Christopher Salmon Ian Johnston Winston Roddick Rt. Hon. Alun Michael –

George Hamilton, QPM Chief Constable Gary Roberts Mike Bowron, QPM Patrick Rice

– Telephone 01624-631212 01534-612612 01481-725111

† Size of force (full-time equivalent) as at March 2015 Sources: R. Hazell & Co, Sweet & Maxwell Police and Constabulary Almanac 2015

LONDON FORCES CITY OF LONDON POLICE 37 Wood Street, London EC2P 2NQ T 020-7601 2222 W www.cityoflondon.police.uk

Strength (March 2015), 750 The City of London has one of the most important financial centres in the world and the force has particular expertise in fraud investigation. The force concentrates on: economic crime, counter terrorism and community policing. It has a

wholly elected police authority, the police committee of the City of London Corporation, which appoints the commissioner.

Commissioner, Adrian Leppard, QPM Assistant Commissioner, Ian Dyson Commanders, Wayne Chance (Operations); Steve Head (Economic Crime)

373

NATIONAL ACADEMIES OF SCHOLARSHIP The national academies are self-governing bodies whose members are elected as a result of achievement and distinction in the academy’s field. Within their discipline, the academies provide advice, support education and exceptional scholars, stimulate debate, promote UK research worldwide and collaborate with international counterparts.

Three of the national academies – the Royal Society, the British Academy and the Royal Academy of Engineering – receive grant-in-aid funding from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). The Academy of Medical Sciences receives core funding from the Department of Health and since 2014 an additional programme grant (£0.47m in 2015–16) from BIS. The Royal Society of Edinburgh is aided by funds provided by the Scottish government. In addition to government funding, the national academies generate additional income from donations, membership contributions, trading and investments.

BRITISH ACADEMY (1902) 10–11 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AH T 020-7969 5200 W www.britac.ac.uk

The British Academy is an independent, self-governing learned society for the promotion of the humanities and social sciences. It was founded in 1901 and granted a royal charter in 1902. The British Academy supports advanced academic research and is a channel for the government’s support of research in those disciplines.

The fellows are scholars who have attained distinction in one of the branches of study that the academy exists to promote. Candidates must be nominated by existing fellows.

There are around 930 fellows, 20 honorary fellows and 300 corresponding fellows overseas.

President, Lord Stern of Brentford Chief Executive, Alun Evans

ROYAL ACADEMY OF ENGINEERING (1976) 3 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5DG T 020-7766 0600 W www.raeng.org.uk

ACADEMY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES (1998) 41 Portland Place, London W1B 1QH T 020-3176 2150 W www.acmedsci.ac.uk

Founded in 1998, the Academy of Medical Sciences is the independent body in the UK representing the diversity of medical science. The Academy seeks to improve health through research, as well as to promote medical science and its translation into benefits for society.

The academy is self-governing and receives funding from a variety of sources, including the fellowship, charitable donations, government and industry.

Fellows are elected from a broad range of medical sciences: biomedical, clinical and population based. The academy includes in its remit veterinary medicine, dentistry, nursing, medical law, economics, sociology and ethics.

Elections are from nominations put forward by existing fellows.

As at May 2015 there were 1,094 fellows and 39 honorary fellows.

President, Prof. Sir John Tooke, PMEDSCI Executive Director, Dr Helen Munn

The Royal Academy of Engineering was established as the Fellowship of Engineering in 1976. It was granted a royal charter in 1983 and its present title in 1992. It is an independent, self-governing body whose object is the pursuit, encouragement and maintenance of excellence in the whole field of engineering, in order to promote the advancement of the science, art and practice of engineering for the benefit of the public.

Election to the fellowship is by invitation only, from nominations supported by the body of fellows. There are around 1,370 fellows, 42 honorary fellows and 102 international fellows. The Duke of Edinburgh is the senior fellow and the Princess Royal and the Duke of Kent are both royal fellows.

President, Dame Ann Dowling, DBE, FRENG, FRS Chief Executive, Philip Greenish, CBE

ROYAL SOCIETY (1660) 6–9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG T 020-7451 2500 W www.royalsociety.org

The Royal Society is an independent academy promoting the natural and applied sciences. Founded in 1660 and granted a royal charter in 1662, the society has three roles: as the UK academy of science, as a learned society and as a funding agency. It is an independent, self-governing body under a royal charter, promoting and advancing all fields of physical and biological sciences, of mathematics and engineering, medical and agricultural sciences and their application.

Fellows are elected for their contributions to science, both in fundamental research resulting in greater understanding, and also in leading and directing scientific and technological progress in industry and research establishments. Each year up to 52 new fellows, who must be citizens or residents of the Commonwealth or Ireland, and up to ten foreign members may be elected. In addition one honorary fellow may also be elected annually from those not eligible for election as fellows or foreign members. There are around 1,430 fellows, 165 foreign members and six honorary members covering all scientific disciplines. The Queen is the

406

TRANSPORT CIVIL AVIATION Since the privatisation of British Airways in 1987, UK airlines have been operated entirely by the private sector.

In 2014, total capacity of British airlines amounted to 50.5 billion tonne-km, of which 41 billion tonne-km was on scheduled services. UK airlines carried around 141 million passengers; 125 million on scheduled services and 16 million on charter flights. Passenger traffic through UK airports increased by 0.44 per cent in 2014. Traffic at the six main London area airports (Gatwick, Heathrow, London City, Luton, Southend and Stansted) increased by 5 per cent over 2014 and other UK regional airports saw an increase of 3 per cent.

Leading British airlines include British Airways, EasyJet, Monarch, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomson Airways and Virgin Atlantic. Irish airline Ryanair also operates frequent flights from the UK. There are around 140 licensed civil aerodromes in Britain, with Heathrow and Gatwick handling the highest volume of passengers.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), an independent statutory body, is responsible for the regulation of UK airlines. This includes economic and airspace regulation, air safety, consumer protection and environmental research and consultancy. All commercial airline companies must be granted an air operator’s certificate, which is issued by the CAA to operators meeting the required safety standards. The CAA issues airport safety licences, which must be obtained by any airport used for public transport and training flights.

All British-registered aircraft must be granted an airworthiness certificate, and the CAA issues professional licences to pilots, flight crew, ground engineers and air traffic controllers. The CAA also manages the Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL), the UK’s principal travel protection scheme.

The CAA’s costs are met entirely from charges on those whom it regulates; there is no direct government funding of the CAA’s work.

The Transport Act 2000 separated the CAA from its subsidiary, National Air Traffic Services (NATS), which provides air traffic control services to aircraft flying in UK airspace and over the eastern part of the North Atlantic. NATS is a public private partnership (PPP) between the Airline Group (a consortium of UK airlines), which holds 42 per cent of the shares; NATS staff, who hold 5 per cent; UK airport operator LHR Airports Limited, which holds 4 per cent, and the government, which holds 49 per cent and a golden share.

In 2013–14 NATS handled a total of 2,153,995 flights, an increase of 0.4 per cent on 2012–13 figures.

AIR PASSENGERS 2014 All UK Airports: Total Aberdeen Barra Belfast City Belfast International Benbecula Birmingham Blackpool Bournemouth Bristol Cambridge Campbeltown

238,557,866 3,723,662 10,521 2,555,145 4,033,954 31,213 9,705,955 223,998 661,584 6,339,805 20,663 9,365

Cardiff City of Derry (Eglinton) Doncaster Sheffield Dundee Durham Tees Valley East Midlands Edinburgh Exeter Gatwick Glasgow Gloucestershire Heathrow Humberside Inverness Islay Isle of Man Isles of Scilly (St Mary’s) Kent International Kirkwall Lands End (St Just) Leeds Bradford Lerwick (Tingwall) Liverpool London City Luton Lydd Manchester Newcastle Newquay Norwich Oxford (Kidlington) Prestwick Scatsta Shoreham Southampton Southend Stansted Stornoway Sumburgh Tiree Wick Channel Islands Airports: Total Alderney Guernsey Jersey

1,023,932 350,257 724,885 22,069 142,379 4,510,544 10,160,004 767,404 38,103,667 7,715,988 15,172 73,405,330 239,173 612,725 27,659 729,703 90,944 12,508 161,347 44,475 2,274,474 3,739 3,986,654 3,647,824 10,484,938 1,227 21,989,682 4,516,739 221,047 458,968 1,194 913,685 279,799 452 1,831,700 1,102,358 19,965,093 129,481 264,521 9,322 28,145 2,451,626 61,317 894,602 1,495,707

Source: Civil Aviation Authority

CAA, CAA House, 45–59 Kingsway, London WC2B 6TE T 020-7379 7311 W www.caa.co.uk

Heathrow Airport Gatwick Airport Manchester Airport Stansted Airport

T 0844-335 1801 T 0844-892 0322 T 0871-271 0711 T 0844-335 1803

BRITISH AIRLINES BRITISH AIRWAYS, PO Box 365, Waterside, Harmondsworth UB7 0GB T 0844-493 0787 W www.britishairways.com

EASYJET, Hangar 89, London Luton Airport LU2 9PF T 0330-365 5000 W www.easyjet.com

MONARCH, Prospect House, Prospect Way, London Luton Airport LU2 9NU T 0333-003 0100 W www.monarch.co.uk

495

ECONOMIC STATISTICS THE BUDGET (SUMMER 2015) GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE DEPARTMENTAL EXPENDITURE LIMITS £ billion Plans 2015–16 Resource DEL Education 53.5 NHS (Health) 111.9 Transport 2.3 Business, Innovation and Skills 13.1 CLG Communities 2.5 CLG Local Government 10.6 Home Office 10.2 Justice 6.3 Law Officers’ Departments 0.5 Defence 28.1 Foreign and Commonwealth Office 1.8 International Development 7.4 Energy and Climate Change 1.4 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 1.6 Culture, Media and Sport 1.1 Work and Pensions 6.3 Scotland 25.5 Wales 12.9 Northern Ireland 9.6 Chancellor’s departments 3.5 Cabinet Office 2.5 Small and Independent bodies 1.6 Reserve 2.0 Special reserve 0.2 Adjustment for budget exchange (0.5) TOTAL RESOURCE DEL 316.1 *OBR Allowance for shortfall (1.0) OBR Resource DEL 315.1 Capital DEL Education 4.7 NHS (Health) 4.6 Transport 6.1 Business, Innovation and Skills 3.8 CLG Communities 5.3 CLG Local Government 0.0 Home Office 0.4 Justice 0.3 Law Officers’ Departments 0.0 Defence 6.8 Foreign and Commonwealth Office 0.1 International Development 2.6 Energy and Climate Change 2.5 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 0.5 Culture, Media and Sport 0.4 Work and Pensions 0.2 Scotland 3.1 Wales 1.5 Northern Ireland 1.1 Chancellor’s departments 0.3 Cabinet Office 0.4 Small and Independent bodies 0.1 Reserve 0.9 Special reserve 0.1 Adjustment for budget exchange (1.6) TOTAL CAPITAL DEL 44.4 *OBR Allowance for shortfall (2.0)

OBR Capital DEL TOTAL DEL

42.4 360.5

* OBR = Office for Budget Responsibility Source: HM Treasury – Summer Budget 2015 (Crown copyright)

TOTAL MANAGED EXPENDITURE £ billion Plans Plans 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 Current Expenditure Resource Annually Managed 337.9 344.3 358.6 Expenditure (AME) Resource DEL 315.1 – – Ring-fenced depreciation 22.3 – – Resource DEL, including – 341.4 339.7 depreciation Capital Expenditure Capital AME 24.7 26.0 26.3 Capital DEL 42.4 42.6 43.3 TOTAL MANAGED 742.3 754.3 768.0 EXPENDITURE Total Managed Expenditure 39.6% 38.7% 37.8% (% GDP) Source: HM Treasury – Summer Budget 2015 (Crown copyright)

GOVERNMENT RECEIPTS £ billion Income tax (gross of tax credits)1 Pay as you earn Self assessment National insurance contributions (NICs) Value added tax Corporation tax Petroleum revenue tax Fuel duties Business rates Council tax VAT refunds Capital gains tax Inheritance tax Stamp duty land tax Stamp taxes on shares Tobacco duties Spirits duties Wine duties Beer and cider duties Air passenger duty Insurance premium tax Climate change levy Other HMRC taxes2 Vehicle excise duties Bank levy Bank surcharge Licence fee receipts Enviromental levies EU ETS* Auction recipts Scottish taxes Diverted profits tax Other taxes Total Taxes

Outturn 2014–15

Forecast 2015–16

Forecast 2016–17

163.7 140.0 23.6

170.2 145.2 25.3

184.8 155.1 31.3

110.3 111.3 42.9 0.1 27.2 27.3 27.9 13.7 5.6 3.8 10.9 2.9 9.3 3.0 3.8 3.6 3.2 3.0 1.6 6.6 5.9 2.8 0.0 3.1 3.6 0.4 0.0 0.0 6.2 603.6

114.8 115.9 43.1 0.0 27.1 28.0 28.4 13.6 6.4 4.2 11.5 3.2 9.1 3.2 4.0 3.5 3.1 3.5 2.3 6.9 5.6 3.7 0.0 3.1 6.0 0.3 0.6 0.0 7.1 628.9

125.8 119.2 43.4 (0.1) 27.3 29.0 29.0 13.8 7.4 4.6 12.6 3.3 9.0 3.2 4.1 3.4 3.2 4.5 2.4 6.9 5.5 3.1 0.9 3.2 7.3 0.3 0.7 0.3 7.1 665.2

591

THE WORLD IN FIGURES THE EARTH The shape of the Earth is that of an oblate spheroid or solid of revolution whose meridian sections are ellipses, while the sections at right angles are circles.

DIMENSIONS Equatorial diameter = 12,742.01km (7,917.51 miles) Polar diameter = 12,713.50km (7,899.80 miles) Equatorial circumference = 40,030.20km (24,873.6 miles) Polar circumference = 40,007.86km (24,859.73 miles) Mass = 5,972,190,000,000,000,000,000,000kg (5.972 × 1024kg) The equatorial circumference is divided into 360 degrees of longitude, which is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds east or west of the Greenwich (or ‘prime’) meridian (0°) to 180°; the meridian 180° E coinciding with 180° W. This was internationally ratified in 1884.

Distance north and south of the equator is measured in degrees, minutes and seconds of latitude. The equator is 0°, the North Pole is 90°N. and the South Pole is 90°S. The tropics lie at 23° 27 N. (tropic of cancer) and 23° 27 S. (tropic of capricorn). The Arctic Circle lies at 66° 33 N. and the Antarctic Circle at 66° 33 S. (Note the tropics and the Arctic and Antarctic circles are affected by the slow decrease in obliquity of the ecliptic, of about 0.47 arcseconds per year.

The effect of this is that the Arctic and Antarctic circles are currently moving towards their respective poles by about 14m per annum, while the tropics move towards the equator by the same amount.)

AREA ETC The surface area of the Earth is 510,064,472km2 (196,936,994 miles2), of which the water area is 70.92 per cent and the land area is 29.08 per cent.

The radial velocity on the Earth’s surface at the equator is 1,669.79km per hour (1,037.56mph). The Earth’s mean velocity in its orbit around the Sun is 107,218km per hour (66,622mph). The Earth’s mean distance from the Sun is 149,598,262km (92,956,050 miles).

OCEANS LARGEST BY AREA Pacific Atlantic Indian Southern Arctic

km2 165,250,000 82,440,000 73,440,000 20,327,000 14,090,000

miles2 63,800,000 31,830,000 28,360,000 7,848,300 5,440,000

The equator divides the Pacific into the North and South Pacific and the Atlantic into the North and South Atlantic. In 2000 the International Hydrographic Organisation approved the description of the 20,327,000km2 (7,848,300 miles2) of circum-Antarctic waters up to 60°S. as the Southern Ocean.

GREATEST KNOWN OCEAN DEPTHS Greatest depth Location metres Mariana Trench* Pacific 10,994 Puerto Rico Trench Atlantic 8,380 Diamantina Trench Indian 8,047 South Sandwich Trench Southern 7,235 Molloy Deep Arctic 5,607

feet 36,070 27,493 26,401 23,737 18,397

* On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard (Switzerland) and Don Walsh (USA) descended in the bathyscaphe Trieste to the floor of the Mariana Trench, a depth later calculated as 10,916m (35,814ft). The current depth was calculated by the Japanese remote-controlled probe Kaiko on 24 March 1995. On 1 June 2009, sonar mapping of the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench by the US oceanographic research vessel Kilo Moana indicated a possible depth of 10,971m (35,994ft)

SEAS LARGEST BY AREA South China Caribbean Mediterranean Bering Okhotsk Gulf of Mexico Japan Hudson Bay Andaman East China North Sea Red Sea Black Sea

km2 3,685,000 2,753,000 2,509,900 2,304,000 1,582,000 1,550,000 978,000 819,000 798,000 750,000 570,000 453,000 422,000

GREATEST KNOWN SEA DEPTHS Greatest depth metres Caribbean (Cayman Trench) 7,686 Philippine Sea (Ryukyu Trench) 7,507 Mediterranean (Calypso Deep) 5,267 Gulf of Mexico (Sigsbee Deep) 5,203 South China 5,016 Andaman 4,400 Bering (Bowers Basin) 4,097 Japan 3,742 Okhotsk 3,372 Red Sea 3,040 Black Sea 2,212 North Sea 700

miles2 1,423,000 1,063,000 969,100 890,000 611,000 600,000 377,600 316,000 308,000 290,000 220,000 174,900 163,000

feet 25,216 24,629 17,280 17,070 16,457 14,500 13,442 12,276 11,063 9,974 7,257 2,300

THE CONTINENTS There are generally considered to be seven continents: Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Asia, Australia and Europe. Europe and Asia are sometimes considered a single continent: Eurasia, and North and South America are sometimes referred to together as the Americas.

AFRICA is surrounded by sea except for the narrow isthmus of Suez in the north-east, through which was cut the Suez Canal (opened 17 November 1869). Its extreme longitudes are 17° 20 W. at Cabo Verde, Senegal, and 51° 24 E. at Raas Xaafunn, Somalia. The extreme latitudes are 37° 20 N. at Cape Blanc, Tunisia, and 34° 50 S. at Cape

601

THE EUROPEAN UNION

MEMBER STATE Austria Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Latvia Lithuania Luxembourg Malta The Netherlands Poland Portugal Romania Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden United Kingdom

ACCESSION DATE 1 Jan 1995 1 Jan 1958 1 Jan 2007 1 July 2013 1 May 2004 1 May 2004 1 Jan 1973 1 May 2004 1 Jan 1995 1 Jan 1958 1 Jan 1 9 5 8

1 Jan 1981 1 May 2004 1 Jan 1973 1 Jan 1958 1 May 2004 1 May 2004 1 Jan 1958 1 May 2004 1 Jan 1958 1 May 2004 1 Jan 1986 1 Jan 2007 1 May 2004 1 May 2004 1 Jan 1986 1 Jan 1995 1 Jan 1973

POPULATION*

8, 665, 550 11, 323, 973 7, 186, 893 4, 464, 844 1, 189, 197 10, 644, 842 5, 581, 503 1, 265, 420 5, 476, 922 66, 553, 766 80, 854, 408 10, 775, 643 9, 897, 541 4, 892, 305 61, 855, 120 1, 986, 705 2, 884, 433 570, 252 413, 965 16, 947, 904 38, 562, 189 10, 825, 309 21, 666, 350 5, 445, 027 1, 983, 412 48, 146, 134 9, 801, 616 64, 088, 222

COUNCIL VOTES

10 12 10 7 4 12 7 4 7 29 29 12 12 7 29 4 7 4 3 13 27 12 14 7 4 27 10 29

* July 2015 estimate † Under the Lisbon Treaty the total number of MEPs was set at 751 from the 2014 election onwards Sources: CIA World Factbook; www.europa.eu

EP SEATS†

18 21 17 11 6 21 13 6 13 74 96 21 21 11 73 8 11 6 6 26 51 21 32 13 8 54 20 73

786

Countries of the World

LIBYA Dawlat Libya – State of Libya

Area – 1,759,540 sq. km Capital – Tripoli (Tarabulus); population, 1,126,000 (2014) Major cities – al-Hums, az-Zawiyah, Benghazi, Misratah, Tarhunah, Zuwarah Currency – Libyan dinar (LD) of 1,000 dirhams Population – 6,411,776 rising at 2.23 per cent a year (2015 est); Arab–Berber (97 per cent), with some Tuareg in the south-west Religion – Muslim 96.6 per cent (vast majority Sunni), Christian 2.7 per cent, other 0.5 per cent Language – Arabic (official), Berber dialects Population density – 4 per sq. km (2013) Urban population – 78.1 per cent (2013 est) Median age (years) – 27.5 (2014 est) National anthem – ‘Libya, Libya, Libya’ National day – 23 October (Liberation Day) Death penalty – Retained CPI score – 18 (166)

CLIMATE AND TERRAIN

Apart from hills on the north-west and north-east coasts and in the far south, the country is made up of plains and plateaux, with some depressions; 90 per cent is desert or semi-desert. Elevation extremes range from 2,267m (Bikku Bitti) to −47m (Sabkhat Ghuzayyil). The climate is Mediterranean on the coast, and arid desert in the interior.

Average temperatures in Tripoli range from 12.9°C in January to 30.4°C in July.

POLITICS

Following the overthrow of the ‘Leader of the Revolution’, Col. Muammar al-Gaddafi, the National Transitional Council (NTC) set out plans for a ‘political democratic regime to be based upon the political multitude and multi-party system’.

In July 2012 the General National Congress was elected and power was handed over from the transitional government in August; Mohammed Magarief was elected interim head of state. In October 2012, prime minister elect Mustafa Abu Shagur failed in two attempts to gain parliamentary approval for his government; the national

congress elected Ali Zidan prime minister in his place. In May 2014 businessman Ahmed Maiteg was elected prime minister but stood down one month later, when the Supreme Court ruled his election unconstitutional.

Abdullah al-Thinni was appointed Libya’s acting prime minister in June 2014. In August, the House of Representatives replaced the General National Congress as the legislative body and its president, Akila Issa, became the new head of state. Continuing political chaos saw the former legislative body, the General National Congress, appoint their own prime minister, Islamist Omar al-Hassi, on 25 August, resulting in two rival governments. Al-Thinni’s government resigned on 29 August in order to allow for the formation of a national unity government; however, al-Thinni was reappointed in September after Tripoli was captured by rebel groups, forcing the government to relocate to Tobruk. Talks between the two rival administrations, held in Morocco in June 2015, failed to result in the formation of a new national unity government.

HEAD OF STATE Chair of the House of Representatives, Akila Issa SELECTED GOVERNMENT MEMBERS as at May 2015 Prime Minister, Abdullah al-Thinni First Deputy Prime Minister, Almahdi Hassan Muftah Allabad Second Deputy Prime Minister, Abdulsalam al-Badri Third Deputy Prime Minister, Abdulrahman al-Taher Economy, Muneer Ali Assr EMBASSY OF LIBYA 15 Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7LY T 020-7201 8280 W www.libyanembassy.org

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, HE Mahmud Nacua, apptd 2012 BRITISH AMBASSADOR Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, HE Peter Millett, apptd 2015, resident at Tunis, Tunisia

DEFENCE Aged 16–49, 2010 est Available for military service Fit for military service

Males 1,775,078 1,511,144

Females 1,714,194 1,458,934

Military expenditure – US$3,302m (2014 est) Conscription – 16 to 49 years of age;12–24 months (selective)

ECONOMY AND TRADE

Normalisation of international relations stimulated economic liberalisation and the start of a slow transition towards a more market-orientated economy, as well as attracting more foreign direct investment.

The state-controlled oil industry dominates the economy, accounting for 95 per cent of export earnings and about 65 per cent of GDP and 80 per cent of government revenue; as the population is small, this gives the country one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa, although the benefits are

914

Countries of the World

THE STATES OF THE UNION The USA is a federal republic consisting of 50 states and the federal District of Columbia, and also of organised territories. Of the present 50 states, 13 are original states, seven were admitted without previous organisation as territories, and 30 were admitted after such organisation. § The 13 original states

State (date and order of admission) Area sq. km Alabama (AL) (1819, 22) 135,767 1,723,337 Alaska (AK) (1959, 49) 295,234 Arizona (AZ) (1912, 48) 137,732 Arkansas (AR) (1836, 25) 423,967 California (CA) (1850, 31) 269,601 Colorado (CO) (1876, 38) 14,357 Connecticut (CT) § (1788, 5) 6,446 Delaware (DE) § (1787, 1) 170,312 Florida (FL) (1845, 27) 153,910 Georgia (GA) § (1788, 4) 28,313 Hawaii (HI) (1959, 50) 216,443 Idaho (ID) (1890, 43) 149,995 Illinois (IL) (1818, 21) 94,326 Indiana (IN) (1816, 19) 145,746 Iowa (IA) (1846, 29) 213,100 Kansas (KS) (1861, 34) 104,656 Kentucky (KY) (1792, 15) 135,659 Louisiana (LA) (1812, 18) 91,633 Maine (ME) (1820, 23) 32,131 Maryland (MD) § (1788, 7) 27,336 Massachusetts (MA) § (1788, 6) 250,487 Michigan (MI) (1837, 26) 225,163 Minnesota (MN) (1858, 32) 125,438 Mississippi (MS) (1817, 20) 180,540 Missouri (MO) (1821, 24) 380,831 Montana (MT) (1889, 41) 200,330 Nebraska (NE) (1867, 37) 286,380 Nevada (NV) (1864, 36) 24,214 New Hampshire (NH) § (1788, 9) 22,591 New Jersey (NJ) § (1787, 3) 314,917 New Mexico (NM) (1912, 47) 141,297 New York (NY) § (1788, 11) 139,391 North Carolina (NC) § (1789, 12) 183,108 North Dakota (ND) (1889, 39) 116,098 Ohio (OH) (1803, 17) 181,037 Oklahoma (OK) (1907, 46) 254,799 Oregon (OR) (1859, 33) 119,280 Pennsylvania (PA) § (1787, 2) 4,001 Rhode Island (RI) § (1790, 13) 82,933 South Carolina (SC) § (1788, 8) 199,729 South Dakota (SD) (1889, 40) 109,153 Tennessee (TN) (1796, 16) 695,662 Texas (TX) (1845, 28) 219,882 Utah (UT) (1896, 45) 24,906 Vermont (VT) (1791, 14) 110,787 Virginia (VA) § (1788, 10) 184,661 Washington (WA) (1889, 42) 62,756 West Virginia (WV) (1863, 35) 169,635 Wisconsin (WI) (1848, 30) 253,335 Wyoming (WY) (1890, 44) 177 Dist. of Columbia (DC) (1791)

(D) Democratic Party; (I) Independent; (R) Republican Party

Population* 4,833,722 735,132 6,626,624 2,959,373 38,332,521 5,268,367 3,596,080 925,749 19,552,860 9,992,167 1,404,054 1,612,136 12,882,135 6,570,902 3,090,416 2,893,957 4,395,295 4,625,470 1,328,302 5,928,814 6,692,824 9,895,622 5,420,380 2,991,207 6,044,171 1,015,165 1,868,516 2,790,136 1,323,459 8,899,339 2,085,287 19,651,127 9,848,060 723,393 11,570,808 3,850,568 3,930,065 12,773,801 1,051,511 4,774,839 844,877 6,495,978 26,448,193 2,900,872 626,630 8,260,405 6,971,406 1,854,304 5,742,713 582,658 646,449

OUTLYING TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS American Samoa 199 54,343 544 161,785 Guam 464 52,344 Northern Mariana Islands 13,790 3,598,357 Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands 1,910 103,574 *States 2015 estimate; outlying territories 2015 estimate

Capital Montgomery Juneau Phoenix Little Rock Sacramento Denver Hartford Dover Tallahassee Atlanta Honolulu Boise Springfield Indianapolis Des Moines Topeka Frankfort Baton Rouge Augusta Annapolis Boston Lansing St Paul Jackson Jefferson City Helena Lincoln Carson City Concord Trenton Santa Fe Albany Raleigh Bismarck Columbus Oklahoma City Salem Harrisburg Providence Columbia Pierre Nashville Austin Salt Lake City Montpelier Richmond Olympia Charleston Madison Cheyenne —

Pago Pago Hagatna Saipan San Juan Charlotte Amalie

Governor (end of term in office) Robert Bentley (R), Jan. 2019 Bill Walker (I), Dec. 2018 Doug Ducey (R), Jan. 2019 Asa Hutchinson (R), Jan. 2019 Jerry Brown (D), Jan. 2019 John Hickenlooper (D), Jan. 2019 Dan Malloy (D), Jan. 2019 Jack Markell (D), Jan. 2017 Rick Scott (R), Jan. 2019 Nathan Deal (R), Jan. 2019 David Ige (D), Dec. 2018 C. L. (Butch) Otter (R), Jan. 2019 Bruce Rauner (R), Jan. 2019 Mike Pence (R), Jan. 2017 Terry Branstad (R), Jan. 2019 Sam Brownback (R), Jan. 2019 Steve Beshear (D), Dec. 2015 Bobby Jindal (R), Jan. 2016 Paul LePage (R), Jan. 2019 Larry Hogan (R), Jan. 2019 Charlie Baker (R), Jan. 2019 Rick Snyder (R), Jan. 2019 Mark Dayton (D), Jan. 2019 Phil Bryant (R), Jan. 2016 Jeremiah ( Jay) Nixon (D), Jan. 2017 Steve Bullock (D), Jan. 2017 Pete Ricketts (R), Jan. 2019 Brian Sandoval (R), Jan. 2019 Maggie Hassan (D), Jan. 2017 Chris Christie (R), Jan. 2018 Susana Martinez (R), Jan. 2019 Andrew Cuomo (D), Jan. 2019 Pat McCrory (R), Jan. 2017 Jack Dalrymple (R), Dec. 2016 John Kasich (R), Jan. 2019 Mary Fallin (R), Jan. 2019 Kate Brown (D), Jan. 2019 Tom Wolf (D), Jan. 2019 Gina Raimondo (D), Jan. 2019 Nikki R. Haley (R), Jan. 2019 Dennis Daugaard (R), Jan. 2019 Bill Haslam (R), Jan. 2019 Greg Abbott (R), Jan. 2019 Gary Herbert (R), Jan. 2017 Peter Shumlin (D), Jan. 2017 Terry McAuliffe (D), Jan. 2018 Jay Inslee (D), Jan. 2017 Earl Ray Tomblin (D), Jan. 2017 Scott Walker (R), Jan. 2019 Matthew Mead (R), Jan. 2019 Muriel Bowser (D), Jan. 2019 (Mayor) Lolo Matalasi Moliga (I), Jan. 2017 Eddie Calvo (R), Jan. 2019 Eloy Inos (C), Jan. 2019 Alejandro Garcia Padilla (R), Jan. 2017 Kenneth Mapp (I), Jan. 2019

180º

160ºW

Antarctic Circle

60ºS

40ºS

Tropic of Capricorn

20ºS

International Date Line

0º Equator

20ºN

Tropic of Cancer

40ºN

60ºN

(USA)

Alaska

World Political

100ºW

Ecuador

120ºW

100ºW

Alb. Albania Ar. Armenia Aust. Austria Azer. Azerbaijan Belg. Belgium Bh. Bhutan B&H Bosnia-Hercegovina Brn. Brunei Cam. Cambodia Cam. Cameroon Cen. Af. Rep. Central African Republic Cro. Croatia Cyp. Cyprus Cz. Rep. Czech Republic Dom. Rep. Dominican Republic

140ºW

Cuba

Bahamas

80ºW

Brazil

Argentina

Uruguay

Paraguay

Bolivia

80ºW

Chile

Peru

Mali

Kuwait

Iraq

Arabia

Saudi

Jor.

Burundi

Egypt

Libya

Leb. Isr.

Syria

60ºE

Ar. Azer.

Georgia

Tu r k e y

Cyp.

Greece Malta

Tunisia

Italy

Romania

Mo. Ko. Bulgaria Alb. Ma.

B & H Ser.

Slo. Cro.

Niger

Algeria

Spain

20ºW

Eq. Gui. Equatorial Guinea Es. Estonia Ger. Germany Gui. Guinea Isr. Israel Jor. Jordan Ko. Kosovo Kyrg. Kyrgyzstan La. Latvia Leb. Lebanon Li. Lithuania Lux. Luxembourg Ma. F.Y.R. Macedonia Mal. Malawi Mo. Montenegro Mol. Moldova

40ºW

40ºE

Es. La. Rus. Li. Belarus Poland

Finland

20ºE

Neth.

Belg. Ger. Cz. Ukraine Rep. Slov.

Lux. Aust. Hungary Mol. France Sw.

Denmark

Norway

UK

Morocco

Gibraltar

Portugal

Mauritania

Western Sahara

0º

Arctic Circle

Rep. of Ireland

Iceland

20ºW

Zim.

Swaziland

A

n

South Lesotho Africa

Botswana

Mal.

Tanzania Zambia

of Congo

Angola

R

Namibia

Cabinda (Angola)

ek

is t

a

h

Pa

i an

an

Taj. st

ki

Maldives

Seychelles

Oman

Iran

Turk.

U zb

r

Nepal

Sri Lanka

India

Kyrg.

120ºE

My

an

m

Bh. Bangladesh

c

t

i

c

a

Philippines

Taiwan

40ºN

60ºN

Vanuatu

180º

Modified Gall Projection Equatorial Scale 1:166,000,000 © Oxford Cartographers, 98035 +44 (0)1993 705 394 E & OE

60ºS

New Zealand

Fiji

0º

20ºS

Equator

Tropic of Capricorn

Papua New Guinea

20ºN

Tropic of Cancer

Micronesia

Japan

180º

Australia

East Timor

I n d o n e s i a

Singapore

Malaysia

Thai.

Cam.

Laos

160ºE

Dem. People's Rep. of Korea Rep. of Korea

Brn.

140ºE

C h i n a

Mongolia

R u s s i a

100ºE

Neth. Netherlands Q. Qatar Rus. Russia S.L. Sierra Leone Slov. Slovakia Slo. Slovenia Serb. Serbia Sur. Suriname Sw. Switzerland Taj. Tajikistan Thai. Thailand T. Togo Turk. Turkmenistan UAE United Arab Emirates UK United Kingdom Zim. Zimbabwe

Mauritius

Madagascar

t

80ºE

Kazakhstan

Q. UAE

Eritrea Senegal Yemen Chad S u d a n Burkina Gambia Faso Djibouti Guinea Bissau Gui. Benin Côte S.L. d'Ivoire T. Nigeria Cen. Af. South Ethiopia Sudan Rep. Liberia Cam. Uganda o Eq. Gui. Kenya S Gabon Dem. Rep. Rwanda

Cape Verde

(Denmark)

40ºW

Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland)

60ºW

Haiti Dom. Rep. Belize Jamaica Guatemala Honduras El Salvador Trinidad and Nicaragua Tobago Costa Rica Venezuela Panama Guyana Sur. French Guiana Colombia

Mexico

United States of America

C a n a d a

120ºW

a

G han

140ºW

n Swe

160ºW

ia

g Af

de go

Con

.of

ep

st

180º

e b iqu

am

zam

etn

Mo

Vi

al

te L i n e ti o n a l D a

m

an

an

ar

In te r n a

UK GENERAL ELECTION 2015 STATISTICS STATE OF THE PARTIES AFTER THE 2015 GENERAL ELECTION Conservative

177 new MPs

Labour

191

female MPs

459

male MPs

SNP Sinn Fein

83.9 82.6 72.8

DUP UKIP Speaker Green Independent

76.8 78.7

Liberal Democrat

UUP

SDLP Plaid Cymru

77.1 75.8

72

78.8

72.8

76

72.7

77.7 75.3

71.4

Turnout (%) since 1945

59.4 61.4

65.1

66.2

1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 1974 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 (Feb.)(Oct.)

81.9%

51.3%

HIGHEST TURNOUT

LOWEST TURNOUT

DUNBARTONSHIRE EAST

STOKE-ON-TRENT CENTRAL

975

ARCHITECTURE John Hitchman

THE LEADENHALL BUILDING, LEADENHALL STREET, LONDON Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners London’s skyline has changed enormously in recent years and the rash of tower building started during the gradual recovery from the economic crash of 2008/9 shows no sign of abating. In the central district, a companion piece to the recently completed Shard at London Bridge is now the second-tallest structure in London at 225m, squeezed onto a sensitive and tight site opposite the ground-breaking Lloyd’s building (1986) on Leadenhall Street. In the manner of the Shard and several other high-profile towers in the City, it has instantly acquired its own nickname, in this case the ‘Cheesegrater’, on account of the distinctive inclination of its south-facing elevation and the resulting tapering glazed office element.

The reasoning behind the distinctive massing can be traced to one significant constraint in the form of the St Paul’s Cathedral viewing corridors: one particular concern for the architects centred around the potential intrusion on views of the St Paul’s dome, when seen from the west, of a standard rectangular tower. In order to counter any objection on this account, the façade leans back, withdrawing from the potential for conflict and by so doing almost disappearing from the passing pedestrian’s awareness in a way that would certainly not have been the case had the building risen vertically from the site boundary.

The triangular wedge of air space that is thus given back to the street is coupled with a release of the majority of the

Fig. 1. The Leadenhall Building (section), Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

ground plane beneath the tower to the public realm in the form of a part-paved, part-soft landscaped ‘Galleria’ opening out into the adjoining St Helen’s Square at the junction with St Mary Axe. The enormous undercroft created by withdrawing the lowest office floor up to level 6 enables the essential structural elements of the main office volume to become clearly expressed at the base, the vertical columns and diagonal bracing members emerging from the glazed cladding above to form a bold, open framework defining the site boundaries.

The structural beams supporting the overhead office floor and a restaurant floor that partly emerges beneath it at level 5 are clearly expressed on the soffit, while banks of escalators emerge from the glazed elevations at the rear, spilling down onto the paved approach. The general demeanour of the space is stark and distinctly no-nonsense; the hard grey surfaces of the steel structure and stone paving are only partially offset by the few trees and grassed areas to one side, with the glazed origins of the escalators somewhat mysterious. It is as though a huge spaceship has landed and lowered two enormous moving pathways for aliens to descend from the hidden interior.

Each of the two banks of three escalators rises either side of a central walkway that passes through the building to emerge on the far side in a small paved piazza, which borders the narrow service road to the rear, Undershaft. The lefthand bank of escalators rises to level 3 and leads into the main upper reception area and lift lobby for general tenants; the right-hand bank is shorter and provides access to the designated Aon reception area at level 2 (the insurance firm pre-let 50 per cent of the office floor area).

The layout of the office floors is based on the concept of served and servant spaces, where large rectangular open floor plates, offering maximum flexibility, are provided for the offices, supported by separate core elements accommodating passenger and goods lifts, toilets, plant and services risers.

The strategic sloping of the street façade gives rise to an incrementally diminishing series of floor plates as the perimeter draws closer to the principal firefighting and escape cores, one located in each of the rear corners of the office element.

The cores help to stiffen the glazed A-shaped office tower structure and work in conjunction with an externally expressed braced ladder frame rising through the entire height of the structure, with each floor level articulated by an individual triangulated sub-frame set within the vertical risers of the ladder. The floors of the office element are supported off a primary structural mega-frame, the diagonal bracing members of which are clearly visible through the glazed envelope, with major horizontal interventions occurring every seven storeys; this emphasises the proportions of the frame and the angle of the sloping façade neatly coinciding with the junctions of the diagonal bracing members every 14 floors.

Rising up the north side of the office floors, and connected via a narrow bridge link, glazed at each end, is the secondary support core of elevators and toilet pods. This is not a consistently maintained volume, however, as the individual banks of elevators, arranged in groups of four and allocated to different sections of the building, terminate at the appropriate floor levels, rising to full height only on the east elevation. Expressed on the ends as another version of the ‘ladder’, the secondary core structure comprises a series of complex cross-braced steel ‘tables’, each a storey high and

1024

SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY Storm Dunlop

DEFEATED BY DUST In March 2014, there was worldwide interest when an international team led by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announced that, using the BICEP2 instrumentation at the South Pole, they had detected definite evidence of cosmic inflation, the exponential expansion of the universe immediately after the Big Bang, 13.82 billion years ago. Such a discovery would imply confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves, and suggest the existence of a particle called the graviton. However, there was widespread doubt about the discovery, because the effect was far greater than predicted and did not agree with the results from other sensitive experiments, which had not detected any such effects.

In January 2015, the original BICEP2 team and scientists working on data from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Planck spaceprobe confirmed that the original attribution of the observed signal (known technically as B-mode polarisation) to gravitational waves was incorrect. This was shown by the highly sensitive and detailed mapping by Planck of the polarisation arising from dust in our own Milky Way galaxy. New data from the Keck Array (also located at the South Pole) was available to the combined team.

The new study did, however, detect another source of B-mode polarisation, dating back to the early universe. This signal, first detected in 2013 and on much smaller scales, is attributed to gravitational lensing by the massive structures that populated the early universe and deflect photons from the cosmic microwave background during their passage towards us. The combined results from the three experiments put this effect on a very firm basis. Evidence for gravitational waves produced by the assumed inflationary phase immediately after the Big Bang remains to be established, although the new results set a clear upper limit for the size of any such signal.

HOW LOW CAN YOU GO? On 10 April 2015, a team at Stanford University, California, announced in Physical Review Letters that they had achieved the lowest temperature ever obtained. The temperature, 5 × 10−11K (0.00000000005 K), in a gas of some 100,000 rubidium atoms, is just fractionally above absolute zero, 0 K (-273.15°C), at which all molecular motion ceases. It was achieved by using a laser to decelerate individual rubidium atoms by an amount proportional to their initial velocity.

LHC RESTARTS On 5 April 2015, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN restarted after a break of more than two years for upgrades and repairs, with protons circulating in both directions around the 27-km ring. Actual collisions at the greatly increased (essentially doubled) energy of 13 TeV (13 × 1012 electron volts) between the two contra-circulating beams began on 3 June 2015. It is anticipated that the higher energies will reveal a new domain of sub-atomic physics beyond the current Standard Model. Expectations are that the collisions may reveal new forms of particle, including the theoretical ‘partner’ particles to those governed by the Standard Model, and which are predicted by supersymmetry.

On 14 July 2015, scientists at the LHC announced findings (which will be communicated to Physical Review Letters) that the LHCb experiment had confirmed the existence of a new particle, the pentaquark, consisting of five quarks. Although originally predicted by Murray Gell-Mann and George Zweig

in 1964, the pentaquark has been the subject of numerous searches since then and several claims that it had been detected, all of which were subsequently discounted by further experiments. The scientists are confident that their results may only be explained by the existence of the pentaquark. It remains to be established whether the new discovery consists of a single particle, containing five individual quarks, or a weakly bonded pair formed of a meson (one quark and one antiquark) and a baryon (three quarks).

ROSETTA AND THE ‘RUBBER DUCK’ On 6 August 2014, the ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft made a rendezvous with periodic comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko – generally known as ‘67P’ – after a ten-year journey. The comet, which unexpectedly had a ‘rubberduck’-like shape, consisting of a ‘head’ and a ‘body’, currently has an orbital period of 6.45 years. Rosetta went into orbit around the comet on 10 September. On 12 November, Rosetta released the Philae probe, which then touched down on the surface, becoming the first spaceprobe to land on a comet. Unfortunately, the mechanisms (a gas thruster, harpoons and ice screws) intended to secure the probe in place malfunctioned, and Philae ‘bounced’ twice across the surface, ending on its side, wedged in a location where the solar panels were partially shielded from sunlight.

However, before its batteries ran down on 15 November 2014, the probe was able to carry out almost all of its suite of observations and broadcast data to the orbiter. On 30 July 2015, in a special issue of Science, in a surprising development, it was announced that Philae had discovered a rich array of carbon compounds. One, hydroxyethanal, may initiate the prebiotic formation of sugars, and methanenitrile is a key molecule in the prebiotic synthesis of amino acids and nucleobases. The chemicals have even been described as ‘a frozen primordial soup’. The presence of these compounds suggests that comets may have been the source of materials essential to the development of life on Earth.

Other preliminary results were released on 22 January 2015, together with some remarkable photographs. The size of the ‘body’ is about 4.1 × 3.3 × 1.8km and the ‘head’ is about 2.6 × 2.3 × 1.8km. The whole comet rotates once in slightly more than 12.4 hours. Measurements of its gravity give a mass of 10 billion tonnes, with a density of about 470kg per cubic metre. This is so low (less than half that of water) that 67P must be highly porous, with some 70–80 per cent empty space and possibly large voids below the surface, which is exceptionally dark, with an albedo (reflectivity) of just 6 per cent. The images required special processing to bring out the details. One significant early finding concerns the deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio of the comet’s water.

This is higher than the ratio in Earth’s water, casting doubt on the hypothesis that water on Earth originates from the impact of water-bearing comets early in the planet’s history.

DWARF PLANETS UNDER INVESTIGATION For the first time two of the Solar System’s dwarf planets are being investigated, both by NASA spaceprobes. On 6 March 2015, the Dawn spaceprobe began to orbit the dwarf planet Ceres, after being launched on 27 September 2007 and spending about a year in 2011–2012 very successfully mapping the asteroid Vesta. The largest of the bodies in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter, Ceres is essentially spherical and 950km in diameter. It is very different from the asteroid Vesta, and is suspected to have a rocky core,

1034

The Year 2014–15

BOXING WORLD CHAMPIONS as at 19 August 2015 WORLD BOXING COUNCIL (WBC) Heavy: Deontay Wilder (USA) Cruiser: Grigory Drozd (Russia) Light-heavy: Adonis Stevenson (Canada) Supermiddle: Badou Jack (Sweden) Middle: Miguel Cotto (Puerto Rico) Interim Middle: Gennady Golovkin (Kazakhstan) Superwelter: Floyd Mayweather Jr (USA) Welter: Floyd Mayweather Jr (USA) Superlight: vacant Light: Jorge Linares (Venezuela) Superfeather: Takashi Miura (Japan) Feather: Gary Russell Jr (USA) Superbantam: Leo Santa Cruz (Mexico) Bantam: Shinsuke Yamanaka (Japan) Superfly: Carlos Cuadras (Mexico) Fly: Roman Gonzalez (Nicaragua) Lightfly: Pedro Guevara (Mexico) Miniflyweight: Wanheng Menayothin (Thailand) WORLD BOXING ASSOCIATION (WBA) Heavy: Wladimir Klitschko (Ukraine) Cruiser: Dennis Lebedev (Russia) Light-heavy: Sergey Kovalev (Russia) Supermiddle: Andre Ward (USA) Middle: Gennady Golovkin (Kazakhstan) Superwelter: Floyd Mayweather Jr (USA) Welter: Floyd Mayweather Jr (USA) Superlight: Danny Garcia (USA) Light: Darleys Perez (Colombia) Superfeather: Takashi Uchiyama (Japan) Feather: Jesus Andres Cuellar (Argentina) Superbantam: Guillermo Rigondeaux (Cuba) Bantam: Juan Carlos Payano (Dominican Republic) Superfly: Kohei Kono (Japan) Fly: Juan Francisco Estrada (Mexico) Lightfly: Ryoichi Taguchi (Japan) Minimum: Hekkie Budler (South Africa) WORLD BOXING ORGANISATION (WBO) Heavy: Wladimir Klitschko (Ukraine) Junior-heavy: Marco Huck (Germany) Light-heavy: Sergey Kovalev (Russia) Supermiddle: Arthur Abraham (Armenia) Middle: Andy Lee (Rep. of Ireland) Junior-middle: vacant Welter: Timothy Bradley (USA) Junior-welter: Terence Crawford (USA) Light: Terry Flanagan (Great Britain) Junior-light: Roman Martinez (Puerto Rico) Feather: Vasyl Lomachenko (Ukraine) Junior-feather: Guillermo Rigondeaux (Cuba) Bantam: Pungluang Sor Singyu (Thailand) Junior-bantam: Naoya Inoue (Japan) Fly: Juan Francisco Estrada (Mexico) Junior-fly: Donnie Nietes (Philippines) Mini-fly: Kosei Tanaka (Japan) INTERNATIONAL BOXING FEDERATION (IBF) Heavy: Wladimir Klitschko (Ukraine) Cruiser: Yoan Pablo Hernandez (Germany) Light-heavy: Sergey Kovalev (Russia) Supermiddle: James De Gale (Great Britain)

Middle: David Lemieux (Canada) Junior-middle: Cornelius Bundrage (USA) Welter: Kell Brook (Great Britain) Junior-welter: Cesar Cuenca (Argentina) Light: vacant Junior—lightweight: Jose Pedraza (USA) Feather: Lee Selby (Great Britain) Junior-feather: Carl Frampton (Great Britain) Bantam: Randy Caballero (USA) Fly: Amnat Ruenroeng (Thailand) Junior-fly: Javier Mendoza (Mexico) Mini-fly: Katsunari Takayama (Japan)

BRITISH CHAMPIONS Heavy: Tyson Fury Cruiser: Ola Afolabi Light-heavy: Nathan Cleverly Super-middle: James De Gale Middle: Martin Murray Light-middle: Brian Rose Welter: Kell Brook Light-welter: Willie Limond Light: Ricky Burns Super-feather: Stephen Smith Feather: Lee Selby Super-bantam: Carl Frampton Bantam: Jamie McDonnell Super-fly: Paul Butler Fly: Kevin Satchell

CHESS FIDE World Champion 2014: Magnus Carlsen (Norway) British Champion 2015: Jonathan Hawkins British Women’s Champion 2015: Akshaya Kalaiyalahan

CRICKET TEST SERIES WEST INDIES V ENGLAND Antigua (13–18 April): England drew with West Indies.

West Indies 295 and 350–7; England 399 and 333–7 St Georges (21–26 April): England beat West Indies by 9 wickets. England 464 and 144–1; West Indies 299 and 307 Bridgetown (1–4 May): West Indies beat England by 5 wickets.

West Indies 189 and 194–5; England 257 and 123 ENGLAND V NEW ZEALAND Lord’s (21–25 May): England beat New Zealand by 124 runs. England 389 and 478; New Zealand 523 and 220 Headingley (29 May–2 June): New Zealand beat England by 199 runs. England 350 and 255; New Zealand 350 and 454–8 dec.

ENGLAND V AUSTRALIA (THE ASHES) Cardiff (8–11 July): England beat Australia by 169 runs.

England 430 and 289; Australia 308 and 242 Lord’s (16–19 July): Australia beat England by 405 runs.

England 312 and 103; Australia 556–8 dec. and 242–2 Edgbaston (29–31 July): England beat Australia by 8 wickets.

England 281 and 124–2; Australia 136 and 265 Old Trafford (6–8 August): England beat Australia by an innings and 78 runs. England 391–9 dec.; Australia 60 and 253 Kia Oval (20–23 August): Australia beat England by an innings and 46 runs. Australia 481; England 149 and 286

1066

Astronomy

JANUARY 2016 FIRST MONTH, 31 DAYS. Janus, god of the portal, facing two ways, past and future Friday Saturday Sunday

Great Britain and Ireland unite as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 1801 José Antonio Remón Cantera, the president of Panama, is killed at a race track 1955 Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia 1848

4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

The Fabian Society, Britain’s oldest political think tank, is founded 1884 The German Worker’s Party, predecessor of the Nazi party, is founded in Munich 1919 Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th US president and the first to win a Nobel Peace Prize d. 1919 Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, leads a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I 1601 François Mitterrand, France’s 21st and longest-serving president d. 1996 Anthoney Eden resigns as prime minister following the Suez Crisis 1957 Thomas Paine anonymously publishes Common Sense in support of American independence 1776

11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Arthur Scargill, trade unionist, president National Union of Mineworkers (1982–2002) b. 1938 Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher and Whig politician who opposed the French Revolution b. 1729 The Independent Labour party is founded in Bradford by James Keir Hardie 1893 Marshal Josip Broz Tito was elected as the first president of Yugoslavia 1953 Rosa Luxemburg, revolutionary Marxist of Polish-Jewish descent, is assassinated in Berlin 1919 Ivan the Terrible is crowned Tsar of All the Russias 1547 Benjamin Franklin, Founding Father of the USA, who invented bifocals b. 1706

week 2 day 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

Sir Edmund Barton, the first prime minister of Australia b. 1849 The US senate votes against participation in the League of Nations 1920 Christian II is deposed from the thrones of Denmark and Norway 1523 On his first day in office, US president Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders 1977 Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour prime minister of the UK 1924 William Pitt the Younger, the youngest British prime minister aged 24 d. 1806 Frederick II (Frederick the Great), who introduced the potato to the Kingdom of Prussia b. 1712

week 3 day 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

The League of Nations is established at the Paris Peace Conference 1919 India officially becomes an independent republic and its first president is sworn in 1950 The body of Vladimir Lenin is placed in a mausoleum in Red Square 1924 Sir Thomas Warner establishes Saint Kitts as the first British colony in the Caribbean 1624 George III, whose life was longer than any monarch who preceded him d. 1820 Charles I is executed for treason outside the Banqueting House, Whitehall, London 1649 Guy Fawkes leaps to his death from the gallows before he could be hung for treason 1606

week 4 day 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

1 2 3

ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA d h 2 23 Earth at perihelion 3 19 Mars 1° South of the Moon 6 24 Venus 3° South of the Moon 7 05 Saturn 3° South of the Moon 9 04 Saturn 0.1° South of Venus 10 18 Mercury 2° South of the Moon 16 06 Uranus 1° North of the Moon 28 01 Jupiter 1° North of the Moon MINIMA OF ALGOL d h d 1 4 7 10

11.9 08.8 05.6 02.4

12 15 18 21

h 23.2 20.0 16.9 13.7

week 1 day 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

CONSTELLATIONS The following constellations are near the meridian at d h d December 1 24 January 16 December 16 23 February 1 January 1 22 February 15

h 21 20 19

Draco (below the Pole), Ursa Minor (below the Pole), Camelopardalis, Perseus, Auriga, Taurus, Orion, Eridanus and Lepus

d 24 27 30

day 1 2 3

h 10.5 07.3 04.2

THE MOON Phases, Apsides and Node Last Quarter New Moon First Quarter Full Moon

d

h

m

2 10 16 24

05 01 23 01

30 31 26 46

Apogee (404,277km) Perigee (369,619km) Apogee (404,553km)

2 15 30

11 02 09

53 14 10

Mean longitude of ascending node on 1st, 176°

1123

TIME MEASUREMENT AND CALENDARS MEASUREMENTS OF TIME Measurements of time are based on the time taken by the Earth to rotate on its axis (day); by the Moon to revolve around the Earth (month); and by the Earth to revolve around the Sun (year). From these, which are not commensurable, certain average or mean intervals have been adopted for ordinary use.

THE DAY The day begins at midnight and is divided into 24 hours of 60 minutes, each of 60 seconds. The hours are counted from midnight up to 12 noon (when the Sun crosses the meridian), and these hours are designated am (ante meridiem); and again from noon up to 12 midnight, which hours are designated pm (post meridiem), except when the 24-hour reckoning is employed. The 24-hour reckoning ignores am and pm, numbering the hours 0 to 23 from midnight.

Colloquially the 24 hours are divided into day and night, day being the time while the Sun is above the horizon (including the four stages of twilight defined in the Astronomy section). Day is subdivided into morning, ending at noon; afternoon, from noon to about 6pm; and evening, which may be said to extend from 6pm until midnight. Night begins at the close of astronomical twilight (see the Astronomy section) and extends beyond midnight to sunrise the next day.

The names of the days are derived from Old English translations or adaptations of the Roman titles.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Sol Luna Tiw/Tyr (god of war) Woden/Odin Thor Frigga/Freyja (goddess of love) Saeterne

Sun Moon Mars Mercury Jupiter Venus Saturn

THE MONTH The month in the ordinary calendar is approximately the twelfth part of a year, but the lengths of the different months vary from 28 (or 29) days to 31.

THE YEAR The equinoctial or tropical year is the time that the Earth takes to revolve around the Sun from equinox to equinox, ie 365.24219 mean solar days, or 365 days 5 hours 48 minutes and 45 seconds.

The calendar year usually consists of 365 days but a year containing 366 days is called a bissextile (see Roman calendar) or leap year, one day being added to the month of February so that a date ‘leaps over’ a day of the week. In the Roman calendar the day that was repeated was the sixth day before the beginning of March, the equivalent of 24 February.

A year is a leap year if the date of the year is divisible by four without remainder, unless it is the last year of the century.

The last year of a century is a leap year only if its number is divisible by 400 without remainder, eg the years 1800 and 1900 had only 365 days but the year 2000 had 366 days.

THE SOLSTICE A solstice is the point in the tropical year at which the Sun attains its greatest distance, north or south, from the Equator.

In the northern hemisphere the furthest point north of the Equator marks the summer solstice and the furthest point south marks the winter solstice.

The date of the solstice varies according to locality. For example, if the summer solstice falls on 21 June late in the day by Greenwich time, that day will be the longest of the year at Greenwich, but it will fall on 22 June, local date, in Japan, and so 22 June will be the longest day there. The date of the solstice is also affected by the length of the tropical year, which is 365 days 6 hours less about 11 minutes 15 seconds. If a solstice happens late on 21 June in one year, it will be nearly 6 hours later in the next (unless the next year is a leap year), ie early on 22 June, and that will be the longest day.

This delay of the solstice does not continue because the extra day in a leap year brings it back a day in the calendar.

However, because of the 11 minutes 15 seconds mentioned above, the additional day in a leap year brings the solstice back too far by 45 minutes, and the time of the solstice in the calendar is earlier, in a four-year pattern, as the century progresses. The last year of a century is in most cases not a leap year, and the omission of the extra day puts the date of the solstice later by about 6 hours. Compensation for this is made by the fourth centennial year being a leap year.

The solstice became earlier in date throughout the last century and, because the year 2000 was a leap year, the solstice will get earlier still throughout the 21st century.

The date of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, is affected by the same factors as the longest day.

At Greenwich the Sun sets at its earliest by the clock about ten days before the shortest day. The daily change in the time of sunset is due in the first place to the Sun’s movement southwards at this time of the year, which diminishes the interval between the Sun’s transit and its setting. However, the daily decrease of the Equation of Time causes the time of apparent noon to be continuously later day by day, which to some extent counteracts the first effect. The rates of the change of these two quantities are not equal or uniform; their combination causes the date of earliest sunset to be 12 or 13 December at Greenwich. In more southerly latitudes the effect of the movement of the Sun is less, and the change in the time of sunset depends on that of the Equation of Time to a greater degree, and the date of earliest sunset is earlier than it is at Greenwich, eg on the Equator it is about 1 November.

THE EQUINOX The equinox is the point at which the Sun crosses the Equator and day and night are of equal length all over the world. This occurs in March and September.

DOG DAYS The days about the heliacal rising of the Dog Star, noted from ancient times as the hottest period of the year in the northern hemisphere, are called the Dog Days. Their incidence has been variously calculated as depending on the Greater or Lesser Dog Star (Sirius or Procyon) and their duration has been reckoned as from 30 to 54 days. A generally accepted period is from 3 July to 15 August.

CHRISTIAN CALENDAR In the Christian chronological system the years are distinguished by cardinal numbers before or after the birth of Christ, the period being denoted by the letters BC (Before Christ) or, more rarely, AC (Ante Christum), and AD (Anno Domini – In the Year of Our Lord); BCE (Before the Christian Era) and CE (Christian Era) are now sometimes used instead