Finishing touches

A reminder of the campaigns trying to persuade us to give stuff up for January:

– Veganuary: crowdfunded campaign set up in 2014 by a UK-based charity to persuade us to give up meat for a month. Claimed 500,000 supporters in 2021, although there is no data on how many people kept up their promise for the whole month.

– Dry January: campaign established by Alcohol Change UK in 2014. Claimed 215,000 adherents last year.

– Sugar-free January: no organised campaign but quoted by a number of charities in efforts to raise money.

– Kick the caffeine: campaign by the NSPCC to try to persuade us to donate to it the money we would normally spend on coffee in the first month of the year.

– No-spend January: Campaign by Money for Life encouraging 16- to 25-year-olds to ‘turn off lights, wear a jumper’ and ‘walk instead of taking transport’.

Sorry figures

Kemi Badenoch accused Reform UK of using a ‘fake’ counter when claiming its membership figures have surpassed the Conservatives’ 132,000 members. The Conservatives themselves have been very shy of publishing membership figures in the past. Some snapshots:

1953     2.8m

2002     273,000

2013     134,000

2014     149,800

2018     124,000

2022     172,000

Source: House of Commons Library

Growing up

Some economic forecasts for 2025:

British Chambers of Commerce    +1%

Barclays Group, CEBR, KPMG, NIESR, OECD    +1.2%

Office for Budget Responsibility    +1.4%

International Monetary Fund    +1.5%

HSBC    +1.7%

Capital Economics, ITEM Club    +1.8%

Confederation of British Industry    +1.9%

Old bills

Which countries owe Britain the most money?

Qatar    £1bn

Sudan    £944.05m

Poland    £491.39m

Iraq    £379.74m

Zimbabwe    £363.59m

Uganda    £321.16m

Ghana    £277.39m

Angola    £244.60m

Source: HM Treasury