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In the news this week:
Brexit
We have collected reactions from political, business and other interest groups
on our election blog. We also have a second posting which considers
whether British people are Eurosceptic
A great blog posting from the UK data archive highlights key data resources which students can use to understand attitudes towards Europe
The
UK Web Archive has announced that they will be web archiving the online campaign materials. Access will be made available via
their main website
Is Britain Divided?
Yes according to the latest issue of the Social Attitudes survey released this week. Britain divided? Public attitudes after seven years of austerity this focuses on how the public feel about social class, work and society. It considers
whether financial cuts and austerity policies have effected attitudes as people believe Britain is more divided. Other topics covered include levels of confidence in the NHS, political engagement, support for government welfare reform policies.
Centenary of the Somme.
What was the initial view of the Battle in July 1916- some interesting comments on
our research blog taken from the Digital archive of the Times.
Logistics Performance Index 2016
Just released by the World Bank The latest edition of the
Logistics Performance Index which ranks 160 countries on their trade logistics performance. This is a part of the bi-annual report,
Connecting to Compete 2016: Trade Logistics in the Global Economy,.
It rates countries on 6 factors: The logistics performance (LPI) is the weighted average of the country scores on the six key dimensions: Efficiency of the clearance process (i.e., speed, simplicity and predictability of formalities) by border control agencies,
including customs; quality of trade and transport related infrastructure (e.g., ports, railroads, roads, information technology); Ease of arranging competitively priced shipments; Competence and quality of logistics services (e.g., transport operators, customs
brokers);Ability to track and trace consignments; Timeliness of shipments in reaching destination within the scheduled or expected delivery time. Top country – Germany.
50 years of credit cards
Its 50 years since people started using credit cards in the UK with the issue of the first Barclaycards. The
BBC has a fascinating social history feature.
For more indepth resources try these recommendations!:
UK Card Association has a timeline of key events including introductions and milestone figures.
For history of specific cards see
Barclaycard history and history timeline.
How much are credit cards currently used?
UK Card Association has
Card expenditure statistics 2016. Find out how much the usage of contactless cards is growing, total transactions, average per household and expenditure by sector/ type.
British Bankers Association statistics on high street lending has some general data on household borrowing levels including
mortgages and consumer credit.
Payments UK (UK Payments industry) has some data on the way in which payments are made –card which traces a growing trends towards debit and cashless cards. It records that average UK adult made 648 payments during 2015, which equates
to 54 payments each month . 27 in cash, 16 by debit card, 6 direct debit, 4 credit card, 2 contactless, 1 faster payments, 0.7 standing order and 0.5 by cheque.
There is a free
summary on the website of 2015 transactions, with future predictions
Areas of concern for consumers.
The Financial Conduct Authority is currently conducting a review in to the operation of the market and if it is fair to consumers. The interim reports covers whether consumers are able to shop
around when choosing cards and the extent and nature of problems relating to credit card debit.
PWC report Precious Plastic published in 2015 examined overall levels of household borrowing and debt but found in 2015 that there was a confidence amongst consumers
that they could meet repayments.
However debt advice charity
Stepchange has a debt atlas which records growing numbers of consultations. It records data by region, sex and amount owed.
The Office of National Statistics has also recording growing rates of household debt. In April
2016 it stated that ‘The most common form of debt was credit or store cards, with 45% of individuals having such debt’.
International Civil Aviation Authority: Conflict Zone Information Repository (ICAO)
A tool developed to provide researchers and the public with provide up-to-date information on potential risks to civil aviation arising from armed conflict.It includes notices from its member states
on risks they have identified related to aircraft safety in certain conflict regions of the world. Material includes full text notices. Items date from approximately 2014 onwards.
Telefónica Index on Digital Life
This new global survey examines progress towards digital life in 34 nations worldwide. The 3 key areas covered are: Digital Confidence (how readily and confidently individuals and organisations
engage with the country’s digital infrastructure); Digital Openness ( digital infrastructure facilitates open access to information) ; Digital Entrepreneurship (how readily citizens and organisations are able to innovate and improve using the infrastructure).
For
further discussion see this blog posting. Previous surveys from 2013 onwards can be downloaded from the website.
Also useful on the topic of ICT infrastructure are
World Economic forum Global Information technology reports which include a section on networked readiness
ITU –
ICT Development Index
measuring the level and evolution over time of ICT developments within countries areas of concern include the
the digital divide, i.e. differences between countries in terms of their levels of ICT development; and the development potential of ICTs and the extent to which countries can make use of them to enhance growth and development.
Also issued this week the
Global Commission on Internet Governance from Centre for International Governance Innovation and Chatham House which lays out a suggested strategy for future governance of Internet infrastructure worldwide.
For further links on Internet governance see our
Data and society scoop.it page
New Food and Waste Measurement tool released.
The Food Loss and Waste standard has been developed by an international consortium it aims to enable companies and countries to quantify measure and report on food loss and waste The tool also helps
with the tracking of progress towards Target 12.3 of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
For information on why it is necessary see the
FAO 2011 Global Food loss report which estimated one third of all food produced was wasted.
For links to news reports and data on this refer to the
FAO Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Food Waste
For the UK WRAP has data on household and commercial food waste
All Issues of Federal Register (1936-1993) Now Available Online
Free access to this impressive collection from the Library of Congress Law Library. Further
details on the background to the digitisation is on their blog.
More recent issues are available from 1994 onwards on the USA government website. The Federal Register is a legal newspaper published every business day by the USA National Archives and Records
Administration (NARA). It is vital for legal and public admin research as it contains: Proposed Rules and Public Notices; Executive Orders, Proclamations, Other Presidential Documents.
Finally
To celebrate Wimbledon try browsing
the Europeana Fashion Portal for examples of images of sportswear from Europe’s leading museums and historical fashion and textile collections. See this design for a
tennis costume from 1904 and a fascinating engraving of images of men
and womens sporting attire from 1890 which belongs to the V&A museum.
For more on women’s fashion at Wimbledon try an
older posting from our blog.
Heather Dawson