No 162: Some Interesting Numbers from "Private Eye"

I DON'T have a particular newspaper that I read every day. However, I do make sure that every week I read "The Economist" (which hopefully you have heard of already), and "Private Eye".

You can probably tell from this week's cover the kind of magazine the Private Eye is....

In my opinion, satirical magazines like this, who watch very carefully what government and other powerful people do, are extremely important. This may be why usually one of the first acts of a dictator is to close down these kinds of publications. Plus, Private Eye is funny!

However, I am not the only person who believes in the importance of having a strong opposition to the government.

As reported in last weeks "Economist":

"In a video shown on state television, President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia’s political system was showing signs of “stagnation”, and that the lack of serious opposition meant that Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, was in danger of “bronzing over”."

Now I don't want to say too much about Russian politics, since it not something I know a lot about. However, it does seem to me a bit strange that one of the leaders of a political party which has been well known for trying to silence opposition, is now complaining because now there is no opposition.......

In any case, back to "Private Eye". One feature I like in it is called "Number Crunching", and here are a few examples: