A list of the 30 worst movies of all time

It can be difficult to compile a definitive list of the "worst" movies of all time, as opinions on what makes a movie "good" or "bad" vary widely. Here are 30 movies that have received widespread criticism and low ratings from critics and audiences:

1. The Room (2003)

2. Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

3. Troll 2 (1990)

4. Batman and Robin (1997)

5. Catwoman (2004)

6. The Last Airbender (2010)

7. Gigli (2003)

8. The Wicker Man (2006)

9. Jack and Jill (2011)

10. Battlefield Earth (2000)

11. Gigli (2003)

12. The Hottie and the Nottie (2008)

13. Movie 43 (2013)

14. Howard the Duck (1986)

15. The Love Guru (2008)

16. Epic Movie (2007)

17. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

18. Mars Needs Moms (2011)

19. Santa with Muscles (1996)

20. The Master of Disguise (2002)

21. The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987)

22. The Happening (2008)

23. The Lone Ranger (2013)

24. The Nutcracker in 3D (2010)

25. The Medallion (2003)

26. Disaster Movie (2008)

27. Doogal (2006)

28. No Holds Barred (1989)

29. The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990)

30. In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (2007)

It is important to note that these movies may be considered "bad" by some people, but others may find them entertaining or enjoyable for various

How does the Kia EV6 GT compare to other cars in its class?

The Kia EV6 GT is a fully electric crossover SUV that is designed to compete with other cars in its class, such as the Tesla Model Y, Audi e-tron, and Mercedes-Benz EQC. Some key features of the Kia EV6 GT include:

1. Performance: The EV6 GT is powered by a dual electric motor setup that delivers a total of 577 horsepower and 740 pound-feet of torque, making it one of the most powerful EVs in its class. It also has a range of up to 300 miles on a single charge.

2. Design: The EV6 GT has a sleek and sporty design, with a sloping roofline and distinctive LED headlights and taillights. It also has a spacious and luxurious interior, with high-quality materials and advanced technology features.

3. Handling: The EV6 GT has a suspension system that has been specifically tuned for electric vehicles, which helps to deliver a smooth and responsive ride. It also has a low center of gravity and a well-balanced weight distribution, which helps to improve handling and stability.

4. Safety: The EV6 GT has a range of advanced safety features, including autonomous emergency braking, lane-keep assist, and a 360-degree camera system. It also has a strong and rigid body structure that helps to protect occupants in the event of a collision.

Overall, the Kia EV6 GT is a highly competitive car in its class, offering a combination of performance, design, handling, and safety that sets it apart from other electric crossover SUVs.

A list of the top 20 most famous and memorable movie quotes

Here is a list of 20 famous and memorable movie quotes:

1. "Here's looking at you, kid." - Casablanca (1942)

2. "I'm the king of the world!" - Titanic (1997)

3. "May the force be with you." - Star Wars (1977)

4. "Go ahead, make my day." - Sudden Impact (1983)

5. "I'll be back." - The Terminator (1984)

6. "You can't handle the truth!" - A Few Good Men (1992)

7. "You had me at hello." - Jerry Maguire (1996)

8. "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." - The Godfather (1972)

9. "I'm the ghost with the most, babe." - Beetlejuice (1988)

10. "Say hello to my little friend." - Scarface (1983)

11. "There's no place like home." - The Wizard of Oz (1939)

12. "E.T. phone home." - E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

13. "Show me the money!" - Jerry Maguire (1996)

14. "Bond. James Bond." - Dr. No (1962)

15. "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again." - Gone with the Wind (1939)

16. "My precious." - The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)

17. "Hasta la vista, baby." - Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

18. "I am serious...and don't call me Shirley." - Airplane! (1980)

19. "Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump (1994)

20. "I'm the greatest thing that ever happened to salmon!" - The Princess Bride (1987)

Remember, of course, this is just a list of 20 that could be 2000 long, so you may think of others that are not covered here. My own child suggested “We’re gonna need a bigger boat” (Jaws) for example. :)

There are many other famous movie quotes that could be included on this list. These are just a few examples of the memorable lines that have become iconic in the world of film. 

Reasons why Brexit was a good or bad idea

Brexit refers to the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union (EU). The decision to leave the EU was a controversial one, and there are arguments both for and against it. Here are some possible reasons why Brexit might be seen as a good or bad idea: 

Reasons why Brexit might be seen as a good idea: 

• Sovereignty: Some people argue that leaving the EU allows the UK to have greater control over its own affairs and to make its own decisions without being subject to the rules and regulations of the EU. 

• Immigration: Some people believe that leaving the EU will allow the UK to have more control over its borders and to reduce the number of people coming into the country. 

• Trade: Some people believe that leaving the EU will allow the UK to negotiate its own trade deals with other countries and to have more flexibility in its trade policy. 

Reasons why Brexit might be seen as a bad idea: 

• Economic impact: Some people believe that leaving the EU will have negative economic consequences for the UK, such as lower trade with EU countries, less investment, and slower economic growth. 

• Loss of cooperation: Some people believe that leaving the EU will reduce the UK's ability to cooperate with other countries on issues such as security, climate change, and economic policy. 

• Divisions: The Brexit process has been divisive in the UK, and some people believe that it has contributed to increased tensions and divisions within the country. 

The Best Way to Organise Lego | What Lego should I buy for my child?

This is probably not the answer you expect, but here is my advice after years of dealing with lego-explosions in a playroom and the almost infinite capacity of my child to fascinate himself with lego creations. He started at age 4.

Totally depends on what type of builder your child is.

Some will thrive on freefrom building and eschew sets.

Others will love sets and making them, then never touch them (expensive hobby for a few hours' pleasure).

Others will enjoy sets and then destroy them and make all sorts of stuff and you'll wonder why you spent all that money (my son is the latter).

Just start small and see what type of joy they get from which modus operandi when introducing a child to lego.

However, I really would say, I have been burnt by trying to get cheap copies - quality is so variable that I regret it ever getting mixed with the real Lego. So, better to buy second hand lego, than new "lego compatible" IMHO.

Also, don't over taxonomise. Lego make 13,000 different pieces and thus there are nearly any infinite number of ways to organise. Again, see how your child builds and searches and take it from there. Lego builders recognise there is no perfect taxonomy. A lot of people instinctively start to sort/organise by colour, but actually that doesn't necessarily make great sense. Colour is generally easy to pick out in a mixed collection of pieces, so sorting by shape/size is much more helpful.

I over-sorted for my child and basically I did a ton of work sorting and he just ruined it all the time and was never bothered about looking for shapes at that age.

Our taxonomy now (and he appreciates it being organised like this, but it's still me that has to do it!)

- people and accessories

- any piece of size 1x2 or less (plates or blocks)

- decorative items (including smooth tiles)

- wheels

- pre-moulded shapes (e.g. fences, doors, walls, vehicle cabs)

- glass

- blocks

- plates

- special train parts (e.g. wheels, bogeys, magnetic couplings)

- engineering parts (anything with movement, clips, right angles, rotation etc)

Also, i recommend organising in phases. I used to do it as I picked stuff up, but it took ages. Now it all goes in a massive mixed drawer, then later it is sorted if there is time and inclination. Otherwise he just picks through the big drawer to find things.

Eventually I expect he'll start to organise in a way that suits him.

Finally - for storage, IKEA Trofast or other similar generic draw sets (we have some on wheels from Argos) are perfect.

This is Chad Varah crossing the border (WH Auden's Night Mail updated)

Virgin Trains have well and truly touched our lives. When we had our son we knew we wanted to raise him closer to family in Scotland and it meant moving from the South East of England. The Virgin service on the West Coast Main Line was instrumental in enabling us to make that move while I continued to work remotely out of an HQ in London.

An amazing gift from Virgin Trains

Little did we know that our son would become so utterly devoted to the trains that made that upbringing possible. Virgin Trains gave him an incredible gift: the gift of inspiration and on 30th Nov 2019 they added to that gift with something quite amazing. (see here).

I thought that as a way to remember Virgin Train’s contribution to the West Coast Main Line, and to my son, I would attempt a a rewrite of W H Auden’s famous poem “Night Mail”.

It’s a wonderful, rhythmic poem that captures the essence of the Royal Mail train rushing North through the night to Glasgow. Over and above that it has a poignancy for us because it is essentially “local”.

This is the Night Mail crossing the Border, 
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,

Letters for the rich, letters for the poor, 
The shop at the corner, the girl next door.

Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.

And so it goes on…

Of course, those were the days of steam. In contrast, the staple express of the modern WCML has been the class 390 Virgin Pendolino.

I wanted the poem to be clearly “Virgin Pendolino” and to include a smattering of Pendolino names, since this is what’s really brought the trains alive for my son and indeed is at the heart of recent events.

So, without further ado:

---

Pendolino

This is Chad Varah crossing the Border, 
Passengers happy, all is in order. 
"Welcome to Virgin!" says a voice in the sky,  
"Sit back, relax, this Scouseman can fly."   
Travelling for business, travelling for fun, 
Adventure with grandad, home to see Mum. 

 The shop’s in coach C for nibbles and snacks, 
Mustn’t get hungry while riding the tracks.  
Powering up Beattock, the motors are whirring, 
Past windmills and forest, the countryside’s stirring.  

“Rethink Mental Illness” or true “Virgin Glory”, 
Each one of these locos can tell their own story. 

Tunefully humming as she passes, 
Silent miles of wind-bent grasses,
Birds turn their heads as she approaches,  
Stare from bushes at her sleek streamlined  coaches. 
A farmhouse tilts by, where no one wakes,  
But a jug in a bedroom gently shakes.   

Dawn is behind us, in pours the sun, 
She descends towards Glasgow at over a ton. 
Scotland awaits her, there’s business to do, 
A Treaty of Union from City of Crewe.  

Edan always had a soft spot for Chad Varah (founder of the Samaritans)

People from England, those from afar, 
People asleep in the quiet zone car,  
Lego is scattered across the table, 
Passengers visiting aunty Mable. 
Travelling to weddings with invitations,  
To meet the team or visit relations,  
Interview prep for job applications,  
Off to the wilds to explore new sensations,  
Gossip and chatter from all the nations, 
Twitter and Facebook and all the views, 
The onboard Wi-fi delivering the news. 
Travelling to uncles and cousins and aunts, 
Heading to Scotland from somewhere in France.  
Sadness for some with lost ones to bear,  
Not sure what to say when the train gets there. 
The chatty, the catty, the boring, the snoring,  
The mobile phone guy and his heart’s outpouring,   
Tapping of laptops and tablets and phones,  
A palmful of pixels that everyone owns.  

Let’s Bee Together this memorable day 
Through mountains and cities, speeding our way. 

“To Scotland!” We say, “that’s where we’re going!” 
On Charles Rennie Mac with red silk a-flowing 

It’s better by train, we’d rather not drive, 
But what shall await us when we arrive?  
The hustle and bustle, the city’s heart beating,  
A handshake, a hug, a warm tender greeting.  

This journey is over, heads held with Pride. 
Passengers happy, thanks for the ride. 

(c) Nik Sargent 2019

A lifetime legacy of Virgin Trains

I’m going to have to admit something: it’s quite tricky typing with tears on the keyboard.

And the reason I have tears on the keyboard is I’m still trying to take in what Virgin Trains did for my son, Edan, at the weekend. I think in the world of any committed train enthusiast it counts as monumental.

Edan celebrates his love of Virgin Trains

For those who want the backstory you can read my open letter to Richard Branson here and an interim follow up here.

With just over a week left on the West Coast franchise, we knew that Virgin Trains were kindly organising a surprise for Edan, whose world revolves round trains and the West Coast Mainline.

It didn’t escape our attention that they needn’t have done anything. It would have been easy to do nothing, or send him a signed photo, or something quite low key.

But I suppose that is not the Virgin way. To say they knocked-it-out-of-the-park-and-then-some redefines the word understatement. They created a “once in a lifetime” experience for Edan that he will indeed remember for a lifetime. They literally handed over a part of their legacy that will keep their history alive and he will treasure it forever.

A magical weekend

The day started with a complimentary trip to Blackpool. (Well actually, the day started getting stuck at the entrance to the car park and then discovering there were damaged overhead lines just outside Carlisle. But fate was on our side and it didn’t end up sending our plan off the rails).

We rode on a Pendolino (390141 formerly City of Chester) to Preston and then changed onto a Super Voyager, which gave Edan the chance to explore the whole train and create another “Train Files”.

The trip to Blackpool involved a one-hour turn around during which time Darran, the local Train Driver Manager, spent the whole time showing Edan the ropes on 101 Squadron - the Super Voyager we rode there and back on.

He showed Edan practically everything there was to know about the train and how it operates, including what was behind all the secret cupboards! And he left him with a very treasured and special memento to take away.

We honestly thought, WOW, after that train experience and the chance to give a station announcement back at Carlisle, it’ll have been an amazing experience etched on his memory.

Little did we know what else was planned.

The Pendolino we travelled back to Carlisle on was in reverse car order (which was a first for all of us and pretty cool for an enthusiast like Edan) so when we stepped off, Edan ran back along the platform to see the name plate (of course!)

Being met at Carlisle

As he did so, we were met by a team of Virgin staff and a photographer who had been waiting for us at the other/normal end of the platform. They took photos and waved off a few trains before taking us to platform 4 to be presented with a gift. Amazingly we managed to keep Edan in our sights for once, because his usual modus operandi at Carlisle is to run round the platforms trying to see every single train!

I think it was at this point we were given some branded cookies and other goodies and I was already just overwhelmed at the generosity and warmth of the staff. Then we were asked to wait with the photographer while the Virgin team went off to get something else. I’ll be honest, I was thinking maybe they’d got a cake, or a model train or something.

It was then I saw them coming back down the platform trying to disguise-something-that-was-pretty-un-disguisable and realised what was happening.

I froze inside, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

There was a nameplate being brought down the platform. Onlookers were bemused. Other rail enthusiasts stopped in their tracks; one asked “What’s Happening!???”

Stuart - the photographer - readied himself; Katie on the Virgin team approached Edan as asked if he knew what it was? He knew. She asked what name he thought it was and turned it round to reveal CLIC Sargent. I just filled up inside, I could barely swallow or stem the flow of tears. This is how you reduce a grown man and doting Dad to a crumbling wreck, in case you ever wanted to know. Thankfully my creaking knees held out.

I have to help you understand just how momentous this gift was.

Edan is presented with the CLIC Sargent nameplate

During age 1 - 2 we lived right next to the West Coast mainline. Since age 3 Edan has been devoted to these trains and we’ve been devoted to travelling the length and breadth of the country to help him see them.

They are so intertwined with his existence and knowledge, it’s no word of a lie to say that by age 4 I was fully confident that if he’d ever got lost at Edinburgh Waverely station (which has 19 platforms) he’d have been able to find a train home to Carlisle or Dumfries entirely unaided.

Week after week after week, he has raced to stand in front of the nameplates and pose for pictures. Month after month he has braved the weather on platforms to see them race by and shout out the name, much to the bewilderment and bemusement of other travellers.

He has been so close to all these nameplates, both physically and in his heart, but never once has he touched one. They are a permanent fixture in his childhood but, despite the lure, never once has he crossed that forbidden yellow line.

These are valuable pieces of rail memorabilia and we know that some of these plates will go to raising money for charity. By my amateur calculations, this nameplate has travelled millions of miles - easily to the moon and back several times. The privilege granted to us by Virgin Trains is certainly not lost on us.

And there’s something else that I think even Virgin don’t know: CLIC Sargent is a charity, of which the Sargent half was, of course, founded in memory of Sir Malcolm Sargent, the musician and orchestral conductor. Although we don’t have the full family tree, to the best of our knowledge he is indeed a distant relative.

All of this is swirling in my head as the flashgun starts to fire and snaps me back to my senses.

We take some photos, Edan gets hugs from everyone and then head back to the office where he is allowed to make a platform announcement, toot the horn of a freight loco and is taught to dispatch it by Katie.

Of course, it’s not all over for Edan, he stays another hour on the freezing platform while all the hubbub dissipates and eventually it feels like we’re the only ones there! We’re quite used to that!

Finally, we leave; carrying a remarkable piece of history with us.

A million thanks won’t really cut it

I don’t really know where to begin with saying thank you. Also, I can hardly begin to imagine what strings were pulled to make this possible!

What I do know is that a lot of people - most of them behind the scenes - must have gone way above-and-beyond to make this happen; and they are forever going to be in our memory. (Let’s face it, we’re going to have a fairly substantial permanent reminder on the wall!)

We have to give a special mention to Darran (Driver Manager) and John (Driver) at Blackpool for showing Edan the ropes on the Voyager. We’d like to thank Katie and the team at Carlisle who treated us like part of the family (not forgetting Paul who let Edan take control of the station mic).

And at the beginning of all this is someone anonymous in the social media customer services team (one of whom is only known to me as ^BT), who took the effort to reply and say “leave it with us and we’ll see what we can do”.

Clearly this also couldn’t have happened without being masterminded by Laura from Corporate Affairs who we were delighted to meet at Carlisle. Laura: I don’t know how you did it but it was extraordinary.

You are all very special people.

History in our hands

This is indeed the end of an era, but also the end of a chapter. A new chapter begins on 8th December 2019 and it’s comforting to know that the staff of Virgin Trains (at least all the ones I spoke to) are hopeful and positive about their next chapter. Ever since its creation, the railway has always touched and transformed millions of lives.

Once again I thank the special folk at Virgin in the deepest and most heartfelt way possible and at the same time wish them the best of luck on the next leg of their journey.

And let’s be honest, we’ll still be seeing you on the platform most weekends!

Thank you for making a difference. Thanks a googol !!

Nik x

A heartfelt thank you - because I never once imagined this

Wow! What just happened?

Well, what just happened was that about 10 days ago I wrote (here) to thank Virgin Trains and Richard Branson for the impact they have had on my son, Edan (who is now 6 but has been a lifelong train enthusiast). I got a lovely reply from the brilliant customer service staff at Virgin:

Then I went away on business to London for a few days and had my head down in work and never checked twitter. Once I was on the train heading home (Virgin Pendolino 390037 as it happens - “Virgin Difference” - which is how I signed off my letter. Prophetic?) I decided to fire up tweetdeck and have a peek at twitter.

It didn’t take me long to realise something had happened!

The first thing that had happened was Virgin Trains had asked me to get back in touch - but alongside that, hundreds of people had liked and shared the correspondence, and many others had replied to me with heartwarming messages.

My train ride was 3.5 hours and it took me the whole journey to get through all the tweets!

What transpired over the next few days was quite breathtaking to me. We received so many messages of encouragement and solidarity.

I saw for myself that the “Rail Family” - those who have grown up on the railway, or work on the railway, or otherwise have a passion for it - really is a “thing” and it’s a warm, kind, welcoming family to boot; and that really brought a lump to my throat.

There was an outpouring of generosity including the offer of various “experiences” for Edan. Amongst these was the “chance of a lifetime” to see name plates being made by the supreme experts in the field. Frankly we were just completely bowled over.

We also had a note from Paul who produces “trip reports” on YouTube.

Edan has watched so many hours of his YouTube channel! He’s been there (virtually) with Paul on the first run of the Hitachi 800 in the UK; the first run of Eurostar from London to Amsterdam and so on.

Paul’s reports also inspired Edan to create some of his own videos in a similar vein and you can see his own “Train Files” in the video here from his latest trip, where he talks us through First Class on the Virgin Pendolino.

Our little man continues to cram in the trains.

Nothing can stop Edan’s passion for trains.

With under 2 weeks to go on the Virgin Franchise, last weekend he surprised me with a planned trip from our base in Scotland to Wigan to ride on a Voyager and Pendolino and do some more Virgin Trains spotting!

He’s never been to Wigan before but you can see from the video when he gets off the train it’s like releasing an animal back into the wild! 😂

We’ll do our best to find all the teachable moments in this…

When I wrote my original letter, it was just a heartfelt Thank You to Virgin about unseen consequences, yet it turned into something so much more!

IT’S Train Books OF SOME KIND most nights And Sleeping with VIRGIN train layouts next to his bed (Sorry, CAB)!!

I included the sunflower logo in my original letter and some readers will have understood why. We’re poignantly aware that there must be many “Edans” and young train lovers up and down the country, and he is lucky and privileged to have been on the receiving end of such kindness - which has been, and will be, a big learning experience for him.

As a measure of our gratitude to those that have extended their generosity to Edan, in turn we’ll be donating to Crisis, who do wonderful work looking after the homeless at Christmas (and all year).

And so, once again, our deepest, sincerest gratitude to everyone:

Thank you for inspiring,

Thank you for supporting,

Thank you for celebrating his world!

Thank

Trains Allow Edan to EXpress his personality!

Chasing Child, Chasing Train

If you are a Londoner, this may make you cross [fire statistics analysis]

The tragedy at Grenfell tower ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenfell_Tower_fire ) has turned a lot of attention to what has been happening in the fire service. There are numerous claims of improved performance, and counter claims of "fiddling the figures". So, the question is, what does the data really look like?

FRA (Fire Rescue Authority) and FRS (Fire and Rescue Service) data is publicly available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables

There are many many tables and sheets of data available, and it has been a challenge to keep this "brief".

The data above covers the whole of England, broken down by authority. The starting point is to accept the data and take it at face value, before performing analysis and drawing conclusions. Indeed, analysing the data can help to determine its integrity.

There are various caveats associated with the data as it is provided, and these need to be understood. Indeed, something that is quickly apparent, is if you don't know how to handle this data correctly, you will make mistakes and errors that will lead to incorrect conclusions. I can say this with authority, because I made a few initially! 

Simple things like changes in capitalisation of dimensions between time periods, can cause aggregation to fail. Similarly, much of the data contains totals as well as broken down data, causing the risk of double counting for those not paying attention. Finally, most of the sheets do not have raw data, but have year by year drop downs - necessitating copious amounts of copying-and-pasting to reassemble the underlying information.

What changed when?

Much public discourse has been made of the fact that accounting systems changed, particularly during the tenure of Boris Johnson as Mayor. Indeed, the accounting system did change, from a paper based one to an online one (2009/10), which ultimately has provided greater granularity and timeliness. In my opinion there is no obvious attempt to "cook the books" due to the change of this system of recording.

Further discourse has covered the classification of fatalities, with the claim that, for example, fatalities later in hospital began to be omitted from statistics. Neither the accompanying notes, nor the evidence from the data supports this hypothesis.

Indeed, the data includes non-fatalities as well as fatalities, and classifies the former into different types, which includes the nature of the hospital treatment. It is hard to envisage such a well-classified data set, collected from 10's of individual authorities purposefully being manipulated to consistently exclude one type.

Note - due to the fact that injuries can become fatalities quite some time after the initial event, data for the most recent year is not necessarily complete. Fatalities may rise in due course, while injuries decrease. For the present year at the time of writing, ending financial year April 2017, data is considered complete up to January 2017 (thus is lower overall than previous years)

So we can dispense with introduction and get to the meat of this subject, the notes from the data sheets themselves are posted at the end of this page.

Let's look at the data - England - the broad trends

The first chart is total Fatalities due to fire, in England, over the period since 1981. The chart below includes a computed trendline to best-fit the pattern.  Over the last 38 years, overall fatality has, basically, steadily fallen.

We can see that same data, now broken down by location type; and this is one of the first of several important steps in making correct sense of the data. Prior to 1999, data is only available as a whole for dwellings. But subsequent to that, it is classified by dwelling, road vehicle, other building and other outdoors.  This important, because I want to focus on dwelling fires.

Looking at fatalities naturally leads us into considering non-fatal injuries as a comparison.

Here the story is rather interesting. The first point to note, is that prior to 2009/10 and the introduction of the online reporting system, we did not have any sub-classification.   This does open the door to potential misuse of the data - e.g. to compare "severe hospital" injuries post 2009 with "all injuries" pre 2009 and claim an astonishing drop.  However, if one were to do that, the discontinuity would be so great, that it would be immediately obvious. In contrast, the properly aggregated data shows the same post-1989 falling trend in injuires as with fatalities.

Perhaps of equal interest in the above chart is the steep rising trend in injuries from 1981 - 1998.  The data itself does not give the answer to why this happened; undoubtedly numerous factors are responsible. (Amongst those reasons may be changes in fire regulations, and for those who wish to explore them, a summary can be found on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_fire_safety_legislation_in_the_United_Kingdom)

The shape of this chart is likely to lead some readers to suspect malfeasance is afoot. However, as before, while we see a reversal in trend, we do not see a marked discontinuity; rather a turning of a worsening situation to an improving one - which is of course the intended effect of fire regulations and fire prevention policy. In truth, we should be glad to see this effect.

The natural next step is to plot fatalities and non-fatalities against each other to see any correlation. Here I have broken the data down into decades (by colour).

Looking at the 80's and 90's what we see is a trend that is most probably a result as a focus on fire fatality prevention. As fatalities decrease over those two decades (starting at the far right and working left), injuries increase. You can plot a fairly good fit trend line through the brown and blue marks, which tends to suggest that fatalities were being "turned into" injuries. I.e. the seriousness of the worst fire injuries were being reduced.  Many factors could contribute to this trend, such as improved fabrics and materials, improved building materials and building standards. (e.g. measures such as fire doors which delay the impact of fire, thus reduce risk of death but may not prevent injury from smoke).

Then we have the inflexion point at the turn of the millennium, where the previous rising injury trend is fully reversed. Now fatalities AND injuries are falling.

It's tempting to suppose this sharp turn is mysterious, but perhaps it is not as sharp as we might think: there is a cluster of 10 or so points at the turning point of this chart, representing a whole decade turning fate around.  It is not the turnaround I find most surprising, but the sharp descent as we come into the 2000's and 2010's. Here the improvement in injuries is as rapid as the worsening was pre-2000. This must surely be attributable to some significant interventions?

One that I particularly suspect is the introduction of smoke alarms. Smoke is a key cause of injury, and the availability of an early warning to escape smoke injury must likely have a dramatic effect. Indeed, smoke alarm ownership rocketed during the 1990's.

Causes of Fire

Once again, for the curious, we can look at general causes of fire, before looking specifically at dwellings. This can help us understand whether factors outside the control of the individual (such as home wiring, manufacturing standards of appliances etc.) have a role to play.   Causes of fire are shown below. I have chosen to show them as a percentage of all recorded primary fires, so that any relative rising or falling trends can be seen.

Unfortunately the data contains a large number of "other/unclassified" records, so I have replotted the chart with that line removed (data NOT recalculated).  The new plot seems to suggest cooking appliance fires on the rise, but we shall below, all is not what it seems.

If we now look at causes of fire, but this time for dwellings only (with "other" still included), well, that's different picture - this time we see a much flatter line for cooking appliances; though perhaps not surprisingly they account for 50% of dwelling fires.

Somewhere along the line I expected to see smokers' materials drop too (especially with the advent of e-cigarettes), but that actually seems to have changed little. Electrical distribution causes have risen slightly over the period. Again, in the light of revised building standards, this seems counter-intuitive, but on the other hand, older buildings continue to age and presumably increase in fire risk from older wiring. 

What's happening in London?

The data above sets the broad context for the events that triggered this article. The analysis above has not found any obvious discrepancies in the data. That is not to say that data, or portions of it, could be used and quoted out of context, either deliberately or inadvertently. But that is left for the reader to judge for themselves.

One of the key thrusts of discourse surrounding London fire and rescue services has been the budget cuts imposed. The headline budgets, of course, go towards vehicles, premises, equipment, training, staff etc. We have data for staff for Greater London - which speak for themselves.

Stepping back, you can't argue that while there have been cuts to fire service staffing since 2010, fire fatalities and injuries have continued to fall, suggesting that the cuts themselves have had no impact.  This is probably an unwise conclusion, for various reasons:

1. The fall in fatalities and injuries, as we saw earlier, is part of long term, nationwide trend stretching back at least 36 years. Other factors, which improve fire safety, are clearly at work here; and cuts to budget may simply be serendipitously "riding on the back" of the general trend.  Removing "slack" in the service has a certain logic to it, but cutting too deep can only have negative consequences in due course. 
2. The fire service does not just provide reactive response but also proactive preventative measures, such as education and fire-checks. Unlike "fire response", proactive measures have a longer term, delayed impact and the effects may not be seen until several years down the line.
3. The fire service is essentially an insurance policy. It needs to be there when you need it, otherwise it is not effective insurance. By definition this implies it must also be resourced at times when it turns out not to be needed.

The data shows that both reactive and proactive functions have suffered during the time period of budget cuts. The chart below shows response times in minutes (x axis) vs. number of incidents in a given year. Broadly, incidents have been falling, so higher incidents (y axis) are earlier in time.  

When you look at the cluster around 6.5 minutes, all of which occurs from 2010 onwards, you can't help but think someone made a conscious decision that 6.5 minutes was the target response time. Sadly, the data is not available to look at the actual distribution. 

The conclusion here is stark, response times have increased from 4.5 - 4.7 minutes to 6.5 - 6.7 minutes DESPITE the number of incidents decreasing.  This suggests that cuts have not simply been to remove "slack", but have been much deeper, to the tune of 40% or more worsening of average response times.

Proactive measures

Interestingly, there are reports of 25% reduction in fire inspections as a result of budget cuts ( http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tower-block-fire-safety-checks-10641046 ).

However, the number of inspections itself does not tell the whole story, because the quality of those inspections may also matter. The available data actually reports number of inspections (not broken down by type, sadly) and also number of hours performing inspections. These are plotted together below.

So, here’s a classic kind of chart which lets you tell whichever story suits your purpose: over the period 2010 - 2016, fire inspections have actually increased on aggregate. If you are a politician, that would be a good number to quote.

But the number of hours spent performing them has radically fallen, by 56% on the 2010 level, and 58% on the 2013 level.    This means a 2016 inspection was being performed in well under half the time It was 5 years previously. One might question whether quality suffers as a result, or if something else has transformed the nature of inspections.

For me, personally, this is the most telling, and I hazard-to-say, shocking insight.  The door is open, potentially, for some form of technological solution to have slashed the time taken to perform inspections, but there has been no other evidence forthcoming to support this position as yet.

Regrettably it leaves my analysis somewhat inconclusive, and we sit and wait for promised enquiry to reveal a deeper set of facts about the events and context surrounding Grenfell tower. We can only hope that we do get those facts.

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The statistics in this table are Official Statistics.                                                                    Source: Home Office Operational Statistics Data Collection, figures supplied by fire and rescue authorities.

Contact: FireStatistics@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk                                                                        

Next Update: Autumn 2017

The full set of fire statistics releases, tables and guidance can be found on our landing page, here-                                                                                        

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fire-statistics                                                                                        

                                                                               

Financial Years                                                                                        

2015/16 refers to the financial year, from 1st April 2015 to 31 March 2016. Other years follow the same pattern.                                                                                        

Note on 2009/10:                                                                        

Before 1 April 2009 fire incident statistics were based on the FDR1 paper form. This approach means the statistics for before this date can be less robust, especially for non-fire incidents which were based on a sample of returns. Since this date the statistics are based on an online collection tool, the Incident Recording System (IRS).                        

General note:                                                                        

Fire data are collected by the IRS which collects information on all incidents attended by fire services. For a variety of reasons some records take longer than others for fire services to upload to the IRS and therefore incident totals are constantly being increased (by relatively small numbers). This is why the differing dates that data are received by is noted above.        

Note on Imputed figures

During 2009/10, Greater Manchester and Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Services were unable to fully supply their casualty data. As such totals for these Fire and Rescue Services were imputed. For these imputed records detailed breakdowns are not available. As such, some detailed breakdowns may not sum to their corresponding totals.                                                   

The England total hours figures above for "Number of Fire Risk Checks carried out by FRS" include imputed figures to ensure a robust national figure. These imputed figures are-                                                                                        

2015-16: Staffordshire                                                                                        

2014-15: Staffordshire, Surrey                                                                                        

2013-14: Cleveland, Staffordshire, Surrey                                                                        

2012-13: Cleveland, Staffordshire, Surrey                                                                        

2011-12: Cleveland, Lincolnshire                                                                

2011-12: Bedfordshire, Cleveland, Greater London                                                                                        

Figures for "Fire Risk Checks carried out by Elderly (65+)", "Fire Risk Checks carried out by Disabled" and "Number of Fire Risk Checks carried out by Partners" do not include imputed figures because a large number of fire authorities are unable to supply these figures.                                                                                       

1 Some fires are excluded when calculating average response times. Please see definition document for a more detailed explanation.                                                                         

2 Primary fires are those where one or more of the following apply: i) all fires in buildings outdoor structures and vehicles that are not derelict, ii) any fires involving casualties or rescues, iii) any fire attended by five or more appliances                                                                

3 The largest components of 'other buildings fires' are incidents in private garden sheds, retail and food/drink buildings

4 Typically outdoor fires that are ‘primary’ because of a casualty or casualties, or attendance by five or more appliances5 Typically outdoor fires not involving property                                                                        

Definitions

1 Primary fires are defined as fires that meet at least one of the following conditions:                                                                                

(a) any fire that occurred in a (non-derelict) building, vehicle or outdoor structure,                                                                                

(b) any fire involving fatalities, casualties or rescues,                                                                                

(c) any fire attended by five or more pumping appliances.                                                                                 

2 Includes fatalities marked as "fire-related" but excludes fatalities marked as "not fire-related". Those where the role of fire in the fatality was "not known" are included in "fire-related". Fire-related deaths are those that would not have otherwise occurred had there not been a fire. i.e. ‘no fire = no death’.                                                                                

3 Dwellings includes HMOs, Self contained Sheltered Housing, Caravans/mobile homes, Houseboats, Stately Homes and Castles (not open to the public).                                                                                

4 If more than one smoke alarm was recorded for a fire, the fire is categorised under the most positive operation status of all the smoke alarms recorded.                                                                                

The data in this table are consistent with records that reached the IRS by 4th January 2017.                                                                                 

1 Accidental is defined as when the motive for the fire was recorded as either Accidental or Not known. As such this excludes deliberate fires.                                                                                                        

2 Other breathing difficulties includes: Choking and Other breathing difficulties.                                                                                                        

3 Physical injuries includes: Back/neck injury (spinal), Bruising, Chest/abdominal injury, Concussion, Cuts/lacerations, Fracture, Head injury, Impalement and Other physical injuries.                                                                                                        

4 Other includes: Collapse, Drowning, Heat exhaustion, Hypothermia, Other and Unconscious.                                                                                                                                                                                

Ode to Skoda

Just had my car MOT'd at ALS Lock Skoda, and as usual Skoda asked me for feedback. When they asked why I rated the service the way I did (excellent by the way), my initial response was rejected as too short! pfft!  So, I decided on a bit of poetic license to expand it out.

My Octy is aging; now needs MOT
I called ALS (she was bought there, you see)
Their garage is handy, just a few miles away
So, taking it there doesn't ruin my day.

I dropped her off early, they then ran me home
saying "when she is ready, we'll give you a phone;
If there's anything wrong, we can do the repair"
Said with a smile, so you feel that they care.

The job was done quickly, with minimum fuss.
She passed all her tests - well done me ol' bus!
The car had been washed, the test had been done,
all safely approved for another year's fun.

Sometimes you're worried, prepared for a fright,
but I'm happy to say, the price was just right.
So, they came to collect me, no quibbles, no moan;
I like ALS, cos it just feels like home.