Not present and correct
The silly season saw an outburst of concern over the level of absenteeism in Britain. Sickness and unauthorised absence from work was alleged to be costing the country £12bn a year, or 1.1 per cent of GNP. Some level of economic loss from genuine illness has to be expected - and it is unlikely that this would ever fall below 1 per cent (meaning that every day would see 99 out of 100 people at their jobs).
Perhaps outrage at an average loss of six days per employee a year, which means that 97 out of every 100 turn up every day, might be overdone? This seems the more likely when we see that last year was the first since 1997 for which an increase was recorded. The figure was above eight lost days a year continuously from 1987-98, and reached a low for the period in 2002.
Even more surprising is the fact that Britain's record is better than most of its main European competitors, with the exception of Germany. 2.4 per cent of British workers had a week or more of sickness absence last year. This was exceeded by France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden, among others, the last two with more than double the British level.
Up in the sky
Comment on plans for non-stop flights between New York and Singapore and other pairs of far-flung destinations has concentrated mainly on the possible health effects of being in the air for 16 hours instead of eight. But it also means that aircraft will have to carry more than twice the present amount of fuel on take-off. More than twice because they will initially have on board an extra 10-15 tonnes to burn up on the first half of the flight - equivalent to the weight of over 100 passengers and their baggage.
