The Housing (Temporary Accommodation) Act 1944 launched a program of factory-built temporary homes, known as prefabs. Just over 150,000 were built. They were designed to last between 10 and 15 years.
Many lasted far longer. The Excalibur Estate in Catford, south London, was built in 1945 and 1946. In 2009, six of its houses were listed as historic buildings, and demolition of the estate was scheduled to begin in 2013. Prefab bungalows in Letchworth were still maintained and occupied in 2014.
William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax in 1799 to pay for the war with France. It was repealed in 1802, after the Treaty of Amiens. On 18 March 1816, after Waterloo, the government lost a vote on the tax and had to abandon it.
In 1842, Sir Robert Peel brought income tax back in peacetime. According to Parliament’s own history, it “was only meant to be temporary.”
Formally, it is still an annual tax. The explanatory notes to the Finance Act 2013 state that “it is for Parliament to impose income tax for a tax year.” Parliament must impose it again for each new tax year.
The Palace of Westminster needs extensive restoration. Its mechanical and electrical systems are deteriorating, and it has fire safety problems and asbestos. In 2018, Parliament agreed that the work had to be done and that it would move out while it was carried out. In June 2026, the National Audit Office reported that, despite that agreement, parliamentarians “have continued to disagree.” Maintenance of the Palace costs around £1.5 million a week.
In February 2026, a costed report set out the options. A full move out would cost £11.1 billion to £15.6 billion and take 19 to 24 years. Enhanced maintenance, with the Commons staying in the building for most of the work, would cost up to £39.2 billion and take 38 to 61 years.
The proposal put to Parliament in 2026 is a first phase of seven years, capped at £3 billion. The final choice of option is due “no later than mid-2030.”
In 1940, the Home Guard was short of weapons. One answer was the Northover Projector, essentially a length of metal pipe, sealed at one end and mounted on a tripod. It cost just under £10 to produce, without the tripod. In October 1940, Churchill ordered it into mass production, one for each platoon.
Other Home Guard weapons were also cheap and simple. The Smith Gun “was intended to be a cheap and easily manufactured anti-tank weapon.” The Blacker Bombard was described as cheap, simple to make and easy to operate.
Donald Bailey was a civil servant in the War Office who built model bridges as a hobby. In 1940, he sketched a bridge made of panels that fitted together. A few men could carry each panel, and the bridge needed no special tools or heavy equipment to assemble.
In 1947, Field Marshal Montgomery wrote that Bailey bridging had made “an immense contribution” to the outcome of the Second World War. His exact wording is given differently in different sources.
In November 1974, Parliament passed the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act almost without amendment or dissent. The powers remained emergency “temporary” powers, but they had to be renewed each year.
They were renewed until 2000, when the more permanent Terrorism Act 2000 replaced them.
On the evening before the Great Storm of October 1987, the BBC weather forecaster Michael Fish told viewers that a woman had phoned the BBC. She had heard, he said, “there was a hurricane on the way.” He told viewers not to worry, because there was not.
In the early hours of 16 October, the storm killed 18 people, according to the Met Office, and blew down about 15 million trees. Fish later said that the caller had not existed, and that he had been referring to Hurricane Floyd, which was affecting Florida. He had not mentioned Florida in the forecast.
In August 2008, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, told The Guardian that economic conditions were “arguably the worst they’ve been in 60 years.”
The interview caused an uproar. An aide said it should “in no way be seen as an attack on Gordon,” meaning the prime minister, Gordon Brown, and Darling went on air to clarify. In February 2010, Darling told Sky News that after the interview, “the forces of hell were unleashed.” Brown denied any part in it.
In early 2021, after the end of the Brexit transition period, British fishermen faced delays in exporting their catch to the European Union. On 28 January 2021, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there were “teething problems in lots of areas,” which was “inevitable because this is a big change.”
Exporters disputed the label. Martyn Youell of Waterdance told MPs: “they’re not teething problems for us.” He called the phrase “a particularly poor choice of words.”
In 1982, the United Kingdom set up the Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme, known as CHIRP. It began with reports from flight crews. Today it lets people working in aviation and shipping “share their safety concerns without the fear of being identified.”
The Civil Aviation Authority describes CHIRP as “a totally independent confidential (but not anonymous) reporting system.”